Learn about "Death and Serious Bodily Injury Investigations" - and how you can accept these cases with expert consultations. In your investigative career you will be involved in civil and criminal cases that involve personal injury, negligence, and death. Understanding the processes involved, and separating fact from fiction, will enhance your work-product for clients. Learn the concepts and protocols of investigating death and serious bodily injury, and protocols of the forensic autopsy and findings of the autopsy in the final report. This guide is designed to provide the investigator currently working in, or interested in working in, cases that involve death and personal injury investigation fields, the knowledge and insight to informatively and intelligently conduct a criminal defense or civil investigation in which serious bodily injury or death is evidence or the subject matter of the litigation. Our agency is prepared to offer our expert consultation services and guidance. We become your Affiliated Experts. Dean A. Beers, CLI, CCDI and Karen S. Beers, BSW, CCDI are experienced legal investigators, death investigators, and forensic autopsy assistants.

The area of death investigation is unique and applicable to nearly all facets of other legal investigations. As only fractions of an inch may be the only difference between a fatal and non-fatal event, Serious Bodily Injury (SBI) investigations - also known as Traumatic or Severe - are a natural extension. It may be obvious events such as physical and sexual assault, abuse and neglect, and all ages of persons will involve a death or SBI event - and therefore warrant investigation. This may be found in civil, criminal, probate and insurance interpleader cases. Less obvious events may include motor vehicle collisions, white collar fraud and others. It is not often 'white collar' crimes, such as fraud, will have death or SBI events directly, and possibly indirectly.The original intent of this guide for Professional Investigators was to share our experience from both the medical examiner / coroner system as Medicolegal Death Investigators, and privately as Legal Investigators. A strong background in investigations is helpful, although not necessary - as the area of death and SBI investigations is a specialty built on knowledge and experience.

The third edition of this popular volume continues to supply an up-to-date, nuts-and-bolts learning tool for students and an everyday reference for investigative professionals at all levels. More relevant than ever, this edition adds two new chapters on death and terrorism investigations and several new sections, including insurance fraud, fire and arson investigation; indicators of online marital infidelity; obtaining governmental reports; service of subpoenas for witnesses in federal courts; the Rules of Professional Conduct; niche markets in the investigative industry; and managing and marketing an investigative practice.

"Death Scene Investigation: Procedural Guide is the answer to a long recognized dilemma: how to have every death investigated by an experienced death investigator." — Tom Bevel, author of Practical Crime Scene Analysis and Reconstruction and Bloodstain Pattern Analysis with an Introduction to Crime Scene Reconstruction, Third Edition Those tasked with investigating death scenes come from a variety of backgrounds and varying levels of experience. Death Scene Investigation: Procedural Guide gives the less experienced investigator the procedures for almost any death scene imaginable while providing the seasoned investigator a ready reference for deaths occurring even under the most unusual of circumstances. It details the precise steps that need to be taken when processing and analyzing a death scene to ensure vital evidence is not lost and "red flags" are not missed. Using a bulleted format for quick and easy access, the book provides hands-on, concise instruction in a style friendly to a range of professionals. Topics discussed in this practical manual include: Initial response and scene evaluation. This section includes a death investigation decision tree to lead investigators to a preliminary cause of death. The section is broken down into natural, accidental, suicidal, and homicidal deaths. It also explores the role of the medical examiner and autopsy protocol. Recovery of human remains from open field, aquatic, and buried sites. This section also discusses estimating the time of death. Wound dynamics and mechanisms of injury. Manners of death include asphyxiation; sharp force, blunt force, and chopping injuries; handgun, rifle, and shotgun wounds; and explosive, thermal, and electrical injuries. Special death scene investigations. Discussions include child and infant death, sex-related death, and death scenes with multiple victims. Death scene management. This section covers documentation, sketching, photography and videography, special observations, and search procedures. Death scene evidence processing. Topics include bloodstain patterns, shooting scenes, and entomological, biological, trace, friction ridge, and impression evidence. An appendix contains precautions for handling bloodborne pathogens and 15 innovative worksheets for field use are available for download. Death scene responders who master the techniques in this volume will expedite solving the circumstances of the death and the closing of the case. Michael S. Maloney was interviewed in Volume 13 of Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.

Essentials of Medicolegal Death Investigation uses a unique approach by combining medical issues, injury patterns, and investigative procedures to provide the reader with the basic fundamentals for a death investigation. The text introduces the reader to death investigation, common causes of death, and very specific types of death, including blunt-force injuries, gunshot wounds, and toxicology deaths. Each section includes case studies with written and visual descriptions. Written by a well-known and experienced medicolegal death investigator, the book fills a void in medicolegal literature for both students and professionals alike. Provides a valuable guide to the interpretation of medical death investigation for practitioners and students Covers the following circumstances in death investigations: asphyxiation, blunt-force injuries, sharp-force injuries, gunshot wounds, toxicology deaths, and natural causes Includes case studies with written and visual descriptions and discussion, as well as up-to-date literature review

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

A Practical Guide to the Medicolegal Investigation of Death this guidebook written by a veteran death investigator specifically for field investigators and students. The book is unique because of the field investigators focus and approach, and is not distracted by graphic images or an overabundance of case studies, scientific, or medical jargon. The book addresses the most common death scene situations faced by investigators but is brief enough to fit into every death investigator's gear bag. With helpful Rules of Thumb for quick and practical reference, and detailed explanations, the book is an investigator's tool. Specific topics include historical foundations, legal issues, identification methods of human remains, time of death estimation, and wound analysis. Specific areas addressed are fire deaths, asphyxial deaths, drowning deaths, electrical deaths, and motor vehicle accidents