In fact, while a post mortem would give far more detail, the cause of death would be instantly apparent from...<br/><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><span style="font-size: 26px">FLASH!</span></span></i><br/><br/>The sudden burst of light came from the front room. It was followed by dozens more, and accompanied by a characteristic (yet fake) whirring sound, and a somewhat indistinct mumbling in a soft male voice. "Okay... Okay, yeah, that's a great shot..."<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><i>FLASH!</i></span></b>"And there..."<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><i>FLASH!</i></span></b>"Hmm.... No, that's... Oh okay yeah, just like that..."<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><i>FLASH!</i></span></b>"Right, let's see..."<b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><i>FLASH!</i></span></b><br/><br/>"OW! You little sod! Point that camera at me again and I'll shove it so far up your rectum you'll be able to photograph your uvula from the back!" The new voice was female although somewhat deeper than most. It's owner strode purposefully into the kitchen. "Ah, Detective Bennett. Good to see someone half way competent is in charge. Officer Jarvis, if you would be so good as to get your lense-shaped backside in here and take some photographs of the body so I may begin my preliminary examination...? Thank you..." Dr Louis Longstreet was the county coroner and police medical examiner. She had been so as long as anyone could remember and probably would continue to be for as long as anyone could foresee. She was clad in a blue plastic "onesie" with a hood and the words "Medical Examiner" in white on the back. Her hands were encased in medical gloves and her feet in medical booties.<br/><br/>She was followed into the room, far more timidly by Rudy Jarvis, the official Police Photographer. Jarvis was actually barely out of police college, but his main hobby was photography and the UPD needed a crime scene recorder, so he got the job. He set to work photographing everything, taking directions from both Longstreet and Bennett, and would still be in the house recording the minutest detail long after the others had left and the "Baggers and Taggers" took over.<br/><br/>Dr Longstreet frowned down at the body. "Well, a first guess as to cause of death might be a massive external hemorrhage, judging by the amount of blood on the floor. Hmm...most seems to be concentrated in front of the body and on the front of the shirt, while the back is almost clean." She squated down and eased the victim's chin upward with her gloved hands. "Oh! Well I would think that this would be your primary cause of death right here..." She indicated the two inch wide cut in the man's throat. "Of course, I'll be able to tell you more once I have this poor soul on my table, but I think that sharp force trauma to the soft tissue just in front of the hyoid bone would certainly have caused this fellow's demise." She had placed her medical bag on the kitchen counter when she entered, and now she took from it a surgical probe. She pushed it firmly into the man's belly, then attempted to move the uppermost arm and leg. "Hmm..." It seemed to be her favourite word. She took the probe out and took the reading.<br/><br/>"Based on core temperature and lividity, coupled with the onset of rigor, I would say death occurred somewhere between one and two in the morning." She dipped a finger into the pool of congealing blood and rubbed it with her thumb. "Born out by the state of coagulation of the blood on the floor." She scooped a sample of the blood into a small plastic bottle, scribbled on it with a sharpie and dropped the bottle back into her bag. "Right, Detective. He's all yours, let me know when you're done and I'll get my gurney."