Chapter 5

Medicolegal Investigation of Death  

The history of forensic science is integrated into the history of death investigation.  From early in human history, the cause of death was crucial in determining inheritance, taxes, and any crime or public health issue.  Any death that is unexpected or not understood (questioned death) can invoke the death investigation system.  We will discuss the evolution of medicolegal death investigation and the tools and techniques available to assist in determining the cause, manner, and mechanism of a death.  Since death is not an event as much as a process, you will learn about the stages of death and what happens after. Such information is used to estimate the time of death as well as what caused it. 

Learning Objectives

5.1 Distinguish between the coroner and medical examiner systems 

5.2 Describe cause, manner and mechanism of death 

5.3 Understand the typical sequence of postmortem changes and how they can be used in time of death estimation 

5.4 Understand general autopsy procedures