# Crime scene investigators and chalk outline

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-scene-investigators-and-chalk-outline/652689>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 12, 2013, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-scene-investigators-and-chalk-outline/652689 "2013-03-12T10:12:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2013, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-scene-investigators-and-chalk-outline/652689/1 "2013-03-12T10:12:48Z")

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I would like to suggest an amendment to Cecil’s column [“Do crime scene investigators really draw a chalk line around the body?”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2300/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.

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-scene-investigators-and-chalk-outline/652689/2 "2016-01-16T05:07:22Z")

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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](https://twitter.com/JewelTopsfield/status/687603134256959488)

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**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-scene-investigators-and-chalk-outline/652689/3 "2016-01-16T06:34:28Z")

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The Chalk Fairy strikes again!