Section 8 Flashcards
When you are investigating a dead body. We do not know whether it is a homicide, suicide, natural, accidental or what it is what type of scene?
Equivocal Death Scene
The ME is the one who gets to make the final call about an equivocal death scene. True or False
True
Example, walk in and find a dead body and their are five bullet holes in the body and window. Pretty sure it is a homicide. It could be an accident but 99.9% a homicide. True or False
True
Example, find a dead body with a pencil next to them, one gunshot wound,. It could be a lot of things. Until you know which one it is you treat it like a ______.
homicide
Equivocal Death Scene. treat is like a ______.
homicide
Look for
1.
2.
in an equivocal death scene
posing
staging
______ means putting a body in a certain position.
Posing
Example, murder but you want to make it look like a suicide, so you are going to stage the body by putting a gun in their hand and putting it near their head.
posing
_______ similar to posing but for the entire scene.
Staging
If you move the body, it is just ________, but if you write a fake suicide note, lock the door and go out a window so it will look like the door was locked when the crime happened that is _______.
posing
Staging
________ is the body specifically and ______ is the entire scene.
Posing
Staging
In a lot of homicides that want to stage it to look like something else because they think it is going to increase their odds of getting away. Does it?
Who know?
No matter what it is we need to look at the victimology. True or False
True
________ specific to investigations means who were they? How old are they? Do they have a job? Mental illness? Romantic Relationship? Traumatic events in life? In debt? All these things about the victim can help you determine if it was a homicide, suicide, etc..
Victimology
Who were they?
Victimology
When investigating ______ it is way more common then homicide.
suicide
If you find a random dead body, it is much more likely to be ______ than ______.
suicide
homicide
Depression, as well as others such as anxiety, schizophrenia can be drivers of suicide. This refers to what?
Mental illness
One of the easiest ways to figure out that it is a suicide is if there is a what?
note or contact with a loved one
They only find notes in about 1/3 of suicides. True or False
True
Majority of suicides never leave a note or tell anyone. True or False
True
Slit wrists or some other kind of knife, stab, slice one thing that indicates suicide is what ?
hesitation marks
People usually cannot cut themselves deep enough on the first try so they have to work up to it. This results in what?
Hesitation Marks
A lot of times when people stage a body to make it look like a suicide when it was a murder, they will use the wrong hand. True or false
True
A left handed person will shoot themselves with their left hand. One of the signs that a homicide is made to look like a suicide. True or False
True
A gun pressed against the body, if the gun is in contact with the body it leaves a very different mark than if it is feet away. This refers to what?
Gunshot residue
You can normally tell how far someone was away when they were shot because of what?
gunshot residue
It was in contact 6 inches away, two feet away. If 10- 100 feet you cannot tell what?
gunshot residue
With a contact wound which is what most _____ by gunshot is a very different mark.
suicide
One of the things you can do to check is to wipe down the persons hand for gunshot residue. If the person does not have any gunshot residue on their dominant hand that might be an indication that it was a homicide made to look like a suicide. True or False
True
More common than you would think for a suicide is what?
Multiple Wounds
Cutting your wrist or slicing damage there are always ________ _______.
multiple wounds
Not that uncommon to shoot yourself more than once. People are not good at knowing where to shoot. This makes what common?
multiple wounds
A person wants to be dead but they do not want to do it themselves.
Suicide by cop
Example, someone makes a 9/11 call about a dangerous situation to get the cops there and will purposefully threaten the police in a way that they know the police will use deadly force agains them. This refers to what?
Suicide by cop
I cannot do it myself i do not have the emotional or psychological strength.
Lack of ability.
Suicide by cop
If i kill myself, i am going to hell. If an officer kills me then it is not suicide.
Moral/ Religious reasons
Suicide by cop
A lot of life insurance companies that will not pay out if you die by suicide. If they die because a cup shot them the survivors should get the full insurance package. Sometimes they do and sometimes they do not. True or False
True
Eight times more likely than line of duty death
Suicide of police
Police have a dangerous job where they die in the line of duty, but it is more likely that they die by ______.
suicide
A lot of people have _____ and it causes a lot of problems.
PTSD
More likely to be underreported or misclassified.
Suicide of police
Police officer suicides are way more likely to be misclassified or reported as something else. Clearly, he was cleaning his gun so it was an accident. they want to save the embarrassment for the department. This could have been an accident. True or False
true
the first officer on the scene of a dying person or dead body is responsible for what?
scene safety
Is the shooter still there? Do they have a gun?
Scene safety
Very similar to the search incident to arrest there is a warrant exception to search incident to dead body. In which place the police come in and there is a dead body they are allowed to do a quick search of the surrounding area without warrant to make sure there is no danger present. This is not a violation of 4th amendment. What case?
Flippo V West Virginia (2009)
Sometimes a lot sometimes no one. every person needs to be detained and questioned. At bare minimum get their name, address, phone number, and brief statement. True or False
True
Determine the matter of death. When exactly does death happen and how do we tell. It is not always clear and obvious. True or False
True
If death is questionable let the medical doctors declare them dead or not. True or False
true
Homicide most common evidence: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
- body
- weapon
- blood/ bodily fluids
- hair/ fiber
- document!
- move the body on a clean white sheet, bags on hands
Can tell us a lot about the crime. Everything from were they shot, stabbed, hit with a blunt object. Were there traces of the weapon that did it on their ________?
body
The ______ can be found at the scene. Gun, Knife, Baseball bat. You often find the ______ at the scene of the crime of somewhere else later on. Who owns the gun? Fingerprints? Blood?
Weapon
One of the reasons you have to be careful at the murder scene.
Blood/ Bodily fluids
Not all of the blood will be the victims especially if there is some kind of struggle. The more struggle the more likely some blood is from victim and offender. Either blood or bodily fluids of the offender will be evidence. DNA at scene does not mean they are guilty but it could be evidence. True or False
True
Tiny. You have to be careful.
Hair/Fiber
If the body is clearly dead and we do not need someone to pronounce them dead or rush them to a hospital we need to ______ everything along with sketches and photos.
document
When we get ready to move the body what do we need to do?
place the body on a clean white sheet and put paper bags over the victims hands
Why put a sheet under a dead body?
to catch hairs and fibers
Why put paper bags over dead body’s hands?
Common to find evidence such as blood or skin cells under nails. Fingerprints need to be secure.
Paper bag over hands because moisture will not collect. True or False
True