This webinar focuses on how information is gathered and interpreted in medicolegal death investigations when suicide may be a consideration. Featuring Brett Harding, Chief Deputy Coroner for Ada County and 2024 IACME Medicolegal Death Investigator of the Year, and a co-author of the Retrospective Fatality Analysis (RFA) protocol, the session is designed primarily for coroners and medical examiners, medicolegal death investigators, fatality review teams, and public health professionals. Others who work adjacent to medicolegal and prevention systems may also find the discussion useful.

The session will cover long-standing methods of obtaining information, including scene context, collateral interviews, records review, and timeline development, and how these inputs contribute to a clearer understanding of what happened. It will also highlight how devices and digital spaces can contribute information, with a focus on social media, along with texts and messages, photos, and other digital content, and how to use those sources in a responsible and respectful way.

The goal is to share practical investigative approaches and highlight how social media and other digital sources can add context alongside traditional methods. The session will also highlight the role RFA can play as a framework for organizing information once it has been gathered and for documenting key points in a consistent, useful way.