Death Investigations

Death Investigations

Many people often find it difficult to distinguish between homicide, natural death, suicide, and accidental death. This is because the process of the determination of the manner of death is no simple task that can be undertaken by anyone. It requires expertise to unravel the mystery. This responsibility is therefore bestowed upon a coroner or a medical examiner. This they do with the assistance of the evidence collected by the police that relates t the cause of death. It is, therefore, a process that requires interdisciplinary cooperation. It is, therefore, important to understand the main differences between these four manners of death to dispel the wrong notions about their nature and occurrences.

Natural death can be defined as one caused by the failure of the body organs to perform their duties appropriately, leading to death. This can be as a result of diseases or other natural causes like old age. Sudden infant death syndrome is also another example of a natural death where the death of the infant cannot be medically linked to illness or other external factors.However, in case of death is quickened by other factors like injury or one drowning in water that cannot qualify to be called a natural death(“Cause & Manner of Death | Snohomish County, WA,” n.d.).

Homicide is death that occurs as a result of another person’s direct involvement. It involves a person taking the life of another after a premeditated and willful action. By premeditation, it means that the individual must have had some prior planning and might even have had plans on how to elude detection and arrest by the police. The execution, in this case, is normally in cold blood. It may also include death that involves a felony. This has to be supported by sufficient evidence (Roth, 2009).

Suicide is death that occurs as a result of injuries that are self-inflicted with the intention to die. For suicide to be concluded, there must be evidence showing the intent to die. This may include the presence of a suicide note, history of attempted suicide, expressed threats either verbal or written on paper or on the internet’s social media, presence of drugs that can be harmful when taken in overdose. Signs of self-injury like close-range gun wounds may also be used to determine death by suicide. The sudden disappearance of large quantities of some drugs that were within the access of the decedent may also be one of the factors to consider, among other actions that may show the intention to die(“Cause & Manner of Death | Snohomish County, WA,” n.d.).

Accidental death is one that occurs as a result of an unprecedented occurrence. This may include road accidents, accidents that occur at the place of work, or those that may occur as a result of some medical complications that may qualify in this category. However, deaths that may occur as a result of medical negligence. Accidental deaths constitute a huge number of deaths in most countries (“Cause & Manner of Death | Snohomish County, WA,” n.d.).

Preliminary investigations on the manner of death begin with the visit to the place of death. The investigator must also seek to meet with any eyewitnesses, if any, examine and analyze the body and the other materials that could be of interest within the scene. This is crucial in assisting the investigator in interpreting certain aspects during the autopsy. During the investigation into the death of Robin McLaurin Williams, the investigators visited the room where his body was and started by examining it. One of the things that were being investigated is the presence of marks on the neck, as the initial claim was that he had committed suicide. They also checked t see whether there were reflective and pornographic materials around to ascertain whether the wife’s claims of possible autoerotic asphyxia. These materials were not found there, but the marks were observed on the neck(Tohid, 2016).

There are a number of factors that may affect the Environmental factors that can so easily affect the investigations in different ways. For instance, rain may wash away marks and fingerprints on the body. Moisture, together with the high temperatures from the sun, may accelerate the rate of body decomposition and, therefore, distort the body form. Too much dust may also cover some crucial marks which might get wiped out when wiping away the dust. Wind also may blow away small samples like hairpieces that could have been left on the body.

Death investigations belong to the category of investigations that require very keen observation before a medical examiner or acoroner. This has to be done in much accuracy to avoid making mistakes since any wrong determination may have a great impact on the prosecution of the offenders. A victim can be prosecuted for the wrong offense and end up serving a sentence that he did not deserve.

References

Cause & Manner of Death | Snohomish County, WA. (n.d.). Snohomish County, WA – Official Website | Official Website. https://snohomishcountywa.gov/806/Cause-Manner-of-Death

Roth, R. (2009, October). Distinguishing Homicides from Natural Deaths, Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Feigned Deaths (DH). https://cjrc.osu.edu/sites/cjrc.osu.edu/files/AHSV-Distinguishing-Homicides-from-Natural-Deaths.pdf

Tohid, H. (2016). Robin Williams’ Suicide: a Case Study. – PubMed – NCBI. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27737312