How much do police investigate a suicide?

[MissKatrina]

Into how much depth do police investigate a suicide? Just enough to rule out it's not a murder, or is it an investigation? Do they look through your medical history? Do they look into your phone/ internet history? Will they go around asking my University/ friends their opinion? How about if I don't leave their names or contact details and get rid of my laptop and phone so there's minimal way to contact them. I just want my family to believe exam stress was the reason I took my life and nothing else.

I don't want to leave a suicide note, but I'm contemplating writing Suicide by SN ingestion with the time it was ingested on my arm and on the door just to make it obvious it's a suicide. That won't compromise my plan.

Am I overthinking the work done by investigators?

 

[Klee]

I'm wondering this too, I have for a long time. I'd be interested to hear the opinion of anybody who knows more.

 

[Timetodie90]

My dad found his friend who committed suicide in his home using an extension cord. My dad contacted the police. Due to the man not being in contact with his family etc. they put it in the local paper asking for information about him. They just said he was found deceased at home. The coroner got the info in regards to his family etc. But strangely the police never contacted my dad after the incident. This was Northumbria Police. I think it depends on the force and investigating officers in charge.

 

[autumnal]

It probably depends on the jurisdiction and the workload.

I know in my country (Australia), there is initial investigation by police to rule out any foul play and confirm suicide, and then as the death is unexpected there is also a subsequent investigation by the coroner to more broadly examine any contributing factors and things that could have recommendations made for improvement in the future. This investigation could cover things such as the prevalence of the method used, influence of online resources like this site and stressors in your personal life which led to the suicide.

Regardless of what you delete, it won't be hard for police to track down your friends and contacts, the only question is whether they would need to per above.

 

[Empirespy]

Depends on where you live obviously, but in most places the police are pretty busy, and will only be involved as to check that it isn't suspicious. In the UK, suicides are classified as an unexpected death, so the police will make sure that there doesn't seem to be any foul play, then hand over to the coroner's office. Unless there is some potential lead due to past crimes or distribution of contraband (most likely if you purchased an illegal firearm), that's where they leave it. SN will be obvious to a post mortem, regardless of a note, but it can't hurt to write it. The police are not likely to follow up on it.

 

[Quinlor]

Why worry man, you will be dead anyway.

 

[MissKatrina]

My dad found his friend who committed suicide in his home using an extension cord. My dad contacted the police. Due to the man not being in contact with his family etc. they put it in the local paper asking for information about him. They just said he was found deceased at home. The coroner got the info in regards to his family etc. But strangely the police never contacted my dad after the incident. This was Northumbria Police. I think it depends on the force and investigating officers in charge.

Thanks for replying. I'm trying to keep it to a minimum investigation. Hope they don't bother to go into much depth for me. Don't think it'll go as far as the newpaper for me.

It probably depends on the jurisdiction and the workload.

I know in my country (Australia), there is initial investigation by police to rule out any foul play and confirm suicide, and then as the death is unexpected there is also a subsequent investigation by the coroner to more broadly examine any contributing factors and things that could have recommendations made for improvement in the future. This investigation could cover things such as the prevalence of the method used, influence of online resources like this site and stressors in your personal life which led to the suicide.

Regardless of what you delete, it won't be hard for police to track down your friends and contacts, the only question is whether they would need to per above.

Think it's worth having a suicide note explaining then? I really don't want this dragged out. There's plenty of information that could be found out about me online and from other people and I just want my death wound up in a simple manner.

 

[Klee]

Depends on where you live obviously, but in most places the police are pretty busy, and will only be involved as to check that it isn't suspicious. In the UK, suicides are classified as an unexpected death, so the police will make sure that there doesn't seem to be any foul play, then hand over to the coroner's office. Unless there is some potential lead due to past crimes or distribution of contraband (most likely if you purchased an illegal firearm), that's where they leave it. SN will be obvious to a post mortem, regardless of a note, but it can't hurt to write it. The police are not likely to follow up on it.

Do you think there is any way to avoid a post mortem? The thought of it absolutely repulses me. I'm guessing not, with the exception of them simply not finding a body.

 

[Timetodie90]

Thanks for replying. I'm trying to keep it to a minimum investigation. Hope they don't bother to go into much depth for me. Don't think it'll go as far as the newpaper for me.



Think it's worth having a suicide note explaining then? I really don't want this dragged out. There's plenty of information that could be found out about me online and from other people and I just want my death wound up in a simple manner.

The only reason my dad's friend got in the paper was because he had no next of kin.

