Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a corpse. A post mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some jurisdictions. Coroners and medical examiners are also frequently asked to confirm the identity of remains.
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jurisdiction.
The medical examiner is an appointed official in some American jurisdictions who is trained in pathology that investigates deaths that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests.
Michael M. Baden is an American physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for his work investigating high-profile deaths and as the host of HBO's Autopsy. Baden was the chief medical examiner of the City of New York from 1978 to 1979. He was also chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations' Forensic Pathology Panel that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Baden's independent autopsy findings are often in conflict with the local authorities' opinions; as such, many consider him to be a headline-seeking physician as opposed to a legitimate source of information.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner was created in its present form on December 17, 1920 by an ordinance approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, although it has existed in some form since the appointment of the first county coroner in 1850. It is headquartered in Boyle Heights. On September 3, 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the name change for the department, from the Department of Coroner to the Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.
A Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team or DMORT is a team of experts in the fields of disaster victim identification and mortuary services. DMORTs are activated in response to large scale disasters in the United States to assist in the identification of deceased individuals and storage of the bodies pending the bodies being claimed.
A mass fatality incident is an emergency management term used to identify an incident involving more dead bodies and/or body parts than can be located, identified, and processed for final disposition by available response resources.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is the agency of the government of Oklahoma (USA) responsible for investigating sudden, unexpected, violent or suspicious deaths. In this capacity, OCME provides support services to State law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and public health officials.
Frederick Robert Bieber is Senior Medical Geneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a member of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, and a Consultant at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Children's Hospital Boston.
Charles Sidney Hirsch was an American forensic pathologist who served as the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City from 1989 until 2013. He oversaw the identification of victims from the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
The Unified Victim Identification System (UVIS) is an Internet-enabled database system developed for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York (OCME) in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York City and the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. It is intended to handle critical fatality management functions made necessary by a major disaster. UVIS is a strong flexible role-based application and permissions can be controlled dynamically.
The Detective Bureau is one of 20 bureaus that constitute the New York City Police Department and is headed by the three-star Chief of Detectives. The Detective Squad was formed in 1857 with the Detective Bureau later formed in 1882.
The 2010 Oklahoma political corruption investigation was a criminal investigation that focused on whether Oklahoma State Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore), State Representative Mike Christian, and State Senator Debbe Leftwich engaged in political corruption involving the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences is a science-based, independent operation consisting of two distinct forensic services for the Harris County community – the Medical Examiner Service and the Crime Laboratory Service. The institute is located in Houston, Texas. The institute is a part of the Texas Medical Center.
Alexander Oscar Gettler was a toxicologist with the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York (OCME) between 1918 and 1959, and the first forensic chemist to be employed in this capacity by a U.S. city. His work at OCME with Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner, created the foundation for modern medicolegal investigation in the U.S. and Gettler has been described by peers as "the father of forensic toxicology in America."
Joseph Lawrence Cogan is an American coroner who served as acting Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1992.
The Coroner of New York City issued death certificates and performed autopsies and inquests for New York County, New York, for all homicides, suicides and accidental deaths and any suspicious deaths.
Elliot M. Gross is an American forensic pathologist who served as the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City from 1979 until his dismissal in 1989.
DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.
Othram is an American corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy to resolve unsolved murders, disappearances, and identification of unidentified decedents or murder victims. The company also offers law enforcement agencies tools and programs to infer kinship among individuals, both closely and distantly related, through a combination of short tandem repeat (STR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) testing, as well as forensic genome sequencing of DNA.
