Stephanie Payne, author of The Sandbox Wars, talks about the battles that can occur when end of life planning is not completed. As Coroners, Medical Examiners, and death investigators we can be faced with families unprepared for a death of a loved one. You may also be faced with the “long lost” family member that…
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Forensics is the study of the past as it relates to the present. Criminal forensic is applying science to the law. In short it’s the study of known science and relating it to a crime scene for the determination and prosecution of a crime. Many men and women are specially trained to collect evidence and in…
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Critical Role of Managers and Administrators in a Medical Examiner/Coroner Office Paul R. Parker III, B.S., D-ABMDI Overview There is no greater honor than writing the last chapter of someone’s life story. As medicolegal death investigators, that is what we do and, for the most part, we do it well. With seemingly innumerable courses, electronic…
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The scene of an autoerotic death can hold a wide variety of problems and issues for the investigator. Filled with deceiving information and abnormal behavior, these scenes offer challenges to even the most seasoned investigator. However, it is vital that you get these scenes worked correctly. First and foremost, it is your job to get…
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Autoerotic deaths are accidental deaths that occur during solitary sexual activity in which some type of apparatus that was used to enhance the sexual stimulation of the deceased caused the unintentional death. The prevalence of auto-erotic fatalities is difficult to calculate, since a coroner often records a verdict of accident or misadventure. It is under…
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Serial killers hold the fascination of the public, whether in true crime news accounts of individuals such as Ted Bundy or fictional depictions such as the television shows Dexter and Criminal Minds or popular movies such as the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” or “Silence of the Lambs.” Serial killers seem so purely predatory and…
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[app_audio src=””]The human body burns predictably based it on its anatomical configuration of soft tissues and bones. Fire creates burn patterns to soft tissues: skin, fat, muscle, and then on select areas of the skeleton. These burn patterns convey how the body burned within its environment and if there was any traumatic injury present prior…
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Predicting the postmortem interval of a decedent is a major task of law enforcement. Most methods implemented by death investigators rely on qualitative information (i.e. rigor mortis, livor mortis). Microbes represent 99% of somatic cells in and on a human body. No data are available on the use of these organisms to predict the time…
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Death notification is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult tasks faced by law enforcement officers and other professionals, because learning of the death of a loved one often is the most traumatic event in a person’s life. The moment of notification is one that most people remember very vividly for the rest of…
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These recommendations give guidance on the safe handling of human remains that may contain Ebola virus and are for use by personnel who perform postmortem care in U.S. hospitals and mortuaries. In patients who die of Ebola virus infection, virus can be detected throughout the body. Ebola virus can be transmitted in postmortem care settings…
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