 

[MissKatrina]

Depends on where you live obviously, but in most places the police are pretty busy, and will only be involved as to check that it isn't suspicious. In the UK, suicides are classified as an unexpected death, so the police will make sure that there doesn't seem to be any foul play, then hand over to the coroner's office. Unless there is some potential lead due to past crimes or distribution of contraband (most likely if you purchased an illegal firearm), that's where they leave it. SN will be obvious to a post mortem, regardless of a note, but it can't hurt to write it. The police are not likely to follow up on it.

A very reassuring read. :) This would be my ideal scenario. Guess one advantage of it being a pandemic right now. There's nothing illegal beyond an SN purchase which would easily show up on my bank statements if they looked into it.

 

[autumnal]

Think it's worth having a suicide note explaining then? I really don't want this dragged out. There's plenty of information that could be found out about me online and from other people and I just want my death wound up in a simple manner.

There's certainly no harm in leaving a note to help explain your motivations. But I'm not clear on whether you're doing so as a cover to put them off discovering something else, that they might otherwise discover from your friends or browsing history?

 

[MissKatrina]

Do you think there is any way to avoid a post mortem? The thought of it absolutely repulses me. I'm guessing not, with the exception of them simply not finding a body.

Sorry. A suspicious death always has a post mortem. Think only exceptions tend to be people in hospital long term from a condition that is likely to kill them.

There's certainly no harm in leaving a note to help explain your motivations. But I'm not clear on whether you're doing so as a cover to put them off discovering something else, that they might otherwise discover from your friends or browsing history?

You're correct on my motivation. I don't want my family to know the real reason I'm taking my own life.

 

[autumnal]

Do you think there is any way to avoid a post mortem? The thought of it absolutely repulses me. I'm guessing not, with the exception of them simply not finding a body.

I don't know much about pathology, but probably the best you could hope for would be a visible inspection only of the body and toxicology tests to determine SN as the cause of death. But I'm not sure whether there is a requirement to open up everybody to rule out any other hidden causes or contributing factors that only a full postmortem can identify.

[...]
You're correct on my motivation. I don't want my family to know the real reason I'm taking my own life.

Well, you can certainly do your best to give misinformation and throw anyone investigating off the scent. It's probably most effective to keep your lies as close to the truth as possible. But obviously there are no guarantees, so I'd suggest making peace with the possibility of the worst-case scenario happening after you are gone.

 

[MissKatrina]

Thank you @autumnal. I will try and hopefully they won't look too much into it. Exam stress during a pandemic in a newly broken home is true and enough reason for suicide. I just don't want the rest of the details dug up.

 

[FireFox]

Thank you @autumnal. I will try and hopefully they won't look too much into it. Exam stress during a pandemic in a newly broken home is true and enough reason for suicide. I just don't want the rest of the details dug up.

I live in the UK too. Why do you want to end your life?

 

[Quinlor]

We live in a pandemic, the police and the hospitals have more things to do, instead to investigate a few suicide losers,unless they think you died of covid 19..

 

[MissKatrina]

I live in the UK too. Why do you want to end your life?

I was born depressed. My first suicide attempt was when I was 6 years old. But a lot of other stuff happened too which I'd rather my family didn't know about. They'll just push all the blame there and hate me for life. I'd rather give them closure and less suffering.

We live in a pandemic, the police and the hospitals have more things to do, instead to investigate a few suicide losers,unless they think you died of covid 19..

This honestly is what I'm betting on and hoping for so badly. All key workers are maxing out, including postal services and my SN is still in a European Country because they're not posting here.

 

[Serinaxo]

Hey I live in the UK and this was on my mind, but I would've thought that because of this virus and lockdown it would be a sped up process than normal especially with a note left

 

[Empirespy]

Do you think there is any way to avoid a post mortem? The thought of it absolutely repulses me. I'm guessing not, with the exception of them simply not finding a body.

You can request, either in directly in a will or note, or by making wishes known to next of kin, that a post mortem not take place, but if the coroner decides one is required then they can overrule your wishes. Your best bet if you really don't want one is to write a note that starts you don't want one for spiritual/religious reasons, the coroner might be more inclined to accept your wishes.

 

[MissKatrina]

Hey I live in the UK and this was on my mind, but I would've thought that because of this virus and lockdown it would be a sped up process than normal especially with a note left

What I'm hoping for too. :) Sadly SN is still in the post and mail has slowed down a lot. Hopefully i'll get it before lockdown ends or things still being chaos.

 

[HelensNepenthe]

Why worry man, you will be dead anyway.

