The Note the Girlfriend Picked Up

Document two states: the condition at your arrival, and the reconstructed original condition - and never blur them.

The mistake to avoid in either direction is either (a) photographing the scene as if untouched, or (b) treating the contamination as fatal and giving up on documentation. Neither is honest and neither is useful.

• Photograph as found, first, before anything else moves. Wide, mid, close. Include the note where it currently sits, the chair in its current position, the sink.
• Diagram with annotations, not just lines and letters. Mark the chair's present location and note "moved by witness from [location] at approximately 17:40 to reach wall phone." A clean diagram that omits the movement is a false diagram.
• Take a verbatim statement about what was touched, in what order, with which hand, and whether anything was dropped, rearranged, or cleaned. Get times from the phone records, not from memory.
• Record the contamination's consequences explicitly: her hands were washed, so any gunshot residue, blood, or trace on her hands is gone; the note now carries her prints and DNA, which means her prints on the note prove nothing either way.
• Establish the real question: who else had access between the last known time the decedent was alive and 17:40, and does the door being locked mean anything (who has a key, was there a deadbolt thrown from inside, was the door locked when she arrived or did she lock it)?

A report that says "note on counter" without the chain of handling will be dismantled at deposition. A report that says "note on counter, handled by witness at 17:41, photographed at 18:22" survives.

Note

• Photograph it in place with and without a scale, then collect the original. A photocopy is a copy; the original carries indentation, pressure, ink, and biological trace.
• Handle by the edges with gloves; do not fold, staple, laminate, or write on it. Package flat between rigid boards in paper, not plastic.
• Obtain known handwriting from the decedent (mail, journals, work documents, signature cards) for comparison - and request formal examination rather than deciding the match yourself.
• Treat the content as evidence, not proof: a note is consistent with suicide but does not establish manner. People write notes and are then killed; people write drafts and live.

Revolver

• Answer the officer: do not unload it unless there is an articulable safety need. If it must be made safe, photograph and record the cylinder first - number of chambers, which hold fired cases, which hold live rounds, and the position of each relative to the barrel. That cylinder pattern is often the single most probative item in the case, and unloading destroys the record if it isn't documented first.
• Photograph the weapon in place relative to the decedent's hands, then collect with the trigger guard, package securely, and note whether the hammer is cocked or the safety is engaged.
• Request gunshot residue collection and blood/tissue for DNA on the weapon; note the decedent's hand dominance and compare it to where the weapon lay.

Also collect/record: medications and pill counts, phone and its lock state, any spent casing, the decedent's known writings and notes-to-self, and the clothing he was wearing. Each item gets a chain-of-custody entry at the moment it leaves the scene, not at the end of the shift.

Manner is a conclusion drawn after the evidence, not an observation made at the doorway. Say so politely and keep working.

A contact wound to the temple with a weapon at the scene and a note is a classic self-inflicted picture - and it is also a picture that can be staged. The features that push toward or away from suicide are mostly things you check rather than things you see at a glance:

• Wound and range: contact or near-contact on an accessible site, with soot, searing, and muzzle imprint on the skin. An inaccessible site, an atypical trajectory, or a distant wound argues against self-infliction.
• Hands: no defensive wounds is neutral; a wound to the palm or the back of the hand suggests a struggle or a grab at the weapon.
• Weapon-to-body relationship: can a person in that chair, in that position, have produced that trajectory and then have the weapon land where it did? Note recoil, the weapon's weight, and whether the decedent's rigor position is consistent with the grip.
• Dominance: he was shot on the right side; if he is left-handed, that is a question, not a conclusion, but it must be asked and recorded.
• Blood and spatter: distribution on the hand, arm, and clothing consistent with holding the weapon; absence of expected backspatter where it should be.
• The note - handwriting, content, and whether anyone else could have placed it.
• Access and timeline: locked door, keys, who knew he was alone, and the girlfriend's own movements before 17:40.

In your report and to the officer: use "manner pending autopsy and toxicology." Do not adopt "suicide" as a working label in writing, because labels migrate - into the death certificate, the news release, and the family's understanding - before the evidence is in. Tell the officer what you are doing and why, thank him for securing the scene, and ask him not to discuss manner with the family.