BananaHammock... as a police officer one of the most difficult decisions you have to make it whether to 'call' a suspicious death. The impact on grieving relatives, other residents - and police resources - is substantial, and not taken lightly. As a newly promoted sergeant I arrived at the scene (after the ambo crew - sorry!) of the death of a woman, and had to make that call. The weight of the world is on your shoulders. Our difficulty is that if you call it non-sus, and clear everything up, and it then turns out at PM that the person was potentially murdered - you have lost so much forensics that it could be very difficult to obtain justice for the deceased and their relatives. The worst is at the scene of a sudden infant death, where bedding, bottles and toys are often taken for evidential purposes. You can't begin to imagine how s**t you feel in those circumstances. However, I was once at a job where it turned out that a baby had died due to abuse. This fact could easily have been missed had this action not been taken. Reynolds - I found your post very moving. It is stuff like this that makes such an incredible difference. The preservation of 'dignity' is so important - for the dead, for their friends and relatives, and for us. The paradox though is that it ties up with the weird way people seem to act nowadays around death and the treatment of bodies - for example, the 'scandal' a couple of years ago about bodies being kept in a hospital chapel when the morgue was full. And people holding multiple funeral services for one individual as different body parts were found after the Alder Hay thing. I suppose it is knowing when to draw a line under the 'body' stuff. When to realise that after death the body is no longer that person... Rory