Quite a paradoxical approach that does not apply to each individual member who is looking to escape from living life. We all have genuine reasons of leaving in addition to making sure our last moments alive are less-stressful on our families. Perhaps someone who is worrying about what the police investigate may have had openly talked to someone about choosing ways of leaving. That person may want to eliminate that person from getting charged with assisting in someone's suicide.

Into how much depth do police investigate a suicide? Just enough to rule out it's not a murder, or is it an investigation? Do they look through your medical history? Do they look into your phone/ internet history? Will they go around asking my University/ friends their opinion? How about if I don't leave their names or contact details and get rid of my laptop and phone so there's minimal way to contact them. I just want my family to believe exam stress was the reason I took my life and nothing else.

I don't want to leave a suicide note, but I'm contemplating writing Suicide by SN ingestion with the time it was ingested on my arm and on the door just to make it obvious it's a suicide. That won't compromise my plan.

Am I overthinking the work done by investigators?

Department of Justice put out a PDF documenting scene investigators at suicides and/or deaths. I've mirrored it here on DocDroid so you can read up on it. This gives you a picture of how an investigation may take place.

 

[MissKatrina]

Department of Justice put out a PDF documenting scene investigators at suicides and/or deaths. I've mirrored it here on DocDroid so you can read up on it. This gives you a picture of how an investigation may take place.

Wow. This is fantastic. Thank you! Didn't occur to me to look through these sorta books. I'm from the UK but I imagine it wouldn't be too different.

 

[HelensNepenthe]

Wow. This is fantastic. Thank you! Didn't occur to me to look through these sorta books. I'm from the UK but I imagine it wouldn't be too different.

There would definitely be overlap. Jurisidctions may have different policies with handling these certain processes. "Crime Scene Invesitgation UK" may prompt some results for you.

 

[MissKatrina]

There would definitely be overlap. Jurisidctions may have different policies with handling these certain processes. "Crime Scene Invesitgation UK" may prompt some results for you.

Thanks so much for the help! :)

 

[Halnas]

i was part of such a happenings twice here in Austria,
first of all, when the police arrives, they always have least priority than the ambulance and they have to wait till the paramedics are done and the emergency doctor most likely already pronounced the death. And then they have to work with whats left. The ambulance doesn't care about a clean crime scene or whatever.
And then the guys from the ambulance will talk to your relatives or whoever is there and decide if they get a special team for their well being, that's then just someone who visits hem to talk about how they feel and to make them feel better.
The police in the meantime really just writes down what they see and how it could have happened, they do not talk more to your relatives than they absolutely have to. If they can rule out a murder, that's it and nothing more will happen and they might just come back a few hours later when everything calmed down to ask a few questions.
Suicide is a pretty regular thing and it doesn't get treated much differently here than a car accident.

 

[MissKatrina]

i was part of such a happenings twice here in Austria,
first of all, when the police arrives, they always have least priority than the ambulance and they have to wait till the paramedics are done and the emergency doctor most likely already pronounced the death. And then they have to work with whats left. The ambulance doesn't care about a clean crime scene or whatever.
And then the guys from the ambulance will talk to your relatives or whoever is there and decide if they get a special team for their well being, that's then just someone who visits hem to talk about how they feel and to make them feel better.
The police in the meantime really just writes down what they see and how it could have happened, they do not talk more to your relatives than they absolutely have to. If they can rule out a murder, that's it and nothing more will happen and they might just come back a few hours later when everything calmed down to ask a few questions.
Suicide is a pretty regular thing and it doesn't get treated much differently here than a car accident.

Thank you for sharing. Sorry that you had to go through that. I hope they were supportive and non traumatic.

I wonder what exactly would happen with me as I don't plan to CTB at home. Identification and post mortem and several steps other steps. It's just weird thinking about the exact details of me being moved around without being conscious. You think after death you're pain free, but I still have the honours of being cut open with a scalpel.

 

[MariV]

i live w my mother...what will happen to her esp if she agreed with my ctb?

 

[UterEntonaur]

Into how much depth do police investigate a suicide?

I'm not an expert, but from what I know of any death, they investigate to determine if there was any foul-play (e.g. murder)

Once determined that the deceased took their own life - I'm pretty sure there's nothing more to investigate

 

[MariV]

I'm not an expert, but from what I know of any death, they investigate to determine if there was any foul-play (e.g. murder)

Once determined that the deceased took their own life - I'm pretty sure there's nothing more to investigate

is knowing that somebody is going to suicide and not reporting or preventing it not a problem?

 

[Rue89]

i live w my mother...what will happen to her esp if she agreed with my ctb?

She should be fine as long as she doesn't assist your ctb. Make sure you do all the preparations, setup, and the ctb without her help.