Research Question - Real Detective Work

[RoninJedi84]

Hello, all.

One of the main characters in my WIP is a Homicide Detective in a small town, and throughout the course of his investigation he will work with the Medical Examiner because people are dying in very strange ways. I'll just leave it at that for now.

Anyway, while I realize this is my world and therefore my rules, I would like to develop at least a working knowledge of the process of homicide investigation. I don't really feel it necessary that I know every nook and cranny of what goes on, but I do want enough knowledge so that I can take the reader through this process realistically.

What's the process while at the actual scene? Does forensics get there before or after the detective, and what exactly is their job (besides the stuff you see on tv which I'm sure is only 70% accurate or so)? Would a small town even have a forensics team? How long does it take for a Medical Examiner to determine cause of death? How long do blood tests and the like take to come back from the lab? Things of that sort.

I have spent dozens of hours looking online, and have only been able to find sites that provide the vaguest of outlines which, frankly, didn't really help much. My other option, it seems, is to register for classes in Criminal Justice - which I have neither the time, money, nor the desire to do.

I have thought about trying to get in touch with the people who actually have these jobs - detectives at the local sheriff's department, the office of the state medical examiner (I live in the US in Tennessee, if that matters), and I have found it extremely difficult to get in touch with anyone.

So I'm wondering - does anyone have any training/study in these fields? Been down this road before? Have any suggestions as to who I may be able to get in contact with?

I have hit a brick wall with this endeavor, and can't really carry my work much further without gaining some knowledge. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Abernovo]

I can only help (a little) on the lab work. It takes longer than the TV gives credit for. Apart from preparing samples, which can be mounting on slides, centrifuging, putting into solution, etc., (and that's before running the actual tests), there's the fact that I've yet to go into a lab that doesn't have budget restraints and more work than it can handle. Simple tests can take a few hours (especially if you've got to get back to the lab), longer ones can be a day, a week, or more if there's any queue.

Point of clarification: I've done necropsies and biological sampling for agriculture, so a little different from police forensics, but having spoken to someone who did work in a police lab, the workload/resource balance is similar -- penny pinching bureaucrats demand results, but rarely want to pay for them. Plus, you need to run tests more than once (simultaneously, but prep times add up) to make sure that the results are valid.

AND, if it is a small department, consider that you may only have one or two people in it. They'll have families, friends, some sort of lives. They might be prepared to work overtime to get the results, but they might also have to be called in on their day off, perhaps celebrating a family event, so need to sober up (any alcohol consumption could call results into question).

 

[jastius]

David Evil Overlord has taken forensics sciences in university. he works a lot of night shifts though, so you will have to work with him on his time.
between david and aber, you should be ok, ronin.

 

[Glitch]

Does forensics get there before or after the detective, and what exactly is their job (besides the stuff you see on tv which I'm sure is only 70% accurate or so)? Would a small town even have a forensics team? How long does it take for a Medical Examiner to determine cause of death? How long do blood tests and the like take to come back from the lab? Things of that sort.

A small town might have to call in a forensics team from the closest city. It could also be feasible that the sherif hasn't investigated a homicide before.


The stuff we see on TV might not be correct, but people accept it because they don't know any different. If you don't have the time or money to delve into this, consider buying some popular crime novels to see what's accepted as the norm.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

As Jas said, I've studied Forensic Science.

Simple answer, the first on the scene is the first on the scene. It might even be the paramedics, if the person who found the body started CPR in the hope the victim could be saved. Unless it's really obvious that won't help (e.g., body lying several metres away from severed head).

Document everything...photos from every angle, overlapping so a complete picture of the crime scene can be reconstructed...no camera or phone? Draw a picture, take notes.

Roll out that Crime Scene tape. Start logging everyone who enters the scene, and time of entry and departure (explains why your sheriff's boot print was found at the crime scene when Forensics arrive).

Use luminol to detect blood. You probably saw it on various crime shows, it makes blood traces glow blue. Unlike on those tv shows, luminol needs complete darkness. It also reacts to rust, bleach, horseradish and fly faeces. And even if it's blood, there's no guarantee it's human blood (luminol reacts to the iron in haemoglobin).

If you want to see luminol in action, go to my Forensics album. The blood (cow, my teacher assured me) had all been washed down the sink. The photo was a ten second exposure (luminol gives off a fainter glow in real life than on tv).

Anyone entering the crime scene should be wearing latex gloves, disposable overalls and overboots, dust masks and hair nets, so they don't either contaminate the crime scene with their DNA, fingerprints or footprints, or catch anything nasty from the scene themselves (the victim may have died from disease).

How much of this equipment is readily available in a small town with a smaller budget is up to you.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more.

 

[RoninJedi84]

Wow. To be honest I didn't expect such quick and thorough responses. Next time I'll just ask here first.

Abernovo - The notion of just one or two people running the lab was something that actually had not occurred to me, so thanks very much for that. Furthermore, the simple fact that life happens to them just like to everyone else had my mind racing with little things that could come up to hinder the actions of our detective, so a thousand thanks for that, as well!

Glitch - It's funny you said perhaps they haven't investigated a homicide before. As it happens, my detective is the only "Homicide" Detective in this town - which is more of a token title for him than an actual occupation, as he has only one investigation under his belt (which was seven years ago). His lack of experience is definitely something I will be playing with.

David Evil Overlord - Wow. Thanks very much for the outline of what goes on at the scene. I definitely have enough to get started. I knew what luminol was, but not what it was called (if that makes sense), and I also didn't know it reacted to rust and bleach. Your rundown, coupled with that new little tidbit, also has the mental wheels turning.

I wanted to make the investigation difficult, but wasn't really sure how to do that. Now, I have a few ideas that I will let marinate and muse on. Thanks once more to everyone for your help. It is greatly appreciated!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Glad to help. Let me know if there's any more.

Oh, and those crime scene photos? There's software that can stitch them together into a kind of crude virtual environment. Might help your investigators pick up a clue later that they missed at first...

 

[RoninJedi84]

Glad to help. Let me know if there's any more.

Oh, and those crime scene photos? There's software that can stitch them together into a kind of crude virtual environment. Might help your investigators pick up a clue later that they missed at first...

Is that so? I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Gumboot]

One thing to keep in mind is that the specifics of the process vary by country. In the US, for example, forensics labs are part of the police department, staffed by police staff, so small departments might have inferior labs, or have to send it off to a different police department, while the FBI have a very big comprehensive lab. (Incidentally this system of having police labs run by local police causes an extraordinary level of corruption and perversion of the course of justice - the FBI have studies this issue extensively).

In other countries in might be different. In New Zealand, for example, we have government owned science institutes called Crown Research Institutes, such as GNS (geology, geophysics, and nuclear science) and NIWA (hydrology and atmospheric sciences). One of these, ESR, is responsible for forensic science, and conducts all crime scene testing for the entire country. It's completely independent of the police.

 

[Tracer01]

According to Russian Law, every death are followed by initiation of a crime case or what we call 'denial' act. The decision makes after the autopsy.

Curious, though. When I had my first practice in Attorney Office, which perform the investigation of all homicides in our small town I've had to write these acts for my mentor, the Senior Investigator. I was shocked, how detailed autopsy reports are. Makes you wish to live many-many years.