Expert: William A Saunders - 11/19/2007

Question
if a body is found hanging in the woods even if the person found has said they was going to commit suicide in the past was found and law enforcement came is it the law that a autopsy or toxicology report be done when personal items and cell phone are locked down and he had been threatened in the past

Answer
Regardless of what a person said about committing suicide, a good police investigator should always consider the possibility that a death might be foul play.  Toxicology reports and DNA or any other physical evidence found at the scene should be used and evaluated to determine whether the events surrounding the death are conducive to a suicide.  

Just because someone has made claims that they wanted to commit suicide does not exempt law enforcement from conducting a full and complete investigation.  The ethical thing is to investigate the event and eliminate the possibility that it was (or was not) suicide.  Good law enforcement should never assume something to be one way or another based merely on what someone has said or done or said in the past or based on the location of their personal effects.  It all should be considered as a part of the big picture.