ABMDI Registry

ABMDI describes certification as official recognition by an independent professional certification body that an individual has acquired specialized knowledge and demonstrated proficiency in the standards and practice necessary to properly conduct medicolegal death investigations, and that the individual agrees to adhere to the highest standards of professional practice and ethical conduct inherent within the profession.

It is designed for medicolegal death investigators - people who investigate deaths falling under the jurisdiction of a medical examiner or coroner, including suspicious, violent, unexplained, and unexpected deaths. Investigators handle the decedent while law enforcement handles the scene, and they need skills spanning both medicine and law.

ABMDI states there are no formal educational requirements specifically for medicolegal death investigation, and no formal requirements to become an investigator at all; each coroner and medical examiner office sets its own hiring practices. Degrees in forensic science, natural science, anthropology, nursing, or other medically related fields are described as useful rather than mandatory.

Build your plan around Death Investigation: A Guide for the Scene Investigator, the National Institute of Justice publication ABMDI names as the basis for certification. That guideline work identified twenty-nine tasks that may need to be performed to properly conduct a medicolegal death investigation, so treat each task as a study unit rather than relying on general forensic reading.

Work through the twenty-nine guideline tasks in the order an investigation unfolds: jurisdiction and role, notification and scene response, scene documentation and evidence recognition, examination of the decedent, identification and next-of-kin notification, death classification and special circumstances, reporting, then legal and ethical standards. Layer in your own state's statutes and your office's protocols as you go.

Those administrative details are not published in ABMDI's public website material available for this page, so they are not stated here rather than guessed. Confirm current item count, appointment length, fee, and testing vendor directly with ABMDI before you schedule or budget for the exam.

ABMDI's public website material does not state a retake policy or a certification validity period, so no figures are given here. Because these terms affect both cost and recertification planning, verify the current retake rules and renewal cycle with the board directly before applying.

Yes. ABMDI was first accredited by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board in 2005 and was reaccredited in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025. FSAB's stated goal is to establish a mechanism whereby the forensic community can assess, recognize, and monitor organizations or professional boards that certify individual forensic scientists or other forensic specialists.

ABMDI does not publish salary figures. It states that an investigator's salary is determined by the jurisdiction and the amount of experience the investigator has, and that salaries and benefits vary throughout the United States. Use local pay scales for your area rather than a national number.