The statistics are mind-boggling, suicide is the second leading cause of death among middle and high school age youth (ages 12-18) and sadly the numbers are continuing to grow for pre-adolescents. Most youth suicides involve hanging, firearms, asphyxiation, and poison. The scene of any suicide, especially with a child, is horrific, and hard to process what we are truly seeing. Sadly, in this country, we are also losing over 2000 kids a year to homicide at the hands of their caregivers, and those numbers are solely based on the kids we know of and not of the caregiver who “craftily” got away with murder! What better way than to stage a suicide! This training will address the staging of the scene, carefully examining the body’s position, placement of the weapon, etc. We will look carefully at the underlying cause of death, where are the injuries, are they consistent with the story given of how the child was discovered, what was in the suicide note and what were the child’s movements prior to the incident.
Learning Objectives:
Recognize different suicide methods and how they are carried out.
Learn how to better examine the body before movement observing the exact injuries that caused the person’s death to help decide whether the death should be ruled a suicide or homicide.
Recognize how scenes can be altered by carefully looking at the body, weapons, and trajectory of weapons used.
Recognize the importance of recreating the child’s movements prior to the incident and finding any insights into the child’s personal history that may have contributed to the suicide and/or homicide.
