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You're a rookie cop and you just caught your first homicide. Arriving at the address, you find the victim, a young man with several obvious holes in his body. A crowd has already begun to form and you listen to comments as you take in the entire scene.
"Nah, he was obviously stabbed," says another. There is a partial bloody shoe print near the body. "I was standing right there," says a third, "And never heard any shots. What could it be?" The victim is wearing a plain, silver ring on his right thumb. You've never seen so much blood and try not to look at the body. You aren't allowed to touch the victim until the meat wagon comes. The crime scene is yours, but the medical examiner has jurisdiction over the kid lying on the road. In special circumstances where a body must be moved — to preserve evidence, for example — the crime scene should be photographed and sketched before altering the scene. If possible, a tape or chalk outline is used to show the location and position of the victim. Once you've secured the area and notified the ME's office, you begin documenting the crime scene. Evidence is scant - the bloody shoeprint is about all you'll get from here, unless a witness comes forward. When the morgue crew comes to get the body, they turn the boy face up and allow you to visually inspect him. He has a fresh bruise above his left eye, but besides that and the holes in his chest and back, he looks like your average kid. It's up to the doc to give you more information. So what happens next? In most jurisdictions the bodies of persons dying suddenly, from violence, or in any suspicious, unusual, or unnatural manner are required by law to be autopsied. This includes any death from something other than disease - apparent suicides, homicides, trauma, radiation, poisoning, heat exposure, cold exposure, and electrocutions; or any death that might provide important information about a public health issue. There is a distinct difference between a coroner and a medical examiner. A coroner can be elected or appointed. He may or may not be medically trained. A medical examiner, on the other hand, is almost always a physician. Many have received additional training in forensic pathology, the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis of disease and causes of death by means of laboratory examination of body fluids, cell samples, and tissues. The National Association of Medical Examiners' Web site has an excellent description of the difference between the two positions.
The copyright of the article The Medical Examiner in Crime Stories is owned by . Permission to republish The Medical Examiner in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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