Yesterday my neighbor died. Why were there so many police cars?

Question

Like 4 of them and they stayed there for hours. The ambulance and fire truck were sent away only minutes after arriving. Everyone cried. This is so weird. I could see the whole thing through my window. She was a young mom and I just saw her the day before she died. I don't want to ask people picking up her stuff now what was going on.

They put her in a huge hearse, like a delivery van.

Answer 1

There was obviously a suspicious circumstance surrounding her death.

With only 4 hours of police presence, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it sounds like a suicide, or a natural death that just seemed out of place.

A homicide scene is typically held for much longer than 4 hours.

Answer 2

In the case of a sudden death the police would have to investigate very soon after the death in case a crime had been committed. The ambulance would have a medical team should they be able to save the woman before she died.
You are fortunate that there were police around. My local police station is closed 2 days a week and all night to save money, the government has made so many rules that the officers spend 3 times as long on trivial paperwork, and there are fewer of them about during the day.

Answer 3

In police thought, if there is a slightest chance of homicide, it's treated as a homicide. Preserving evidence is the biggest concern, and time the biggest enemy. A good police officer will not leave until the entire scene has been catalogued.

Example: She died of natural causes. However, she was taking a variety of powerful drugs. Could it be an overdose? Maybe by someone else? A good policeman asks these types of questions, for our safety.

Answer 4

The police can not leave the scene until the medical examiner does two things deems the death natural or under suspicious conditions and cleared your neighbors body for removal to the morgue, this some times takes 8 hours. They conduct a preliminary investigation of the house and house perimeter and continue with a more in depth investigation if the medical examiner states the death was suspicious.They also have to wait until a family member shows up to the house to take custody of the premises this keeps unwanted persons from being in the house and prevents theft.

Answer 5

Because they suspected foul play was involved. Normally you might see one police car but that many? They suspect foul play and will most likely be around for days and weeks to come. That really stinks though. My prayers are with that young lady and her family, especially the kids. The hearse or van you describe was the coroners office collecting the body to take it to the morgue where they may do an autopsy to do determine among other things the time of death and the cause of death. Keep me posted though. I'd like to know what you find out. You can email me through my profile.

Answer 6

If it was a suspicious death, they would not have taken her in a hearse, it would of been in the coroner's van. Unless you live in a real small town and they don't have a coroner?

If it was a suspicious death, the police would of knocked on your door by now.

It was probably some kind of accidental death and they want to make sure it was not a murder, I would guess.

When my neighbor killed himself at the age of 26, the police were there for hours and never knocked on my door. I wish they would of because after I talked to the man's family at the funeral and told them what had happened earlier that day ayt another neighbors house, we think he was murdered. But the family had already cremated him.

I live in a small town. The neighbor on my right is, well to be quite frank, what is referred to as white trash. It's a small house that an old lady used to live in, when she died, they started renting it out. Earlier it the day, about 9 am, I was upstairs in my office and had the window open. I heard the 13 yr old girl who lives there screaming "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" and she was sitting on the window ledge of the second story bedroom. I went outside to talk to her mom and aunt to see what was going on. For one thing, if she would of jumped, she would have landed on my driveway.

Her mom and aunt said the girl, remember she is 13, was out all night. She just got home, her mom said, and she was "whacked out on some kind of drug" and "she must of been with those druggy boys last night, she didn't get home til 9 am this morning" I said that she should probably call an ambulance and the cops. She said no, she'll be ok. I said well then why is she hanging out the window screaming don't touch me? She said "I don't know, no one is up there with her."

I kept trying to convince them to call the police or ambulance but they wouldn't. They called her Dad instead. He came over in his redneck truck and flannel shirt (this is a true story, I am not making this up) and the girl came running out to his truck with garbage bags. He started yelling at her "Don't you think I have better things to do than run over here to get you?"

I was astonished. I said to the mom, "are you seriously going to let her leave with him, the girl needs help!" She said "let him deal with it."

At that point, I went back in my house. This is a normal middle class neighborhood for the most part. 2 rental houses on the street are classic white trash. I decided to mind my own business.

Later that night, the other neighbor was found dead. He had been dead for at least 2 days. He was a security guard at the prison and a very sweet guy. He was in the basement with a sleeping bag wrapped around his head and a gun shot wound to the head.

Earlier in the week he was all excited that hunting seaosn was coming up. He loved hunting. He had a Harley and he loved going on long road trips. he told me he was going to Las Vegas in March. He adored his parents and bought his mom a Harley, his Dad also had one. They did a lot together.

If you know anyone who hunts and is crazy about it, you know that he would not have killed himself before hunting season.
Even if he was depressed (which he showed no signs of) he would of had something he loved to look forward to.

There was no suicide note.
I think those druggy kids were in his house and he caught them and was outnumbered. It's funny how the leader of that pack has moved away now.

Just FYI: in my research on depression and suicide that I did after he was killed to see if maybe it was self inflicted, I learned that people who wear glasses take them off when they kill themselves. Isn't that odd.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on a rant here. The moral of my story is don't be afraid of looking like a nosy neighbor, call the police with any information you may have.

Answer 7

Any death outside a hospital is a crime scene and the police can not leave until the medical examiner removes the body. You have no idea what the cause of death was, that's why the police were there for so long.

Answer 8

That is because with so many unnatural deaths occuring nowadays, it is a very wise precaution on their part to treat any unnatural death as a possible homocide until the medical examiner tells them that it's not.

The lowest number of police officers to even begin to adequately secure a potential crime scene is four.

It is also not unheard of for close family members to become so distraught at a loved-one's death that they try to off themselves, so, in many jurisdictions, even after the medical examiner has made his conclusions, some officers are likely to remain as a kind fo honor guard, not leaving until assured that nobody is that distraught.

You showed wise constraint by not interfering. I have found it best in such situations simply to go over, offer 'my condolences' (latin for shared pains) and let them know I'd be happy to help their family out in any way I could for however many hours until I next had to be elsewhere.. and left it at that.

Death of a loved one is never a fun time in anybody's life.

Answer 9

Probably a homicide or suspicious death. The fire truck and ambulance respond on any emergency medical call but if it was a normal emergency, all the police and fire and ems would have left.

Answer 10

When someone dies at home, the police secure the scene until the Medical Examiner or Coroner arrives. Sometimes it takes hours for this to happen.