Expert: Jack Toomey - 11/21/2006

Question
Thank you so much for your prompt response.  I'm still stuck on question 1.  So, if a man shows up in a small town (the only town with police facilities that he knows of within a 100 mile radius), says he found a dead body back at the campground, and it's about midnight, and the man can't remember the name of the campground, the police would go with the man back to the campground to check out the dead body right then?  Or would the police say, "Come back in the morning and we'll check it out"?  But the police would gather some info right then (check ID, run driver's license, etc.)?   
Thank you for your follow-through as well as the reassuring civics lesson.  Hi from Beth
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello, Jack Toomey.  Thank you for making your expertise available.  Like others who have written you, I'm knee deep in a first novel and trying for a truthful feel.  I've haunted the library for books on police procedures and just finished a local Police Academy (10 weeks) and have gone on a ride along.  Here's the scenario and my question:  
A husband and wife (with small child) find a dead body while hiking.  The husband leaves the wife and child in the campsite, drives 95 miles to a small police station (town 20,000) and uses a call box to call a police officer.  An officer comes off patrol to interview him in the station (makes coffee) and asks questions.
1)  Would the officer put him in jail or a motel overnight?
2)  Would the officer keep the keys to the van the husband is driving?
3)  Would the patrol officer (who's just worked graveyard) go with the detective the next morning to check out the campsite?  with the husband?
On returning to the campsite, they discover the wife and child are missing, no clues.  Last question:
4)  Would they use yellow tape and gather clues, call the County and arrange for a search dog to coordinate a wide search, or assume the wife and child wandered off?
I hope these are not too many questions and very much appreciate your response.  Thank you.  Beth

-----Answer-----
Beth,

    Let me see if I understand this.  The husband drives almost one hundred miles to report finding a dead body?  Is that correct?  If so I don't understand question #1.  If the husband is a suspect and the officer believes that he killed the dead person then he might arrest him and put him in jail if the magistrate or whoever approves probable cause believes that there is probable cause that the husband committed the crime.  Hoever if that is not what you mean I don't understand why the husband would end up in jail?  It would be against our Constitution to put a witness in jail or ever force him to stay in a motel.  A witness is (which you might be talking about) is free to go wherever he wants to go and the police cannot lock him up.  Especially after he has driven one hundred miles to report the presence of a dead body.  

   Perhaps I can just tell you what would happen instead of answering 1, 2, and 3.

   Upon notification of a dead body the officer, whoever he may be, would arrange for some kind of law enforcement officer whether it be a forest ranger, someone on horseback, a sheriff, a game warden, or someone to go to the scene and verify what the man is reporting.  It doesn't make much sense to conduct any interviews without the verification of the dead body.  After all it could be a dead deer or bear or some other kind of animal or nothing at all.   The officer cannot and would not lock up the man, put him in a motel, or take away his keys.  All of those would be gross violations of his civil rights (unless he is the suspect and is going to be charged with murder).  The law enforcement person would call back from the scene (there is not a place in this country where there is no law enforcement person within one hundred miles of a scene) and verify or not verify what has been reported and then the officer would inquire how, what, where, and why and take his name and address and find out how he could get back in touch with him.  But why would the man drive a hundred miles when surely there would be some kind of telephone between the scene and the police station?

   As far as the missing child and wife all of the things that you have mentioned would most likely happen but alot depends on the terrain and juristiction, availablity of manpower, and who is in charge of this whole thing.  

   I have no idea what the police would think but I doubt if they would assume that the wife and child "wandered off" unless there is more to this than you are telling me.  

Answer
Beth,

    I am going to put this nicely but if I sound like I am talking "down" to you but I am not trying to.  No police department or police officer in a developed nation would ever say "check it out in the morning".  This is not an abandoned car or a theft of a bicycle that happened a month ago.  This is a human being and there would be no way in the world that they would leave it laying there overnight.  In a third world country where life is cheap?  Maybe but not here.  

   As I said they would dispatch the nearest officer to the scene.  The nearest officer would be any of those that I mentioned if this is some incredibly remote area.

   Yes....they would obtain the pertinent info from the man who drove 95 miles to the station and they would interview him extensively but we are not talking about one officer here.  There would be more than one involved.  No one officer could possibly handle the investigation of a dead body, interview the finder, and then get involved in a search for the rest of the family.