So the police use chalk for a dead man on pavement. What about carpet?

Factual Questions
21

According tp page 46 of Practical Homicidal Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques by Vernon J. Gerberth (published in 1983), drawing a chalk outline of a victim’s body is “good procedure” if said victim is not dead and is going to be rushed to a hospital.

I’m not really sure how this could be more time efficient than a quick picture, but that’s what it says. Old book, I know, but it does show that this method has been used at some point in time

22

[QUOTE=JoeSki]
I don’t know…I forgot about modern technology while thinking up this question. But still, a picture could screw with the perspective a person might have in looking at a dead body as opposed to having an actual outline right in front of your eyes. I mean, things do look different in photos sometimes.
[/QUOTE]

Well, you’d take lots of pictures from lots of angles, hopefully with a photographer who knows his trade and his (hopefully also good) equipment. Using the right lens for the right picture would also make a difference. Longeer lenses, IIRC, tend to distort images less than shorter/wider lenses, but they may be more limiting in where you can take the picture from (since you’d have to be able to stand farther back to use the longer lens).

+52XP

You found a fish fin! :smiley:

23

My suggestion for carpet would be cat barf. It will be there until you replace the carpet.

24

[QUOTE=Cub Mistress]
In real life, the only time I saw a chalk outline was when a rat had crawled out of the wall of the Ambulance Service’s dayroom and died in the middle of the floor. The EMTs on duty thought it might a) be funny and b) point out the need for pest control.
[/QUOTE]

As a volunteer EMT, I can confirm that this does happen quite often. With mice, that is.
And I can also confirm that a) it is very funny, and b) it does point out the need for pest control.

25

[QUOTE=gabriela]
However, when certain twisted medical examiners’ offices offer mugs and beach towels for sale, that is often the first image they use.
[/QUOTE]

I so need one of those beach towels. I’d tan funny, though, because I would absolutely have to lie in the position dictated by the outline. All the time.