Page 107 - CFDI Guide

Certified Forensic Death Investigator (CFDI) Program
Dean A. Beers, CLI, CCDI, CFDI-Expert and Karen S. Beers, BSW, CCDI, CFDI-SME
Associates in Forensic Investigations, LLC
Criminal Defense Investigation Training Council (CDITC) Accredited

Specific to the child, and depending on age, the official investigations should be assessing environmental
factors such as food, medicine, clothing, diapers and toilet training direct to the child. Additional factors

may include any use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs by any persons living with the child. Not all
injuries come from adults, and not all injuries are inflicted, and not all inflicted injuries are intentional. Also

specific to the child are height and weight, particularly in the growth charts, any related medical history to
include history of pediatric care. Law enforcement, particularly the medical examiner, will also request any

hospital, clinic, and primary care physician records. This should include vaccinations and both prescriptive
and over-the-counter medicines, to include homeopathic and home care in the absence of traditional

medical care. Any reasons for non-traditional care should be explored and documented in the official

investigations.

Scene Description

Specific to child death investigations, law enforcement and the medical examiner should send teams to

cooperatively investigate where the injury took place, and if the child died at the hospital, an additional
team there. Unlike other common death and SBI investigations, additional evidence must be immediately

collected. Environments may include home, daycare, schools, playgrounds, and hospitals. Places the child
frequents, if not home or the hospital – such as daycare – are important for law enforcement to

investigate and interview the additional caregivers.

Hospital scenes are straight forward and involve immediately interviewing the parents and other
caregivers present, and family – including siblings – if appropriate; siblings are usually interviewed

separately by a trained child interviewer at a designated facility. Other information from the hospital
should include incident and historical medical records, interviews of immediate care providers, and

obtaining any admitting toxicology by the medical examiner. As noted in previous lectures, hospital
toxicology has two parts – admitting and inpatient, and the medical examiner has the legal authority and

protocol to collect all specimens and records – particularly admitting (toxicology and metabolic panels).
Toxicology will include prescription and illicit drugs, and metabolic panels will include biochemistry of

blood which shows a myriad of conditions reflecting the patient’s health (i.e. cholesterol, blood sugar,
organ health, etc.); these are two different considerations and are important to the medical examiner. A

third series – cultures and other non-blood tests are part of the laboratory workup and should be included.
These may all be performed as part of the autopsy. Admitting specimens are the first drawn with results

for the patient. Anything after will reflect courses of medicines, as well as changes, to the patient.

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