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Agency Information & Principals' CVs - Expert Analysis / Consultations
Current information on our primary agency website for services, forms, and CVs.
-- Your Investigators - www.DeathCaseReview.com/Principals-Bios
-- Dean's CV - http://dab-cv.DeathCaseReview.com (updated June 2023)
-- Karen's CV - http://ksb-cv.DeathCaseReview.com (updated June 2023)
We bridge the crime scene and autopsy with Expert Medicolegal Consultations in Civil, Criminal
and Insurance Interpleader litigation, as well as Family Questioned Deaths. Forensic and
Medicolegal Death Investigations reviewing and analyzing "the totality of the circumstances of
the fatal or non-fatal event and the competency of the official investigation, with respect to
death investigation protocol and standards."

Together We’re Better!

June Commentary: Death and Injury Investigations
his month we briefly share our passion for death investigations and the relationship with serious
bodily injury (SBI) investigations – from family questioned deaths to civil wrongful deaths, and
criminal defense.

In civil and criminal litigation, events of SBI are more common than deaths. Understanding the
process of death investigations will give the investigator a better process to cases involving SBI.
These include everything from motor vehicle collisions to aggravated assaults. Fractions of an inch,
or immediate medical intervention, may be what separates an event resulting in death from one resulting in a SBI.

In civil and criminal events, it is common to see violent deaths, sudden or unexpected deaths, unattended deaths, and
in-custody deaths – or any of these involving a serious bodily injury (SBI) – fatal and non-fatal events. These are serious
incidents that may result in serious criminal charges or be a cause of action in a civil or administrative action. Fractions
of an inch or an alteration in an event, or series of events, may be the only difference between a serious bodily injury or
death. Therefore, death investigation is not limited to homicide – an assault is a personal injury that requires similar
investigative principles. Any component of death investigation can be applied to serious bodily injury investigation –
from the chain of events leading to the injury and/or death, to the mechanisms of injury or death. Your case
investigation and/or expertise includes:
• Criminal Defense – homicide, assault, sexual assault and abuse
• Civil – motor vehicle collisions, nursing home abuse, and other personal injury & death
• Probate – Time of Death, Manner of Death for insurance
• Administrative – Worker Compensation, OSHA Hearings

Not all death scenes – or any scene – is a crime scene. They are places where an event took place – an incident scene. At
all scenes there are actually at least two scenes: location(s) of the incident; and the injured or deceased person. If a
crime is suspected (and all suspicious death investigations are treated as such) the incident will belong to the
investigating law enforcement agency; and the body, together with all items on or about it, will belong to the medical
examiner’s office. In cases of SBI the second ‘investigation’ is the medical treatment of the injured person.
• SBI involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious
disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
• Bodily injury is less substantial than SBI and a fatal injury is an SBI that has resulted in death. In some jurisdictions,
such as Colorado, an injury involving a break or fracture is also classified as SBI, regardless of how minor or severe
(i.e. finger or nose fracture).
• Traumatic injuries are best defined as those which require urgent medical attention and are caused by the actions of
the victim, another person or environment within which the victim is (outdoors, indoors, vehicle, etc.).

We conduct all medicolegal investigations and expert consultations through a process. This process is from Dean’s book
– Practical Methods for Legal Investigations (www.PracticalMethodsForLegalInvestigations.com – CRC Press 2010) is
conducted and completed by following five basic steps: 1) Prepare; 2) Inquire; 3) Analyze; 4) Document; and 5) Report.

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