So, we’re still at the crime scene. It’s a long and complicated job. A lot of it depends on the murder itself. If you have a domestic murder where a spouse has been hit over the head with a frying pan in the kitchen, and the offending spouse is stood there with said frying pan making admissions, then a lot of what I’m going to say obviously won’t count. But for anyone wanting a more complex murder to write about or are just interested in how things happen, then let’s get back to the crime scene and see what we have.
Now, who you call to your scene is, as I said above, dependant on where your crime scene is and also what your crime scene is.
For instance, you will need to consider calling out the Home Office Pathologist (after informing the Coroner – who is God in all things death in your county). You don’t always need the pathologist, but if samples are going to be needed in situ then you will. You’ll also need them for complex scenes and multiple bodies. But, you will not be calling the pathologist out until you’re ready for the body to be removed from the scene. And once the pathologist has done their examination they will organise and oversee the removal of the body.
Bearing that in mind, let’s look at your scene and your body. Where is it? Woodland? decomposed? Clandestine burial? You need to assess what other experts you need to bring in. You will automatically be looking at this as a murder because it’s better to deal with it as a murder and be wrong than to deal with it as something else (old burial site) and be wrong.
So, it’s murder, you have a whole gamut of experts at your fingertips. Think soil scientists for stratigraphy and forensic ecologists. Forensic entomologists for bug activity and forensic archeologists. If you think there may be more than one body buried, think ground penetrating radar. And if your body is in such a state that you could not identify it by traditional means then you would look at requesting a forensic anthropologist. These are obviously a lot of options to think about and use but in reality they are not often used because most murders are pretty straightforward. But if you’re writing and want to make that initial crime scene a little different, then here are some ideas for you.
The next post in this series on policing will cover something else, but the timeline I’m following isn’t necessarily correct because while the SIO is thinking about this scene, they have also been thinking about a lot of other things and have been issuing instructions to their staff and other enquiries have been ongoing and these are what I will be writing about. So the actions will be running concurrent with this post.
Is this what you expected? Where would you hide a body that would make the scene really difficult?
Alex J. Cavanaugh (@AlexJCavanaugh) says
An outdoor location would complicate things and involve a lot of experts.
Tossing a body in a garbage dump would make it a challenge for them.
Rebecca Bradley says
A garbage dump would be awful Alex. Every piece of garbage would have to be seized and examined because who knows if any of it belonged to the offender or victim! Or if it has spatter on from either…
Margot Kinberg says
This series is so helpful, Rebecca! I’m so glad you’re continuing it. I can well imagine that the experts you call in depend on where you find the body. Hmmm….there are a lot of lonely stretches on the roads between where I live and places like Phoenix or Las Vegas. Lots of good places to dump a body where it would take a while for it to be discovered.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m glad you’re enjoying the series Margot. And yes, roads like that are great. With long stretches of time from murder to finding the body then simply identifying the victim is going to be a difficult task in itself never mind then identifying the offender.
Stephen Tremp says
I’d toss it in my neighbors yard, of course.
Stephen Tremp
http://www.stephentremp.com
Rebecca Bradley says
Is it not likely to be found in your neighbours yard Stephen?! 🙂
MarinaSofia says
Love this series, inject some much-needed realism into my fevered imagination! We have lots of woodland on the mountains around here. I’m thinking that if it’s so hard to spot a lynx, it won’t be that easy to find a body either. At least, that’s what I’m counting on in my WIP.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m glad you’re enjoying it Marina. And mountain woodland would be a great place to dump a body. Especially if you have Lynx and other such animals to scavenge it!
cleopatralovesbooks says
I really enjoy this series, and your explanation makes me realise that there are far more experts needed for some locations than I ever imagined – absolutely fascinating.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m glad you’re enjoying it Cleo. And yes, there are lots of experts to call upon. It just depends on where you are and the state of your body or even your remains.
Elle Turner says
This series is so interesting, Rebecca. So much complex work involved dealing with a crime scene.
Rebecca Bradley says
There is, Elle. I’m glad you’re enjoying the series. I hope there will be many more posts to come.
Jane Risdon says
Four weeks ago I began a University Forensics course as part of a team (all professionals) investigating a clandestine burial where only bones remain. My job is to ID the bones along with the Forensic Archaeologists and Anthropologists and Police of course. Numerous experts are at the scene which did surprise me at first….soil and entomologists etc came as a surprise. I wanted to gain more knowledge as a crime writer so that I don’t (hopefully) come unstuck when writing about the rime scene and how to investigate it, from discovery of the body to cause of death and eventual criminal case. Thanks for confirming my learning.
Rebecca Bradley says
Jane, I’m doing that very same course. I love the Future Learn courses. I thought I’d take this one to see if there were any snippets of information that would come in useful. I’m not sure I’ll be able to use much more from the course as it’s very science based but then again you never know where your writing will take you in the future and the course is always there to access now.
Jane Risdon says
I am loving it and I also thin that not all of it is going to be used by us writers, but you never know. The insights to the crime scene and who is here, and why, is great stuff. Cut marks, weapons and so on also helpful. I need to do a refresher or espionage though…know any good MI6/MI5 courses?
crimeworm says
This is great. We’ve had a couple of successful murder prosecutions in Scotland in the last few years – Arlene Fraser was presumed to be fed to some pigs, and Suzanne Pilley was presumed to be buried deep in forestry in Argyll. So somewhere similar to that – or far out to sea, weighed down?
Rebecca Bradley says
Ah, pigs, that’s a popular one for tv because it just seems to grim. Well, let’s be honest, it is grim, even if you are already dead and know nothing about it, it’s just grim. I’d rather be dropped out to sea!
readingwritingandriesling says
In “real life” is it common to come across victims where the perpetrator has wanted the body to be found? I,e dumped in obvious busy places? This is a great series Rebecca.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m not sure there is a ‘common’ as far as murder is concerned Carol. Other than most offenders don’t want to spend the rest of their lives behind bars. But the most common murders where the victims are in busy places, I would imagine – I don’t have numbers- are shootings and stabbing as these can be drive-by or walk-by stabbing a or in nightclubs etc. But these are offences where the murder has happened at that scene. If you’re talking about dump sites I’d suggest you’re talking about offenders who want to make a statement of some description.
readingwritingandriesling says
Yes dump sites I think is what I meant. Do you think that reading crime fiction we expect more crimes than actually happen in real life? hmmm when I briefly worked at The Dept Public Prosecutions a few years back new recruits were given a a “gentle” discussion re suddenly realising just how prevalent crimes were – that one really didn’t “know” their neighbours… but in the same breath told not to worry about it too much 🙂
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