Forensic Pathology for Police - Brainshare Public Online Library

Duties of the Forensic Pathologist 37
Investigation
In general terms, a complete forensic death investigation may be divided into 3 parts:
(1) the initial investigation, which includes the scene investigation; (2) the examination
of the body, which may or may not involve the performance of an autopsy. The
autopsy can be further subdivided into the external examination, the internal examination,
and additional (ancillary), specialized procedures; and (3) the subsequent
follow-up investigation. The reader is referred to Chapter 4 for details regarding the
initial and follow-up investigations, and to Chapter 7 for a more detailed description
of the forensic examination of dead bodies, including autopsy performance.
The responsibility for the initial and follow-up investigations depends to a great
extent on the legally-mandated criteria for a particular state or jurisdiction, as briefly
described above. As such, forensic pathologists may or may not be officially responsible
for these aspects of death investigations; however, forensic pathologists will
certainly interact with those who are, and the forensic pathologist’s ultimate conclusions
regarding a particular death may rely heavily on the work product of those
who are officially mandated to perform such investigations. It is very important to
realize that the initial death investigation and the subsequent follow-up investigation
(following autopsy performance) are frequently critical factors involved in the
conclusions reached by the forensic pathologist. Proper training and communication
with police, emergency medical and fire personnel, coroners, county medical
examiners, and medical examiner death investigators is of paramount importance
in establishing and maintaining a high-quality death investigation system. In some
jurisdictions, forensic pathologists actually participate in scene investigations fairly
frequently, while in others, participation is limited (Fig. 3.1). In general, forensic
pathologists attempt to know as much about a particular death investigation as possible
prior to performing the autopsy. Depending on the case, information obtained
on initial investigation, particularly that related to death scene investigation, can
help forensic pathologists focus the autopsy examination to a particular concern.
Autopsy
Chapter 7 provides a more detailed description of the forensic examination of dead
bodies, including autopsy performance. Only the basic facts are presented here.
First, it must be emphasized that not every death that is referred to a death investigation
agency will require an autopsy (see below). The autopsy can be divided
into 3 parts: (1) external examination; (2) internal examination; and (3) ancillary
procedures. The external examination involves the examination and documentation
of anything on the external surface of the body (Fig. 3.2), and is important
in many cases in establishing the identity of the decedent (the dead person).
The external examination includes documentation of clothing, medical treatment,
injuries, postmortem changes, and various individual characteristics, such as height,
weight, racial features, gender, hair color and length, eye color, tattoos, scars,