The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects data about mortality in the U.S., including deaths by suicide. In 2017 (the most recent year for which full data are available), 47,173 suicides were reported, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death for Americans. On average, someone in the country dies by suicide every 12 minutes.   With those totals, we are all bound to be involved in investigating suicides.  Suicides can be acute, meaning short term or spur of the moment final decision, or a well planned and risk assessed action.  In this episode of Coroner Talk™ we are going to look at the pros if there be any, and the cons of a planned suicide.

Featured in this week's show is a PBS production of  Frontline that deals with the topic of a well-planned suicide and the legal and moral implication that accompany such a decision.  Regardless of where you stand on the topic, this episode will start you thinking of the other side.

The Assisted Suicide Debate

Since Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill in 1997, more than 700 people have taken their lives with prescribed medication — including Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with an incurable brain tumor, who ended her life earlier this month.

Read More at the website HERE

 

Serial killers hold the fascination of the public, whether in true crime news accounts of individuals such as Ted Bundy or fictional depictions such as the television shows Dexter and Criminal Minds or popular movies such as the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” or “Silence of the Lambs.” Serial killers seem so purely predatory and unremorseful that our society cannot help but display a macabre interest in them.

Although they account for no more than 1% of the approximately 15,000 homicides in the U.S. annually, serial killers receive a disproportionate amount of media attention due to the incomprehensible savagery of their deeds.

Significantly, serial killers differ from mass murderers or spree murderers. Mass murder can be defined as the killing of multiple people at a single location where the victims may be either randomly selected or targeted. A mass murderer is often killed at the scene of the crime; sometimes by his/her own hand.  A spree murder is the killing of multiple people at different locations over a short period of time (the maximum duration is usually 7 days).  The killer in spree murders often but not always knows his/her victims, and most often targets family members or romantic partners.

I use the following list of behavioral criteria to define serial homicide for the purposes of my research:

Read more at www.coronertalk.com

Would you kill for love? True-crime master Ron Franscell tells the grisly story of a loving couple who killed at least four and lived happily ever after--while cops desperately tried for decades to piece together a petrifying tale of murder and secrets. The appalling details are made even more vivid by the author's familiarity with the Wyoming times and places that formed the backdrop of his national bestseller The Darkest Night.

After Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown kills her husband in 1974 and dumps his body where it will never be found, she slips away and starts a new life with a new love. But when her new love's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, he "fixes" the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way ... and they live happily ever after. That is, until 2013, almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found.

Featuring a femme fatale whose manipulative, cold-blooded character rivals Lady Macbeth, this page-turner by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.

“MY MOMMY IS GOING TO DIE,” SHAINA SOBBED INTO THE PHONE.

When Piper Streyle failed to show up for work, a coworker called her home. Piper’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Shaina, answered and said, “A mean man carried Mommy away.” Then the line went dead. In the tranquil region of southeast South Dakota, word of the young mother who was brazenly abducted from her home in broad daylight shocked residents. Piper was the second woman to vanish, following the startling incident of a young woman who narrowly escaped abduction by fighting for her life on a dark and secluded highway.

An intensive search by an elite team of investigators uncovered a secret crime location, but the discovery of a nightshirt cut in half, a burnt candle, and a homemade bondage board revealed the chilling truth behind the missing women. With the help of a quick-witted and streetwise maximum-security prison inmate, prosecutor Larry Long and his team were able to piece together the sinister facts of the diabolical crimes.

Bestselling authors PHIL AND SANDY HAMMAN, along with former Attorney General LARRY LONG, dive into the grim and demented world of Robert Leroy Anderson,  a sexual sadist, rapist, and murderer. Duct Tape Killer is also the story of perseverance and proof that love will not be extinguished by the ruinous evil that seeks to take root in our world.

Tom and Jackie Hawks loved their life in retirement, sailing on their yacht, the Well Deserved. But when the birth of a new grandson called them back to Arizona, they put the boat up for sale. Skylar Deleon and his pregnant wife Jennifer showed up as prospective buyers, with their baby in a stroller, and the Hawkses thought they had a deal. Soon after a sea trial and an alleged purchase, however, the older couple disappeared and the Deleons promptly tried to access the Hawkses’ bank accounts.

As police investigated the case, they not only found a third homicide victim with ties to Skylar, they also uncovered an unexpected and unusual motive: Skylar had wanted gender reassignment surgery for years. By killing the Hawkses with a motley crew of assailants and plundering the couple’s assets, the Deleons had planned to clear their $100,000 in debts and still have money for the surgery, which Skylar had already scheduled.

