Victimology First, We Will Need

Victimology

First, we will need to work with identification. At 23 years old, the victim might still be in college. Her name should be run through all local colleges, universities, and community colleges. If her name comes up, we will need to make a note of all the courses she was and currently is enrolled in. Her course of study and her performance in school may tell us a lot about who she was, her hobbies and her career paths. Moreover, her professors and classmates might be able to tell us a lot about the victim: her demeanor in class and out; her level of participation in school and extracurricular activities, and any prior record of delinquency or mental health issues.

However, the victim might have already graduated from college. In that case we will also need to run her name through available employment databases to discover if she worked nearby, and where. This information will lead us to coworkers and employers who can tell us about her character, her work ethic, her performance on the job, who she associates with, and her general interests. Information about her line of work alone can tell us a lot about the victim in terms of her income level vs. her expenditures, her social class, and so on.

When her family is located and contacted we can begin a more thorough investigation. It is possible that the victim was from out of town, and if so we will need to trace down her place of origin and any family members. If her family is in town and the victim has lived here for a number of years the investigation will be easier. If it is found that she has lived here a long time, the victim should have extensive long-term contacts. Her family should tell us who she had been hanging out with recently as well as who her older friends are. Those friends will form one of the primary sources of information for this case. Whether or not she was known to have a boyfriend will definitely be a key in this investigation. Of course, the belt might have belonged to the perpetrator and should be analyzed thoroughly by forensics. Whether any of her family members or friends have criminal records might be important information, especially if their records involved violent crimes. If the victim had been raped or assaulted in the past might also yield relevant information. Of course, we will check to find out if the victim had ever filed a police report.

The victim's cell phone and land line data should be recovered and used in the investigation. Who she had been calling recently could lead us to the suspect(s). Moreover, she might have male friends that her parents or close friends did not know about, who we could only find through investigating her incoming and outbound calls. If possible, we should examine her computer. As far as possible within the confines of the law we should confiscate her computer(s) and cull as much information as possible including e-mails, IM buddies, and which web sites she frequents. The content of her online discussions and the identities of her online companions should be gathered if possible. If the victim had a blog or home page then we would of course use that to discover more about her lifestyle, personality, and choice of friends. If she had been a member of an online dating service or similar social networks, then we might discover numerous leads. The victim might have agreed to go on a date with a man she met online and that man might be the perpetrator.

A toxicology report and autopsy should reveal whether the victim had been drinking or using drugs that night. In fact, the victim might have been drinking at the bar near where she was found. We will need to interview employees of that bar who were working on the night of the murder. Her appearance, her state of mind, and her interaction with others at the bar including but not limited to the person(s) she was with might reveal key clues in this investigation. Furthermore, this information will help us piece together information about the victim's lifestyle, habits, and the people she might have been associated with.