ABSTRACT
Medicolegal death investigators are generally in the employ of the medical examiner or coroner (ME/C) for a given jurisdiction. Rather, they are specialized in death investigations and serve as the ME/C's on-scene asset to ensure the scene and body are documented with the specific needs of the ME/C in mind and to complete the necessary on-scene examination, processing of the body, and facilitate transportation. The certified medicolegal death investigator is a highly trained and experienced professional that is the extension of the ME/C at the scene and a valuable resource to law enforcement at the scene. In the case of homicide, it may be beneficial to have the police investigator or detective make the notification, especially if there is an expectation of a spontaneous exclamation, such as "I knew she would kill him one day" or "We told him to stay off of those drugs".
