Medicolegal Death Investigation: A Step-By-Step Field Guide

Medicolegal Death Investigation (MDI) is designed to provide basic and recurrent guidance for medicolegal death investigators, coroners, medical examiners, crime scene investigators, firefighters, and emergency medical service providers. This step-by-step field guide provides instructions for a variety of death scenes including: homicides, suicides, drug overdoses, suspicious deaths, and much more. Death Investigation is a complex process involving coordination with many parties. MDI summarizes the pertinent elements of scene investigation from medical and legal perspectives. This manual reflects up-to-date best practices in an area which has more recently become a focus of increased scrutiny. Basic investigation elements, as well as red flags, are presented in an easy-to-use format to enable an investigator to evaluate a scene with confidence. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office Investigation Unit investigates over 1200 scenes a year. Our team of investigators are certified by the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) and have over 100 years of experience between them.