Crime scene investigators and chalk outline

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

I would like to suggest an amendment to Cecil’s column “Do crime scene investigators really draw a chalk line around the body?”.

It is anecdotal, as are Cecil’s sources, but with one source who is familiar with many cases, a sergeant-detective in the NYC Police Dept. He told me that often with “jumpers”–suicide victims who jump from a height–often the detective will draw a chalk outline, even though a crime is under investigation.

2

This Twitter post has a photograph of part of the scene of the terrorist bombing in Jakarta after it was cleaned up (no bodies or parts or pools of blood). Someone drew a chalk outline around one of the bodies. Of course, we don’t know if the police did it, or if it is their normal procedure. https://twitter.com/JewelTopsfield/status/687603134256959488

3

The Chalk Fairy strikes again!