Guide to Cadavers

What to Do with a Dead Body

First and foremost, if you find someone on the ground, who you think is dead, scream for Medical, unless you are medical. Whenever the Responders arrive they can decide what to do next. Once Responders arrive on scene, they can declare a person dead or not, if they aren't dead, stop reading this guide and get them to medical! If they are, it's time to call for security if they are not already there.

Responding officers should follow standard procedure for a crime scene, outlined here, before investigative staff arrive. Under no circumstances should the corpse be touched by responding officers. Should one be available, a body bag should be used to cover the deceased's body for privacy and respect, no-one wants their corpse gawked at by passerby'ers. Once Investigative staff arrive, they should follow the procedures outlined in their Guide to Forensics, before moving the body to the Autopsy room.

Autopsy Surgery

Before anything else is done, take a body scan of the corpse using the scanner in the autopsy room, and print it. You want to see what condition the body is in before you start poking and prodding it, incase anything should change. Then take blood samples from the body, run them through your advanced mass spectrometer, see if there's anything in their bloodstream, keep the results. Scrub and sterilize the autopsy lab, using sterilizine. Once that is done, it is time to move onto the actual autopsy.

1. Place cadaver onto the operating table.
2. Scan the cadaver with a Health Analyer to find injured locations.
3. Aim for the patient's affected area in the Damage Zone.
4. Cut the skin with your scalpel.
5. Vaurca will require using a surgical drill instead of scalpel to pierce the exoskeleton that wrap vaurca.
6. Use the File:Autopsy scanner.png autopsy scanner to scan the area.
7. Repeat for all injuried body parts.
8. Using previous full body scan, remove any foreign objects from the body, bag and label them.
9. Remove all organs besides eyes and brain, before bagging and store in the break room refrigerator the cooler in the morgue.
10. Cauterize any open incisions once investigation is complete, before cleaning up and returning the body to medical so they may carry out whatever the victims post-mortem wishes are.

Autopsy Reports

Right clicking on the Autopsy Scanner will let you print out an autopsy report. This will have some basic information on it. It will have:

• Time of Death
• Suspected MoI(Method of Injury) and a percentage chance -- Sometimes this will come up as something stupid, like "Yes, this man was hit 16 times in the chest by a fully organic armblade from a species that is not known to exist" when this happens, just ignore it and go for the next best thing, I.E Armblade turns into "Large Bladed Weapon with trace organic elements?".
• Times struck by method of injury.
• Trace Chemicals
• Other important shit I'll get to later.

However, this is not piece of paper you will need, infact, you'll need a whole bundle. In the forums database accessible at the big blue TV looking thing, there will be several pieces of paperwork you should fill out. Firstly among them is the corner's report, where you will write down your findings and conclusions of the autopsy, including cause of death. Following this should be your bloodwork form, which you got from the spectrometer earlier, then identity conformation if the victim's identity is in doubt, followed by the data you just gathered, including that full body scan done at the start. This will be the entirety of your Autopsy paperwork, and go into the case files.

Manner of Death

This is what your corporate instructors would have told you is the most important part of your job, and they'd be partially right. Manner of death is a regulations/contractual determination, and therefore Manner of Death can be the deciding factor in something like your victims life insurance being paid out to remaining family members. Deciding which category your victim fits into can be difficult, but here we will go over a few common signs of each category of Manner of Death.

Natural

The most common type of death in the spur, but the type you will probably go your entire career onboard the Aurora never seeing. Because it's so uncommon on the Aurora, signs will not be touched upon here.

Accidental

Accidental deaths come in 2 sub-categories aboard the Aurora.

The first is Industrial Accidents, which are most common in departments such as engineering and science, who handle dangerous tasks and materials. Deaths that are a result of Industrial Accidents have several common signs. Firstly, they will occur in the victims place of work, that is, if an engineer dies as a result of an industrial accident, their corpse will most likely be found in engineering. Second, they will have occurred doing something related to their job, so for our engineer, it could have occurred when he was setting up the tesla engine and due to circumstances outside his control containment failed and he was fried. It is important to note, if someone dies as a result of an accident while doing something outside their job, I.E a medical doctor trying to set up the Tesla, their death may instead be ruled as a Suicide.

The second type of Accidental death is manslaughter. Very uncommon, manslaughter is when a persons death is accidently caused by another, things such as excessive force resulting in death and medical malpractice fall under this section. The common signs of manslaughter are very different from those of Industrial Accidents. Firstly, it is usually the perpetrator who calls first responders to the scene, should it happen outside of medical itself. Secondly, the perpetrator usually comes clean without very much effort once they realize what exactly they have done, racked with guilt. Remember though, Nanotrasen does not make distinction between Manslaughter and Murder, so despite the fact there is no manslaughter specific charge, they still must be arrested. Medical Malpractice is somewhat harder to detect, as the doctor may believe themselves doing what is right for the patient, or may be stressed and mix up two medications, or two blood bags. However, due to it's possibility and depth, more information can be found here.

