Death Investigations serve many useful purposes. As sad as it might be, sometimes people don't die from the causes cited in police reports. One of the biggest problem areas is the classification of suicide cases.
Even though there may be some type of evidence that might point toward suicide as a manner of death it's not always so easy to prove. There are four primary classifications of death: natural deaths, accidental deaths, homicidal deaths and suicidal deaths. Sometimes the difference is very slight.
There may be many reasons that surviving members of a family question the 'official' cause of death. Sometimes it's as simple and wanting closure on the matter or peace of mind. Sometimes it gets a lot more complicated. There may be disputes between family members about splitting inheritance (probate issues). Sometimes businesses fail or survive depending on the findings of investigators.
We investigated one case recently where the police classified the death as a suicide. They did an absolutely shoddy piece of investigative work, but despite that they were right.
What they didn't uncover (or even investigate) was that a contributing factor may have been the medication that her psychiatrist had recently prescribed for her. According to the father, they are now in litigation with the pharmaceutical company as part of a class action suit because allegedly the drug was found to be related with causing suicidal tendencies. It wasn't pleasant for the family, but the family did have some degree of closure and they got answers.
Wrongful death investigations are useful for civil cases where a person's death was wrongfully caused by another person.
If you find that you are connected to a person who has recently died and are concerned about the truth of what happened, give us a call. We might be able to help.
