Description

This is an intense, information-dense 40-hour course covering everything you need to properly investigate a death. It goes from first response through prosecution prep. Built for patrol officers, deputies, detectives, investigators, crime scene personnel, and anyone else who may end up at a death scene.

No filler modules. No recycled slide decks. Each section builds on the last so you leave with a system you can actually run at a scene. Not a certificate and a folder full of slides you’ll never open again.

Topics Include

• Why proper death investigation protocol matters before the ME arrives
• Case law, search warrants, and 4th Amendment considerations
• Scene response, management, and evidence collection
• Stages of death: lividity, rigor mortis, decomposition, and time of death
• Bloodstain and blood pattern analysis
• Victim assessment and wound identification
• Types of death: suicide, asphyxia, aquatic, autoerotic, SUIDS, and questioned deaths
• Child abduction and missing persons
• Suspect handling, Miranda, avoiding false confessions, and courtroom testimony
• Scenario-based exercises and a full death investigative checklist

How This Course Is Built

Death and homicide investigations are where bad training gets people convicted of the wrong thing, or lets the right person walk. Every section of this course is grounded in forensic science and built around the reality that you may be the first, last, or only person who handles a scene correctly.

You’ll work through in-depth case studies and scenario-based exercises covering 911 call analysis, outdoor crime scenes, questioned deaths, autopsy review, and a full arrest scenario. The bloodstain pattern analysis content was built to IAI (International Association for Identification) training hour standards. The course is POST-approved in Idaho and Utah.

Beyond the physical evidence, the course covers the full investigative picture: phone records, digital evidence, financial records, and how to work effectively with medical examiners, forensic scientists, and crime scene specialists. Suspect handling is covered with the same science-backed methodology RTI applies across all investigative training, including how to avoid the false confession pitfalls that have blown up cases across the country.

The course closes with courtroom testimony and working with defense counsel. Getting to an arrest is only half the job.