Question

[icepixie]

Crime show fic-writers, perhaps you can answer this: Is there a resource out there about the various suspicious ways people can die and what the signs are/how they can be tested for? Say, for example, you're writing something where it looks like a victim has died in an obvious manner (gunshot, knifing, etc.), but the ME thinks something more subtle was the real cause of death, and must run a test of some sort to determine whether the hypothesis is correct. Where might one come up with the "something more subtle" and the name of the test? Or at least a general type of test that might be run? (The real cause of death would preferably be something it's easy to miss signs for.)

Comments

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[needled_ink_1975]

Hi,

When last I researched crime cover-ups (what I think you're referring to), I found the simplest option involved posing questions to the following people: a medical examiner and a detective sergeant in a violent crimes unit. But I'm a stickler for absolute facts. I can tell you that online resources that provide accurate information are either so hard to track down that they seem invisible, or they don't exist, or they exist only for those people with authorized access. The rest of the info online is usually sensationalist and inaccurate, and it's attached to the kind of sites that no-one in their right mind wants to visit: the type with graphic color photos taken by civilians and not-so-nice first responders at crime and accident scenes. If you're prone to nightmares, please don't go there.

And fwiw, I still have my notes from the discussions with the two professionals I mentioned. Possible they might be of use to you. Feel free to ask.

Best

–Nic

Re: Off Latest Things page

[icepixie]

Hey there,

Thanks for the info! I see what you mean about Google being useless for this kind of thing. I keep getting newspaper articles about suspicious deaths, or if I go for poison specifically (it seemed the most likely thing for what I need) I get results of clinical trials on mice and things like that.

I'm actually writing a short, ship-centric fic and basically just need some plausible-sounding technobabble for a comic scene; too much detail would probably spoil the scene. I think what I might do is just make up a deadly variety of mushroom and make vague handwavy motions about testing stomach contents for a particular made-up compound unique to this mushroom. (The canon itself is hardly a shining beacon of realism, so it should fit right in. *g*)