Angelina Bergano
Professor Schmidt
Criminal Investigation
2nd November 2018
Homicide and Death Investigations
Homicide is still one of societes biggest priorities when it comes to crimes. Homicide’s are all killings including murder, and manslaughter. Only one type of homicide can be justified, which is one that is proven to be self defense. Homicide is very important in the eyes of the law and among one of the most serious claims when it comes to criminal justice. Death investigators need to take many precautions and proper steps in order to figure out how someone died, who killed them, how they were killed, and why were they killed. There are specific steps first responders and investigators need to take once they enter into a crime scene so they can ensure no part of the investigation is being done incorrectly.
The characteristics of homicide are first and second degree murder, along with voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Murder is known as a premeditated and forceful taking of someone’s life from another person. Murder is purposeful and it is among the most serious offenses in statutory crimes. It is considered murder if the convicted person planned the attack, intended it, and committed it. First degree murder is someone who pre planned the attack on another individual and knowingly knows the extent to what they are doing. An example of a first degree murder would be wanting to kill somebody you hate, and planning out the way you will kill the person until you have a set plan, then proceeding to do so. Second degree is similar except they do not pre-plan the murder, they just commit the crime with the intent to kill the person. An example of second degree murder would be knowing there is someone you want to kill, but not having enough time to sit down and map it out, and instead just going and killing someone.
Manslaughter is different because with manslaughter, the person who committed the crime does not pre plan it. Manslaughter breaks down into two categories which are known as voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary manslaughters are when someone kills someone in the spur of the moment, however with a passion towards them. An example of this would be if you caught your husband or wife cheating and in the moment were so angry that you killed them. Involuntary manslaughter is the accidental killing of someone else due to being reckless. Examples of involuntary manslaughter could be drunk driving and killing someone, fighting with someone, accidentally suffocating a baby you’re sleeping next to, etc.
After a homicide is committed, it is followed by a death investigation. When going into an investigation for a homicide, the supervisor will pick a detective who they think is capable of the task. Law enforcement organizations require the person for the task to have prior experience with investigating, and qualities as those who do the interviews and interrogations. The characteristics from a homicide detective need to be very patient and also very dedicated to the job at hand. The experience from detectives before they go into homicide cases is crucial because many police forces say the highest clearance rate comes from detectives with at least over a decade of work experience. There also are specialized squads called the Cold Case Squad which is detectives who reopen a case that was never solved. The CCS job is to try making arrest to predators to help get aggressive people away from the public and make the families who lost a loved one feel like justice was served.
Once the homicide investigation has begun, a first responder goes to protect the scene and take notes. While the first responder is there, it is important that they look for any victims that could be injured and get them medical attention immediately. It is also important for the first responder to be aware of their surroundings for if the killer is still on the property or close by the crime scene to make arrest. Another crucial duty the officer needs to take is making sure the crime scene is clear and nothing is tampered with so the investigation process can continue properly. During the time of responding to the first call, notes are necessary to have for evidence later on in the investigation. The notes should include witnesses if any, the officers at the scene, the date and time, the weather, location of body, and any pieces of evidence like weapons.
A crucial part in death investigations are determining the time of death. When there are no witnesses for a homicide case, determining the time of death is most important. There are several ways to determine the time of death. Once the body is found, you can determine the time of death by the decomposition process. There are five stages that the body goes through while decomposing. The time of death can be determined within the range of 8-10 hours after the death if the victims eyes appear white and cloudy and their lips purple due to the loss of oxygen. The fresh stage is the first few days after death, and you can tell it is in this stage if the body doesn’t appear to be decomposing yet and enters algor mortis which is when the body changes to the same temperature as what surrounds it. The second stage is called the putrefaction stage and you can tell by looking at the body and observing if there are any color alterations or body odor. The corpse will also appear to be bloating and soon after body fluids will excrete out of the body due to gases that form in the abdomen. The black putrefaction stage is between ten to twenty days after death, and you can tell because the body color changes to a brownish color and bones can be apparent. At this point, insects are actively increasing with decomposing the body. Leading into the butyric fermentation stage, the body will start to completely dry out and is completely unrecognizable. The last stage is the longest process called the dry decay stage, and this is when the body is completely skeletonized.
Technology nowadays helps greatly with discovering more about the homicide case. Death investigators do a lot of research like figuring out the time of death, identifying the victim, finding which weapons and bullets were used, and more. The technology becomes more advanced continuously and now it is much easier for a case to be solved rather than a few decades ago. A few decades ago there were no high definition cameras, better systems of lighting, or as many DNA capabilities.
Nowadays, there are many alternative ways to assist investigations. For example, if there were someone who was shot, we now have high speed ballistics photography which can determine the type of gun that was used, determine the distance from where the gun was shot, and in some cases find out how long ago a shot was fired. Gunshot wounds are a big piece of evidence when it comes to death investigations. The wounds can determine whether the death was a murder or suicide. There also is a database for DNA called CODIS, which stores fingerprints, offenders, and other profiles. CODIS was created in 1990 to help assist investigations in finding matches to criminal profiles. From the start of CODIS to this past September, over 400,000 criminals were arrested via the utilization of CODIS.
On June 4th of this year, a series of homicides occured in Scottsdale Arizona from one man named Dwight Lamon Jones. The homicides were a result to a divorce with Jones and his ex wife Connie Jones. Jones was in an emotional state and had psychological issues. His ex wife said she had feared for her safety for over nine years. At Jone’s boiling point, he left and killed six people within the span of twenty-four hours. One of the victims killed was Dwight Lamon Jones’ psychiatrist, who he was court ordered to see during the process of the divorce. Some of the six killings were able to be linked back to Dwight because of the shell castings that were found. All of the shell castings were similar and once they had Jones as a suspect, their investigation process led to DNA samples. They were able to retrieve a DNA sample from one of his relatives and it matched to the DNA on the shell. Jones was also connected to other killings from witnesses seeing him throw out a package in a garbage can near a double homicide case. The package had a .22-caliber pistol that was owned by one of the persons killed. The detectives were able to link him to the killings although he did not use that gun during the killings.
Another homicide that followed into a death investigation was a fourteen year old boy raping and murdering a eighty-three year old woman. On August 29th 2018, Tyrone Harvin raped and killed victim Dorothy Mae Neal. Harvin would help Dorothy clean her house because she was a friendly elder that lived in the neighborhood. Police responded to the house because no one had seen her for a few days. Once police arrived she was found unresponsive in her apartment and hours later at the hospital, she was pronounced dead. The police spokesman, Tj Smith said, “really something unheard of”. Investigators were shocked to find a 14 year-old as the one responsible for this. The police believed it was someone young, but not as young as fourteen. They were able to find out her killer by physical evidence. During the investigation they found her to be severely beaten, and through an autopsy they also found she had been raped by Tyrone Harvin.
Thanks to new technology, death investigations are able to be conducted with much more knowledge and tools to help figure out the case. CODIS has brought DNA investigations a long way from a few decades ago. Many crimes today are being solved with DNA evidence, and there are a lot more tools we use to determine the victim’s time of death and result of death.