Question

. Describe the Violent Crime Apprehension Program (VICAP) and its benefit to law enforcement.

Determining the time of death can be extremely important in a homicide case. Explain the various factors that can assist an investigator in estimating the time of death.

Answer 1

ViCAP

The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) was created by the Department of Justice in 1985. The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) maintains the largest investigative repository of major violent crime cases in the United States. It is a web-based data information center designed to collect and analyze information about homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons, and other violent crimes involving unidentified human remains. The database compares information in an attempt to identify similar cases and help move investigations forward.

In the summer of 2008, the ViCAP program made its database available to all law enforcement agencies through a secure internet link. This allows for real time access to the database and allows agencies to enter and update cases directly into the database.

ViCAP’s mission is to facilitate cooperation and coordination between law enforcement agencies and to provide support to those agencies in their efforts to apprehend and prosecute violent serial offenders, especially those who cross jurisdictional boundaries.

When serial killers or rapists strike in different communities or even across multiple states, it may be hard to identify and capture them—because information about their crimes is stored separately in the files of various local police agencies. But for the past 25 years, the FBI’s ViCAP, has been used by state and local law enforcement across the nation precisely to help find and stop such dangerous villains by drawing links between their seemingly unconnected crimes. Cases fitting these categories can be entered into the system by law enforcement officials and compared to other cases in an attempt to correlate and match possible connections. ViCAP has been a tool in solving many cases, including cases decades old and cases in widely separated states. ViCAP is particularly valuable in identifying and tracking serial killers, where separate victims might not otherwise be connected as part of the same pattern.

Time Of Death

Time is one of the most important factors of consideration in a murder case because time of death can help to collect important evidence that can support or deny the stated actions of suspects in a crime.

Determining the time of death is both an art and a science and requires that the medical examiner use several techniques and observations to make his estimate. As a general rule, the sooner after death the body is examined, the more accurate this estimate will be.

Unfortunately, the changes that a body undergoes after death occur in widely variable ways and with unpredictable time frames. There is no single factor that will accurately indicate the time of physiological death. It is always a best guess. But when the principles are properly applied, the medical examiner can often estimate the physiologic time of death with some degree of accuracy.

It must be said however that the time the individual took their last breath is not necessarily the time at which they died. This may sound bizarre but taking into consideration the human body can function for a period of time without oxygen - the human brain reportedly surviving several minutes without it - then it is reasonable to assume that the time of death may not always be accurate.

Color. Upon death the heart ceases to function. As a result, the blood and its life-giving properties cease to circulate through the body. As the blood settles into the dependent capillaries of the lower portions of the body, it gives the upper surfaces of the skin a waxy or translucent look. The lips and nails lose their normal pinkish or life-like color.

Eyes. The eyes, which are the most sensitive area of the human body, do not react to light, touch, or pressure in death. The cornea or clear part of the eye becomes slightly milky or cloudy within a half-hour to several hours after death.

Loss of body heat. During life the body maintains an approximate temperature of 98.6° F. After death, the body gives off heat until it becomes the same temperature as the surrounding medium. The rate of cooling can be an important measurement in the estimation of time of death and is dependent upon a number of factors. The temperature at the time of death, the temperature of the environment, body covering and clothing and the portion of the body in contact with the surface area. Never take the temperature by inserting a thermometer into a wound. If a thermometer or probe is carelessly inserted into the wound, it will probably cause additional damage to the organs or tissues beneath the wound entrance or destroy or distort the wound track.

From a practical viewpoint, there are "just too many" variables that affect the rate of cooling, such as size and amount of fat on the body, clothing, the position of the body (bent upon itself or lying flat on surface), age of the victim, drafts, environmental humidity, etc. - that it is almost impossible to calculate them all. I recommend to investigators who want to get a rough idea of just how long the body has been dead that they place the palm of their hands on a protected surface of the body, such as under the arms.

Rigor mortis. The process of rigor mortis is the result of a stiffening or contraction of the body muscles related to chemical changes occurring within the muscles after death. As a general rule, rigor mortis begins 2 to 4 hours after death. Contrary to popular belief, rigor mortis starts at the same time throughout the entire body; however, it is first observed in the jaws and neck. It then seems to progress in a head-to-foot direction and is complete in 8 to 12 hours after death. At this stage, the jaws, neck, torso, and upper and lower extremities are literally "stiff as a board" and, in this marked state of stiffening, resist any change in position. Rigor "fixes" the body in the position assumed at death. Practically speaking, if the underarms are warm to touch and the body is without rigor, death probably occurred less than 3 hours earlier.

Cadaveric spasm. Under certain conditions the stiffening of the hands or arms may take place immediately at the time of death. This is known as cadaveric spasm and is often confused with rigor mortis. It is not uncommon for persons who had a firearm or a knife in their hand at the time of death to clutch it tightly in their hands after death. Also, suicides have been known to have the weapon clutched tightly in their hands after death. It is important from the investigator's point of view to note such clutching of weapons, since you can be sure that the person held this weapon at the time of his or her death