Death Investigation Training Academy Blog
Burned, Drowned, or Buried: Investigating Altered Bodies and Why They Matter Most
Not all bodies tell their story easily. Some scream. Some whisper. And some, the ones burned beyond recognition, bloated from days in water, or buried deep enough to hide, require a different kind of listening. These are the altered remains. The ones time, elements,...
Recognizing Elder Abuse: Investigative Indicators and Field Considerations
Written by: Contributing Author Elder abuse remains one of the most underreported forms of victimization in the United States. Current estimates suggest that 1 in 10 adults over the age of 60 experience some form of abuse each year, yet only a fraction of these...
Surviving the Untimely Death of a Loved One
By: Contributing Author Have you lost someone you love dearly? Many times, these deaths come as the result of long illnesses, but sometimes the deaths are sudden and unexpected. In either case, grief can be overwhelming. Losing a loved one can feel like a piece of you...
Russian Roulette – Accident or Suicide?
By: Darren Dake D-ABMDI, CI, CCI No matter your initial opinion of the title question, give me a minute to break down a few thoughts. I was recently a part of an online forum conversation where this question was posed, and there were mixed opinions. Many were hardline...
Was it Really a Suicide?
Practical tool for cops offers a way to interpret suspicious 911 calls. Not everyone who calls 911 to report a fatal accident or suicide is a concerned party – or is concerned in the right way. Some are killers hoping to deflect attention from...
Cold Cases and Serial Killers
Cold case investigations link more unsolved cases to known serial killers. When William Clyde Gibson was sentenced for the murder and mutilation of three women, he claimed that there were many more. The police “might have a tenth of it,” he stated. Although we know...
Female Predators
More women who prey on others have shown up in recent media. In South Africa, Sheree Prince, 19, broke into the home of 74-year-old Sandra Malcolm, waking her. When Malcolm threatened to call police, Prince pretended to be hurt and in need of help. Malcolm invited her...
Power Assertive Murder
Punitive anger sparks violence in killers like Todd Kohlhepp. Kala Brown and Charlie Carver went missing on Labor Day weekend. Their friends looked frantically for them, but found no trace. Odd items popped up on their Facebook pages, but no one actually heard from...
Stupid Stuff that Stopped a Serial Killer
When someone says serial killers have high IQs, I recall these sorry stories. The myth that serial killers are smarter than the average person is based on a study that used unscientific methods with a small, unrepresentative sample. In fact, serial killers range from...