Episode 305 | Just Advancements in Death Investigation Practices
Original Release Date: February 21, 2025
In this special release episode, Just Science sat down with Chuck Heurich, Senior Physical Scientist with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and Dr. Jennifer Snippen, experienced medicolegal death investigator and consultant, to discuss recent updates to NIJ’s Guide for the Death Scene Investigator.
Twenty-five years ago, NIJ released a guide to help medicolegal death investigators navigate complex scenes and cases; a document that has since evolved with the development of best practices and technological advancements. In 2024, a new version was released after a multi-disciplinary group of experts collaborated to make four major changes, including updates to documentation for death notifications to the office, procedures for child death investigations, partnering with law enforcement, and more. Listen along as Chuck and Dr. Snippen describe why the Death Investigation Guide was developed, how the newest updates came to be, and implications for day-to-day operations for medicolegal death investigators.
This episode is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (Award No. 15PNIJ-21-GK-02192-MUMU).
Some content in this podcast may be considered sensitive and may evoke emotional responses or may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
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Episode Citation
Keyes, K., Heurich, C., Snippen, J. (2025, February 21). Just Science. Just Advancements in Death Investigation Practices. [Audio podcast episode]. The Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.
Guest Biography
Dr. Jennifer (Jen) Snippen is a board-certified medicolegal death investigator, medicolegal death investigation researcher, educator, and consultant with decades of experience in the fields of critical care medicine and medicolegal investigations. Her efforts are focused on professionalizing and supporting the practice of death investigation to improve outcomes for individual families and communities, public health, law enforcement officials, and the criminal justice system. Dr. Snippen has served as the Chief Deputy Medical Examiner (non-physician, medicolegal death investigator) for two Oregon counties, and is currently a Anatomy and Physiology faculty member at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. She serves on IACME Board of Directors and has contributed to a number of other FTCOE projects and publications, including the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence’s Medicolegal Death Investigation Interagency Working Group (MDI TWG), Working Group on Data Exchange in Medicolegal Death Investigation, and served as Chair of Workflow Processes Subcommittee.
