Module 17
Introduction
In light of the punishments or civil sanctions that can result from a person being found responsible for someone's death, the need for a high quality, almost if not perfect investigation is paramount. It would be difficult to produce a complete murder manual that could be made available to the non-specialist investigator, so this module is restricted to an explanation of the initial actions to be taken in the event of attendance at a sudden or suspicious death. For the purposes of this section, the term suspicious is held to mean more than giving rise to the belief that a murder has been committed - in our context it means 'any death which gives rise to the possibility that a person, persons or corporate body may be found in any way culpable in that death'.
It is the responsibility of criminal and civil defence teams to review the conduct of such an investigation and to explore the integrity of the evidence made available by the original investigation team. Therefore, while the activity to be described herein is usually the sole preserve of official agencies, it is valuable knowledge useful to all.
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Module: 17
