The other day I got called to an 10-85 Echo (Dead Body) The lady was elderly and had died after getting up in the middle of the night.
I did my best to get a hold of her doctor and only succeeded to get a hold of another doctor from his office. The doctor was willing to sign the death certificate based purely on her age and knew nothing of her circumstance.*POLICE TYPE EXPLANATION*
An "unattended death" is one where it occurred without being under the immediate care of a physician... a doctor can sign the death certificate and make it an "attended death" if he believes it was natural causes or inevitable because of some disease and not a homicide. This is very common when dealing with someone with a serious illness or a very elderly person.
This is important because if your grandma is 93 years old and died in her bed while sleeping you don't need the whole house treated like a crime scene and grandma cut open for an autopsy... which is exactly what happens in an "unattended death".
So as a courtesy, we as police officers (and I am sure not to waste money and man power) if the person is sickly or aged and the death does not appear to be suspicious we do our best to contact the person's regular doctor and ask if they will sign a death certificate.
Once the doctor agrees then the family can take possession of the body and take it to a funeral home.
** END OF POLICE TYPE EXPLANATION**
Ok well as soon as I get on scene an adult son of the woman who died is running around the house acting a bit nutty. This is not unusual considering the circumstances... but the fact that a middle aged person lives with his mommy and daddy... his general appearance..and several jail-house tattoos... He also spoke unusually loud (like a drunk or someone on cocaine) and I observed tremors in his hands...I immediately branded him as some sort of tweaker...
(Later I found out than the son is one of our "frequent fliers" from years ago. He has been involved in several foot pursuits with our officers and has been known to abuse cough syrup. One account even had him running naked through his neighborhood... boy did I call that one!
Another officer from a different department arrived to help and I asked him to help me keep the son away from the mom.
You see we must keep the "crime scene" secure until it is deemed to be an "attended death" and no longer a crime scene. The son kept ignoring my instruction and walked down the hall several times..much too close to the "crime scene" than I was comfortable.
The whole thing is very precarious. I must balance the importance of maintaining the integrity of the crime scene that I believe will probably not be a crime scene... and sensitivity to the family.
Long story short... I ended calling every one's favorite Medical Examiner... he gave me a very detailed and lengthy explanation on why the woman died.. which he summed up with "she fall down ... go boom!". Good enough for me and I was OK with the doctor signing the death certificate.
The EMS had come out earlier and before leaving covered the woman with a white sheet. I was standing in the hall getting ready to take some photos of the scene before leaving. The family was sitting in the living room at the end of the hall, maybe about 10 feet away.
I could see the sheet covered body from about the waist down and that's when it happened!!
I could not believe my eyes! I could see movement under the sheet! My mouth dropped open... I was about to call out to the family.. but I stopped... My heart was trying to jump out of my chest! I could see the legs move underneath the sheet... as if the woman was trying to sit up... I could not believe what I was seeing!! I gave my mind a second to process the situation... I was trying to come up with a reason for her moving other than her possibly being alive.. I mean, after all the paramedics just checked her out!
I inched closer for a better look... "Oh no" I thought. I could clearly see now what was happening and now quickly excused myself to the kitchen where I tried my best to muffle my laughing fit. Half laughing at myself...half laughing at how excited I had got over the whole situation.
I could not believe what had happened. It seemed that when the paramedics laid the sheet over the woman they had covered much of the small carpeted bathroom floor as well.
There was a small heater vent on the floor and the a/c must have kicked on... blowing air directly under the sheet. Silly me. I watched the sheet flapping irreverently. I walked into the bathroom and rearranged the sheet so it was not over the vent.
This was definitely going to make a good story to tell at break.
