Field kit for a death scene investigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12518858-B2
Application number	US-202218077490-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 8, 2022
Priority date	Jan 30, 2020
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

A field kit for a death scene investigation includes:
a first table of values corresponding to causes of death; a second table of values corresponding to a victim's history of mental illness; a third table of values corresponding to consistency between death scene evidence and a suicidal dynamic; a fourth table of values corresponding to a number of suicidal methods involved in the victim's death; a fifth table of values corresponding to a compatibility of suicidal methods and injuries to the victim with a suicidal dynamic; a sixth table of values corresponding to a presence of positive indicators of suicide; a seventh table of values corresponding to a classification of death between a death compatible with a suicide and a death incompatible with a suicide; a telecommunications device; and a computing device comprising a memory and a processor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A field kit for a death scene investigation comprising:
a computing device comprising a memory and a processor, the computing device comprising:
a data structure stored in the memory comprising at least six predefined data tables, wherein each table comprises structured fields and associated labels representing forensic indicators, the forensic indicators being selected from the group consisting of: causes of death; history of a victim's mental illness, consistency between death scene evidence and a suicidal dynamic; suicidal methods involved in the victim's death; compatibility of suicidal methods and injuries to the victim with a suicidal dynamic; and presence of positive indicators of suicide;
a user interface configured to receive user inputs selecting a value from each of the six tables;
wherein the processor is configured to compute a total score based on said selected values, and to compare the score with a seventh predefined table stored in memory to generate an output corresponding to a classification of death between a death compatible with a suicide and a death incompatible with a suicide; and
a telecommunication module configured to transmit said classification to a predetermined authority when the score exceeds a threshold indicating incompatibility with suicide.

2 . The field kit of claim 1 , wherein the field kit further comprises an image-gathering device.

3 . The field kit of claim 2 , wherein the image-gathering device, the telecommunication module and the computing device are contained in a single unit.

4 . The field kit of claim 1 , wherein the first through sixth tables are stored in the memory of the computing device.

5 . The field kit of claim 4 , wherein the computing device comprises a user input interface that prompts a user to select a value for each of six tables.

6 . The field kit of claim 5 , wherein the values of each of the six tables correspond to at least one related label and wherein a value is assigned by selecting at least one label for each of the six tables.

7 . The field kit of claim 5 , wherein the computing device is configured to calculate a total score based on the selected values.

8 . The field kit of claim 7 , wherein the seventh table is stored in the memory of the computing device and the computing device is configured to compare the total score with the values of the seventh table and to classify the death as compatible with suicide or incompatible with suicide based on said comparison.

9 . The field kit of claim 8 , wherein the computing device is configured to classify the death as: suicide, atypical suicide or incompatible with suicide.

10 . The field kit of claim 8 , wherein if the total score is incompatible with suicide, the telecommunication module automatically alerts the predetermined authority to the incompatibility.

11 . A computer-implemented method for evaluating a death scene using the field kit of claim 1 , the method comprising:
providing the field kit to an investigator; selecting a value from each of the six tables; calculating a score via the processor comparing the score to be compared against the seventh predefined table; generating a classification of the death; and automatically contacting a predetermined authority using the telecommunication module if the classification indicates incompatibility with suicide.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the field kit further comprises an image gathering device and the method further comprises using the image gathering device to obtain at least one image of the death scene.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the image gathering device, the telecommunication module and the computing device are in communication with each other and are contained in a single unit and wherein the at least one image obtained by the image gathering device is scanned for an identified marker corresponding to a presence of positive indicators of suicide.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the image gathering device, the telecommunication module and the computing device are in communication with each other and are contained in a single unit and wherein if the total score is incompatible with suicide, the telecommunications device automatically alerts the predetermined authority to the incompatibility.

Assignees

• Univ Degli Studi Padova

Inventors

• Montisci Massimo

Classifications

• G16H40/60

  for the operation of medical equipment or devices · CPC title

• G16H20/70

  relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training · CPC title

• G16H10/60

  for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records · CPC title

• G16H30/20

  for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS · CPC title

• G16H50/20

  for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems · CPC title