NCJ Number
219978
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 34 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 110,112-114,116,119
Date Published
July 2007
Length
8 pages
Annotation
In order to alert investigating officers to the signs of suspicious drowning deaths, this article identifies common misconceptions about drowning and the various types of drowning deaths, and it presents guidelines that assist officers in understanding the drowning process.
Abstract
Officers who investigate drowning deaths must first give up the assumption that a drowning is an accidental death. All water-related deaths should be investigated as potential criminal events. Investigators should attempt to determine why and how the victim got into the water, what prevented the victim from getting out of the water, any signs of the victim's struggle to prevent going into the water and attempts to get out of the water, and any signs of physical trauma that are consistent or inconsistent with drowning. Being familiar with the drowning process will assist the investigation and help detectives recover evidence that might indicate foul play. After describing how death occurs in drowning, the article describes two distinct types of drowning, i.e., "wet" and "dry." "Wet" drowning occurs when the body is predominately covered in water in the course of death from drowning. "Dry" drownings, which compose 10-20 percent of all drownings, occur when only the victim's head is pushed into a water container for an amount of time sufficient to cause death from drowning, but the rest of the body remains dry. The article's debunking of drowning myths focuses on what occurs during and after a person drowns. Tips are also presented on how to distinguish drownings that are homicides, suicides, or accidents.