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Closed inestigation, but a hold on the report

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Alocin

Junior Member
I'm in Missouri, and our local police department has closed the investigation into the death of a friend. Unfortunately, the mother of the deceased is unable to order the police report for three months, as explained by the detectives, even though the case is closed.

Is this normal? I can't seem to find any information online.

Thanks,
Alocin
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I'm in Missouri, and our local police department has closed the investigation into the death of a friend. Unfortunately, the mother of the deceased is unable to order the police report for three months, as explained by the detectives, even though the case is closed.

Is this normal? I can't seem to find any information online.

Thanks,
Alocin
Ask the police agency.
 

dave33

Senior Member
Unless you hire an attorney, you will have to take the word of the officers. Every investigation is different. goodluck.
 

TigerD

Senior Member
It sounds like what you are saying is that the department has completed its investigation of a death and you are waiting on the final report. Time between the completion of an investigation and production of an approved final report can definitely vary given the complexity of the investigation and levels of review the report has to pass through prior to approval for release.

My question is what are you expecting the report to say?
Was the death ruled a homicide by the coroner?
Is this an accident investigation?
Were they investigating an alleged murder?

An accidental death investigation will be done when it is done. Nothing excessive there. Murders and rapes and such understandably have priority.
A homicide investigation report - you are never going to get short of a court order.

Go to the Missouri Attorney General's website and read up on the Sunshine Law. RSMo. Chapter 610.

DC
 

Alocin

Junior Member
Thank you DC. Your reply was most helpful. That makes sense that there are levels a closed investigation goes through before being available for a report. I appreciate referencing the Sunshine Law, I will go look it up after my reply.

The reason we'd like a report copy is because the circumstances surrounding my friend's death, which was immediately deemed and investigated as a suicide, are suspect. Days later investigators took a slightly deeper look, and despite finding more things that don't fit with a suicide, it was still ruled as such. We may end up hiring an attorney or try to get an independent review of the evidence. We're not really sure what avenues to pursue, even what options we may have.

We feel that the report may help us decide if there's any reason to pursue hiring a PI, lawyer, or whomever we need to hire to try and get answers to the questions that the investigators could not (or perhaps would not) obtain.

Personally I also have the goal to urge our local department to treat suicides as homicides first...as is recommended by experienced investigators. We've found out, in addition, that in our county coroner's office there are known issues with the forensic pathologists ruling suicides as homicides despite evidence that doesn't fit. Later, several of these cases have been found out to be homicides. I feel that there are now two levels where changes need to be made. 1) The way suspected suicides are investigated, and 2) some sort of review of our coroner's office and the forensic pathologist's rulings of suicide.

At the end of the day, we're hoping for more clarity. Whether we get that or not, I'm also hoping that we can encourage a healthy suspicion of all apparent suicides, so that others who are bereaved do not go through what we have.
 

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