Journal of Medical Toxicology and Clinical Forensic Medicine

Abstract

The Psychological Autopsy can be considered an 'integration to the investigative techniques, forensic and social sciences. The technique is applicable whenever we try to analyze an equivocal death or the disappearance of a person. The technique consists of gathering as much information as possible about the victim's life through structured interviews with people who had a relationship with the missing person. We have also considered the use of interviews with medical personnel and even police involved in first aid.
The purpose is always to perform a retrospective reconstruction of the missing or deceased person's life in order to identify the reasons that caused their disappearance or death. In the case of death of the person, define whether it is suicide, homicide or accidental death. We have applied an innovative restructuring of the MAPI (Modelo de Autopsia Psicologica Integrado) paying attention to the protection of the truthfulness of the information obtained. We have used innovative interviews with the aim of avoiding the alteration of the answers obtained.
Our new protocols have made it possible to identify the real decision-making factors of the victim that led to the occurrence of the event as well as to his death or disappearance.
The Psychological Autopsy from an investigative point of view originates from the analysis of the crime scene. In the case of a cold case, it may not be possible to find biological or other traces found at the scene of the criminal event, but traces of a different nature, such as psychological traces, may be found. Psychological traces remain present in the places where the victim lived and also in the people who were in contact with the    victim.