How To Verify Death?

Why don't police investigate more after a medical examiner rules a death as suicide to verify it.?

• There was very little police investigation probably because everyone thought it was an accidental overdose. But ME found it couldn't be accidental and had to be suicide or homicide. She ruled suicide because the police had no evidence to the contrary and it involved overdose of prescription medicine. But police never questioned family or friends even after being urged to. They just closed the case.

• Answer:

  I would speak to someone in command at the department and see if you can get some answers; don't just speak to whatever officer/investigator you have been dealing with - find out who their boss is and speak to that boss. Take it all the way up to the number one man/woman in the department if you have to! If you get the runaround at the department, go to the local district or states attorney's office and see if they can help you; those people are elected officials and always want to keep their constituents happy. At the very least, they will dig a little deeper into why the police didn't investigate more. The very first thing that you should do is obtain a copy of the police report on the death of this person that you're speaking about. In my state, all police reports are matters of public record and can be obtained by filing a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request with the investigating agency; the report may contain some things that you haven't been told yet and answer some of your questions. Keep in mind that they may tell you that they are still investigating and in my state, cases under investigation are not available to be given out for a FOIA request because this may compromise the investigation. If they tell you that you can't receive a copy for your own records, ask if you can at least come into the police department and read through a copy of the report (in the presence of an officer) as long as you agree not to write down anything. I hope this helps and that you get some of the answers that you have been looking for!