“She Would Never Kill Herself”

Few things are more devastating than losing a loved one to suicide. Complicating the normal grief process is the inevitable second guessing by the survivors; could I have done something? Seen something? Said something? In fact, the event is so traumatic that it’s not uncommon for family members to refuse to accept suicide as the cause of death, even when holding a death certificate in their hands. And survivors don’t only want to protect themselves; I’ve known of spouses hiding a suicide note from the police, not because they want to make sure they get life insurance benefits that might be nullified by a suicide exclusion (which does happen and which is why insurance companies are often quick to add their two cents to an investigation) but because they don’t want their loved one’s legacy tainted by the stigma of suicide.

Death investigators are well aware of all these issues. They understand how difficult a suicide in the family can be and, oftentimes, are gentle in handling a family member who seems to be in denial about their loved one’s manner of death. The flip side, however, is that they may sometimes be too quick to dismiss a family member’s legitimate and well-founded suspicion of foul play.

There’s another complication. Just as suicides are on the rise in the United States, so are staged crime scenes. As savvy media consumers track police investigations on…