Now, in this up-to-the-minute updated edition, which includes extensive new material, New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother presents the latest breaking developments in the case. Skylar, who was ultimately sentenced to death row for the three murders, transitioned to a woman via hormones while living in the psych unit at San Quentin prison. Recently, she legally changed her name and gender to female, apparently a strategic step in her quest to obtain taxpayer-subsidized gender confirmation surgery and transfer to a women’s prison. Combined with Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent moratorium on executions, this only adds insult to injury for the victims’ families, who want Skylar to receive the ultimate punishment for her crimes.

In this bonus episode, I talk with Anita Brooks about the emotional toll CoVid-19 is having on Coroners, MDI’s, Law Enforcement, and First Responders in general.  Anita shares some real comments she has received from front line investigators and we talk about how we can guard our mental health and still protect the ones we serve as well as our families.

 You can find the resources and free courses we talked about on the show at www.coronertalk.com

 

In 1977, four teenagers were kidnapped and attacked near and on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Only one survived. This book is written by the first responder to the call, Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper J.B. King. He goes back in time to tell it how it was from the moment of the crime until the conviction of Military Police Game Warden Johnny Lee Thornton. Riveting!

His purpose is to tell the story of Pulaski County Missouri's ‘Crime of the Century’ in detail and with clarity. From the first minutes after this attack was reported, the United States Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID), and the United States Attorney’s office worked together to bring the killer to justice. This book is a first-hand, comprehensive look into the investigation--and the story is riveting!

 

Communication is not cliche and conflict does not just go away—on its own. Effective leaders are committed to improving communication and resolving conflict with courage, intentionality, and commitment. Yet, communication is continually an invisible drain for most people, stealing time, energy, money, resources, and even relationships from individuals and organizations. 

In this session, you will learn how to plug the drains keeping you from the results you want and need. Influencing well begins by communicating well. It’s not enough to know what you need to do, wisdom means implementation.

We will discuss the best approaches for having difficult dialogues, how to diffuse emotions that magnify conflicts, and insights on invisible drains hiding beneath the surface. Real people asking real questions real-time about their real-life conflicts, make the content in this session especially relevant to the 21st-century woman or man. When you learn how to relate more effectively in your personal and professional relationships, you will increase your productivity, profitability, and peace, at work and at home.

To see a complete listing of resources and response guidelines go to our main page at:

https://coronertalk.com/covid19

If you want to be seen and respected as a professional, might I say you need to act like a professional first?  In this episode, I  talk about what I believe are the ten most important areas you should guard and improve if you want to build a professional image.   These are not in any particular order and the list is in no way all-inclusive. Rather, these ten areas are what I feel are the most important.

10 tips for building a professional image

1. Keep your personal life personal

Keep your opinions to yourself or within your tightest-closets friends. Do not use social media to voice your political or hot topic opinions.  You are a public figure and although you may have an opinion, the public does not need to hear it.

2. Create the right associates

It’s important to associate yourself with people, pursuits, and organizations that help to further the professional image you want to project. Join associations or forums related to your field.  You are the product of the five people you spend the most time with.

3. Be Positive – Be Respectful

Do you constantly find the faults in any argument, the flaws to any process, or the reasons why someone’s plans are bound to fail? While it’s great to be able to see problems before they arise, being relentlessly negative doesn’t make you liked or respected as a professional.  If you want to be treated with respect – you have to show it and earn it. Take a positive attitude towards your work, and you’ll find that your professional image benefits.

4. Know your job

Know your job as per state statues and what your agency policies are.  Knowing your job will help you work within your job requirements and not overstepping your bounds.

5. Admit your shortcomings

It’s okay not to know everything.  Admit where you need more training and make it your responsibility to get that training.

6. Keep your promises

If you promise to do something, do it. Unless there’s a major catastrophe, a commitment is a commitment.  If a reason comes up that you cannot full fill your promise then be sure you let the person know you’ve promised why you will be delayed.

6. Do a good job – always

If you do excellent work then others will notice you even if you are not promoting it. Build a reputation by doing amazing work. Your work and your reports have to stand the test of time and the scrutiny of lawyers and other investigators.

7. Personal appearance

Personal appearance is one of those subtle things that’s difficult to quantify. Mostly, it’s a collection of a lot of small investments of time and effort that add up to a slight but noticeable tweak in how people think of you. The difference is real, and over time these small differences in a lot of interactions and events can really add up.

10. Avoid substance abuse

Alcohol and prescription drugs are oftentimes abused by police and death investigators as a way to drown their sorrows and help to hide feelings and stress.

11. Gaurd your mental health

As death investigators, we see the worst life has to offer. We must watch out mental health and understand the warning signs of PTSD and how our job changes us.