Citation

Gitto L, Arunkumar P, Cina SJ. J. Forensic Sci. 2019; 64(3): 765-769.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13953

PMID

30681141

Abstract

Social media (SM) represent a global consumer phenomenon with an exponential rise in usage within the last few years. The various applications and websites are relatively easy and fast to access, and the number of users increases continuously. SM are an incredible source of freely available, public information about their users. The purpose of this study is to provide information about the usefulness of SM in forensic practice. The electronic database of the Cook County of Medical Examiner's Office ("CCMEO") in Illinois was searched for investigative narratives that included specific SM keywords, in the period from August 2014 to January 2018. A total of 48 cases met the study's criteria. Among these, "Facebook" has been found to be the most helpful SM for medicolegal investigation purposes. Information obtained by SM can play an important role in forensic practice since it can be used to clarify certain aspects of the medicolegal death investigation, with particular regard to time and manner of death.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Accidents; Child; Adult; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Homicide; Adolescent; Cause of Death; Suicide; Retrospective Studies; Young Adult; Forensic Medicine; Databases, Factual; Data Mining; forensic science; suicide note; social media; Social Media; identification; manner of death; last known alive; medicolegal death investigation