More than 300 crime scene investigators, forensic pathologists, scientists, coroners, emergency personnel, and administrators from throughout the United States and Canada have gathered on the campus of Saint Louis University to sharpen their skills through a four-day death investigation course.

Mary Fran Ernst, with the Division of Forensic and Environmental Pathology at the University’s School of Medicine, is the conference co-director. She says this is the twelfth such conference at Saint Louis University, which is held every other year.

The meeting is specifically designed to provide the veteran, trained medicological death investigator with the latest advancements in forensic sciences. Topics being addressed at the conference include excited delirium, deaths in custody, and use of electronic control devices such as Tasers.

Medicological death investigation had been taught at the Saint Louis University Medical School since 1978. By 1984 the decision was made to open the idea to crime scene experts from throughout the continent, with the first of these biennial conferences being held in 1985.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)