Description

Death and Decomposition is a 2-hour online course built for patrol officers, deputies, detectives, and investigators who respond to death scenes. Whether you have worked one death call or a hundred, understanding what happens to a body after death gives you a foundation for every investigation you touch.

Most patrol officers respond to deaths before a detective is ever assigned. What you observe, document, and preserve in those first minutes matters. This course gives you the science to make those decisions correctly.

What You Will Cover

Lividity

How livor mortis forms, what it tells you about body position and movement after death, and how to identify fixed versus unfixed lividity at the scene.

Rigor Mortis

The stages of rigor, what affects its progression, and how to use it as an investigative tool rather than a trivia fact.

Decomposition and Advanced Decay

The four stages of decomposition from fresh through dry decay, what each stage looks like, what affects the rate of progression, and how insect activity and environmental factors change your read of the scene.

Time of Death

How investigators estimate postmortem interval using lividity, rigor, and decomposition together. What the estimates can and cannot tell you and how to document your observations to support the pathologist’s findings.

Certificate of completion upon finishing. This course pairs directly with RTI’s Homicide and Death Investigations course for officers who want to build full investigative depth. 2 hours. Idaho POST-certified. Online, self-paced.