Suicide

In 2464, Suicide is prevalent as people fail to cope with a megacorporate dominated galaxy, and fail to find the help they need. Corporations have strict rules in place to help combat suicides on their installations, empowering security to detain suicidal individuals for the remainder of their shift, and get them the help they need to continue being a productive worker. However, some still slip through the cracks and as an Investigator you will have to deal with at least one suicide over the course of your work onboard the Aurora. The common signs of a suicide is that it is self-inflicted, a note is left, and it is done in certain spots. Determining self-infliction is the easiest, the victim will be found alone in an isolate part of the facility, dead without signs of a struggle. Victims also normally leave notes, explaining their reasoning to whoever finds them and saying goodbye. Suicidal people also tend to choose the same spots as others to die, mainly isolated parts of the facility. Onboard the Aurora, the suicide spots are:

• The Brig Bathroom, both of them.
• The Library Quiet Reading Room
• Old Virology in Medical
• Command Offices
• The Conference Room

Homicide

Homicide is probably the easiest manner of death to determine Determining homicide is simple, if it doesn't fit any of the previous categories, it was probably a homicide. Common signs also include signs of a struggle on the body, the victim will normally have multiple purposefully inflicted wounds, such as multiple gunshots, lacerations, stabs, or plain trauma. Homicides will eventually lead you more to establishing things like motive and means, but where manner of death is important for everything else, the most important thing in a homicide is cause of death, which we'll talk about here.

Causes of Death

Cause of Death, different from Manner of Death, is defined as what killed someone(obviously from the name), and tends to be the "final nail in the coffin". For example, if someone were to be shot one time through the heart, and then 7 times in the right foot, the cause of death would not be the gunshots to the foot, but rather the gunshot through the heart even though the shots to the foot happened afterwards. Determining what exactly killed someone can be difficult, especially as a newer player, so here's a few types of damages and their causes.

Due to how Brain-med works, nearly all "causes of death" could be defined as deprivation of oxygen to the brain, or it's removal, but that'd be boring to write for everything, so go with what caused that oxygen deprivation for cause of death.

In order to be better organized, we will group some more specific and easy to overlook causes of death under their overarching manner of death, as well as give signs that point to that specific cause of death. By now in this guide, you should be able to pretty easily deduce if someone died via gunshots or stabbing. Remember that for all of these, the rest of your case files and investigations matter as well! You can sometimes figure out a general cause of death before even starting the autopsy and getting specific.

A couple of things to note:

• Burn damage will remove blood from the body with no bleeding.
• Any injuries done by Simplemobs(slimes, hivebots, carp) won't show up on the Autopsy Scanner.
• Broken Ribcages may be a result of EMTs or bystanders attempting CPR before the person is declared dead, and not a result of whatever killed your victim.
• These signs and causes of death aren't all encompassing, there is alot that isn't here and up to you and your investigative skills to figure out!

Accidental Deaths

• Industrial - Inhalation of Dangerous Gasses.
  1. Most common in Engineers and Phoron Researchers.
  2. Damage to the Lungs.
  3. Other signs of Suffocation.
  4. Trace Chemicals in the body, if phoron.

• Industrial - Electrocution.
  1. Massive Burns.
  2. Significant loss of blood, but no bloodstains.
  3. Heart Damage.

• Manslaughter - Poisoning.
  1. Massive Toxin damage.
  2. Victim consumed something not fit for their consumption.(Unathi consuming alcohol).
  3. Victim was injected with something not fit for their biology.(Vaurca getting injected with Dexalin).
  4. Victim consumed something hazardous.(Drank liquid phoron).

• Manslaughter - Excessive/Uneeded Force.
  1. Little physical damage.
  2. Victim went into Cardiac Arrest.
  3. Died while being detained, or while sparring.
  4. Witness statements saying that someone continued to apply force once it was no longer necessary.

• Malpractice - Surgery Mishaps.
  1. Visible inflamed wounds, or open incisions
  2. Infection shows up on a Health Analyzer Scan.
  3. Victim had undergone surgery before death.
  4. Simple procedure that had little risk of failure resulting in death.

• Malpractice - Blood Rejection.
  1. Toxin damage with no clear source.
  2. Suffocation with no clear source.
  3. Victim had received a blood transfusion before death.

• Malpractice - Improper Transport.
  1. Does not show up on any scans.
  2. Best indicator is large trails of blood where the cadaver had previously been.
  3. Witness testimonies will also be helpful

• Malpractice - Medication Overdose.
  1. Heavy toxin damage.
  2. Toxin report shows no harmful chemicals in the system.
  3. Using an Advanced Mass Spectrometer will show amounts of chemicals in the blood stream.

• Malpractice - Failure to Respond
  1. The victim was called out over the radio while still alive.
  2. Victim expired after the call.
  3. Responders did not respond to call.

Suicide

• Suicide via Gunshot.
  1. Only injury is on the head, and is a gunshot.
  2. Gun is very close to the corpse when found.
  3. Only the victims fingerprints are on the gun.

• Suicide via Hanging.
  1. Victim is found dead hanging from the ceiling.
  2. Noose only has victims fingerprints on it.
  3. Victim is found alone, without signs of a struggle.

Homicide

• Homicide via illegal Cyborgification.
  1. Subject has no brain.
  2. You notice a new cyborg on the station.
  3. No paperwork or Command approval has been given for cyborgification that shift.

• Homicide via blood removal
  1. No blood remaining in the body
  2. No wounds at all.
  3. Most common when there's a bloodsucker on the station, REMEMBER THAT VAMPIRES AREN'T KNOW IN-CHARACTER, DO NOT GO SCREAMING ABOUT A VAMPIRE BEING AROUND AFTER DETECTING THIS.

Security Department
Head of department	Head of Security
Personnel	Security Officer - Warden - Investigator
Useful guides	Guide to Contraband - Corporate Regulations - Guide to Forensics - Guide to Cadavers