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Monday, November 12, 2001
Del Mar students studying deaths
Death-investigation program is popular,has long waiting list
By Miguel A. Castro
Caller-Times
   Katherine Piña's curiosity about the deaths of two friends led her to a file cabinet in the Nueces County Medical Examiner's office.
   Finally she found what she was looking for - descriptions, pictures and an explanation.
   "I looked up two people I knew," said Piña, a Del Mar student. "I wasn't able to say goodbye to either one of them. This is my way of saying goodbye."
   Piña and 23 or 24 other students are in the first semester of a new death-investigation program at the college.
   The program has become so popular that more than 100 people are on a waiting list.
   People from several states and as far away as Europe have shown interest in taking the courses online, said John Graham, a criminal justice instructor who helped develop the program.
   Instructor Ric Ortiz said the interest is due to TV shows such as "Crossing Jordan" and "CSI."
   The former features a crime-fighting Boston medical examiner and the latter features a group of crime scene investigators.
   "It has become a glamorized thing on TV and people decide that this is what they want to do," said Ortiz, who is also the medical examiner office's chief medical investigator. "I stress to my students that what is seen in an hour could take years."
   Morgan Ables said she is taking the course to better understand death.
   "This death-investigation course helps me to cope with a lot of questions in my life," said Ables, who wants to go into forensics investigation. "I always questioned what happened when my grandmother died and I couldn't understand and wondered why and how she died."
   Plentiful career options
   The program consists of three courses: Death Investigation I, Death Investigation II and Legal and Social Aspects of Medicolegal Death Investigation. To earn a degree, students must complete 62-71 hours in basic, criminal justice and death-investigation course work.
   Students in Death Investigation I learn about medical abbreviations, medical terminology and causes of death including natural, accidental, suicide and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Death Investigation II will be offered next spring and Legal and Social Aspects of Death will be offered in the fall of 2002.
   Career opportunities related to death investigation are nearly limitless, Graham said. Jobs in the field are available with medical examiner and coroner offices, Texas justices of the peace and insurance agencies, for example.
   "Insurance companies use death investigators to investigate claims by survivors," Graham said. "Private law firms hire death investigators to use as experts in the courtroom, on a consulting basis, to discuss issues related to cause and manner of death."
   Significant local interest
   After students complete the program, they can take a certification exam. The exam certifies people who have the knowledge and skills necessary to perform death investigations.
   "We were tasked about three years ago to explore those fields that would hold the most interest, not only with students here, but in the local area as well," Graham said.
   A significant portion of the student population wanted to be involved in forensic investigation projects related to death, Graham said.
   "Del Mar's Criminal Justice Advisory Board served as a vehicle through which these courses were designed," he said. "People on that board are either criminal investigators or with law enforcement agencies."
   Profession takes stomach
   Graham said the course curriculum followed recommendations by the Kitsap County Coroner's Office in Washington and the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.
   The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the program last summer. Through the program, students will be able to earn a certificate or associate in applied science degree.
   "The class originally started out with 33 students but now we are down to 23 or 24," Ortiz said. "Some students don't have the stomach for this profession."


Contact Miguel A. Castro at 886-3758 or castrom@caller.com

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