Lindsey Price, death investigator and anthropology coordinator at the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center (WTRFC), has been named a Board Certified Fellow by the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI). Price is one of only five ABMDI Fellows in Tennessee, and 187 in the country. The WTRFC is managed by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
“This is a huge accomplishment for me. I feel privileged to be among an elite group in the country,” Price said, after successfully passing the board certification. “Reaching the Fellow status has been a personal goal since I started my career.”
First accredited by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board in 2005, ABMDI exists to certify and promote excellence in standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators. According to the organization’s website, “ABMDI certifies individuals who have the proven knowledge and skills necessary to perform medicolegal death investigations as set forth in the National Institutes of Justice 1999 publication ‘Death Investigation: A Guide for the Scene Investigator.’ ”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Price said watching a show about the Forensic Anthropology Center on the Knoxville campus during high school triggered her interest in the field of anthropology and forensics. After graduating from college, she worked at the Medical Education & Research Institute in Memphis, assisting in the cadaver labs.
She joined WTRFC in April 2011 as a medicolegal death investigator. Price’s role encompasses receiving death reports, collecting evidence at the scene of a death or crime, obtaining medical records from the deceased’s physician, locating family or legal representatives, providing grief counseling, working with local authorities on investigation of the death scene under forensic center procedures and standards, and preparing death certificates and cremation permits. WTRFC is constantly working on old and new cases. Partnering with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, WTRFC has been successful in identifying old anthropology cases, bringing closure to families with the return of a loved one’s remains.
“I am proud of just being a part of the great team that we have at the WTRFC. As a team, I think we offer the best service that we can to the decedents who come through our facility and their families,” Price said. “There is a level of passion we all share for our job, and I think it shows in our work daily.”
The mission of the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center is to investigate sudden, unexpected and unnatural deaths with the highest level of professionalism, compassion and efficiency, and to provide a resource for improving the health and safety of the community consistent with the general mission of public health. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu/forensic-center/.