LNCs Criminal Cases: Homicide or Suicide?
Are you an LNC interested in criminal cases? Not sure if it’s for you? This post will show you what to expect.
Let me introduce you to Teresa Devitt-Lynch. Teresa has been a guest on my Podcast.
She is also speaking at my upcoming virtual conferences called The Ultimate LNC Conference: Murder Mysteries Unraveled: The LNC’s Impact in Legal Battles. Click here to learn more and register.
Are you interested in working in the area of criminal cases?
Do you think that only a forensic pathologist could determine whether a death was suicide or homicide? You’ll now hear from Teresa Devitt-Lynch, a board-certified advanced forensic nurse.
Teresa is certified as a sexual assault nurse examiner, board-certified as an advanced forensic nurse, and has the business Intrepid Forensic Healthcare Consulting. She testifies nationally and internationally.
LNC Criminal Cases
Teresa begins by emphasizing that all physical evidence must be carefully analyzed. In addition, it’s important to evaluate the victim’s state of mind. Were previous suicide attempts made? Did the person suffer from chronic depression? These factors help to decide.
Other specialists may be called in, such as mechanical engineers who determine logistics in a death caused by a fall.
For example, logistics also play a key role in gunshot and stabbing incidents.
Drowning incidents present a particular challenge since they may be accidental, suicide, or homicide.
An expert needs to determine whether an individual hung himself or herself or if the incident was carefully staged.
If you find yourself fascinated by the material in this post, you may want to consider investigating a career path you may not have previously known existed.
LNC Criminal Cases: Attention to the Details
You might have a murderer who can stage a murder scene to look like a suicide. That’s why a very well-rounded investigation is required. Some homicide and suicide scenes are readily identifiable as such, but there are those cases where more investigation is needed to make the correct determination. And ultimately, you don’t want the system to allow a criminal to get free.
- What forms of physical evidence can help determine whether the death was suicide or homicide?
- What psychological factors in the victim’s history can contribute to a determination?
- How can mechanical engineers play a role in fell/pushed scenarios?
- How can gunshot wounds be analyzed?
- How can you determine whether knife wounds are self-inflicted or caused by another person?
- What distinguishes suicide from homicide or accidental death in a drowning incident?
- How can you determine whether a person hung himself or was the victim of a staged hanging?
It would be one of the more heinous situations in which the wrong determination of death could lead to death. For instance, you’ve got the death investigator who, in some jurisdictions, shows up at the crime scenes if they have that support.
Otherwise, you know, photographs of the crime scene and other evidence collected along with the pathologist reports, and their findings can assist in distinguishing suicide from homicide.
LNC Criminal Cases: Victim’s State of Mind
It’s essential to evaluate the victim’s state of mind. First, were previous suicide attempts made? Did the person suffer from chronic depression? These factors help to decide that.
Further evaluation of additional evidence will then be needed to decide:
- Condition of the scene
- Trace evidence found at the scene
- Positioning of the body
- Eye witness accounts
- Autopsy results
There are also contributing factors related to the victim that are taken into consideration:
- Chronic health conditions
- Mental health conditions
- Drug/alcohol addiction
- Social relationships/activities
- Previous suicide ideations or attempts
- Presence of a suicide note
- What were the social relationships and activities?
- Were they socially active?
- Did they have healthy relationships?
- Would they isolate themselves and spend a lot of time alone and antisocial?
- Did they have previous suicide ideations or attempts?
- And was there a presence of a suicide note at the scene?
The most common forms of suicide include gunshot wounds, jumping from great heights, hanging, and drug overdose.
As legal nurse consultants helping to gather that additional information, what are some of the pieces of evidence that go into making the determination?
It’s not only the condition of the scene but also the trace evidence that was or was not found at the vital scene, like the positioning of the body. Is the position of the body in line with a possible suicide, or is it more consistent with a homicide situation, any eyewitness accounts? And then, of course, the autopsy and subsequent testing from the autopsy that may be done, such as forensic toxicology and testing of trace elements that were on the body itself.
LNC Criminal Cases: Training
For an LNC doing criminal cases, Teresa highly recommends that LNCs become familiar with basic forensic evidence collection processes, other forensic specialties, DNA, forensic toxicology, and biomechanics that may apply.
The Experts: Mechanical Engineers
It’s mechanical engineers who can help analyze the trajectory of the building or off the mountain, how far out it was, and how much force it took for them to land 10 feet from the building. How much force would they have to land two feet from the building? Could this have been from, based on their height, their weight, and the height of the fall? Could this have been an accident where they merely fell? And what would have been their rate of travel, moving down, and all of that information?
The Experts: Forensic Pathologist
A forensic pathologist can examine a lot, and detectives and crime scene investigators can examine a lot of information and give many answers. But sometimes, in these particular situations, pinpointing some of the forces required—for example, how fast they would have been traveling down and how they landed in this particular situation—is helpful. Getting a mechanical engineer to apply mechanical processes to this can be very helpful. That’s just one thing.
The LNC Role in Criminal Cases: Homicide or Suicide
When you’re talking about somebody jumping or being pushed from a height, there are other things, like the crime scene. As a legal nurse consultant, we come in after the fact—after the charges have been filed and after the crime scene has been collected and gathered—but we want to look at all available evidence, including any crime scene photographs.
You’re looking for signs of a struggle that may account for any injuries. Are there any signs of a struggle that may have happened before the fall? Or, when you’re looking at the victim’s medical records in the victim’s autopsies, did they have any injuries that were defensive wounds showing that they could have been fighting somebody off? Or did they have injuries from being attacked or assaulted before falling or being pushed or jumping over the ledge?
Also, did the forensic pathologist identify any signs of death?
Furthermore, were there any brain injuries or any other injuries that would have caused death before falling? That would lean heavily towards the homicide aspect. Then, look to see what information is available that can help you.
Conclusion
An LNC has a big responsibility in reviewing and presenting all of the information for a case involving homicide or suicide.
Are you an LNC interested in pursuing a career in criminal cases?
This is part one of two articles delving into the topic of Homicide or Suicide. Please join me next week as we look at the mechanisms of death.
Join us at The Ultimate LNC Conference: Murder Mysteries Unraveled: The LNC’s Impact on Legal Battles. It takes place May 30, 31 and June 1, 2024.
Click here to get all of the details.
Pat Iyer is president of The Pat Iyer Group, which develops resources to assist LNCs in obtaining more clients, making more money, and achieving their business goals and dreams.
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