Pathologist

What do they do?

The role of pathologists are to examine a corpse given usually by the police, their job is to use this corpse to determine the cause of death. They must perform a post-moterm which will help them determine what it was that killed the person, this role is very important because at first the cause of death may seen natural like a heart attack when if fact after the pathologists examined the body it showed that the person was poisoned this would have a huge effect because a regular death has just turned into a possible murder investigation. Another role of a pathologist is to confirm the identity of a body, in some circumstance the body is that badly ruined that the has to find DNA or fingerprints in order to try and confirm the identity of the body.

Fire investigation:

In a fire investigation the forensic pathologist's role is to examine a body that has been involved in a fire, this body is usually charred or badly burnt due to the extent of the fire. This can make the pathologists job reasonably difficult because the body is in such a state that some of the common factors when identifying a cause of death would be unrecognisable due to the burns on the body.   
According to (scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu) With this body they must explain what it was that killed the person, although this may seem obvious to the average person which is that the fire was the cause of death it isn't always the case. In many cases s fire may have been set to cover up another criminal act. For example if a person was stabbed the perpetrator may start a fire to try and destroy any evidence that may show a stab wound. The forensic pathologist must examine the body and check to see what they believe that the cause of death was, they will look over any unusual things that the body may show. If the pathologist has found anything unusual on the persons body then they must determine what this unusual aspect is and they must cross reference with the person medical history to see if anything matches. For example say a person has been found in a fire scene and when the forensic pathologist examines the body he/she finds a hole in the persons chest which turns out to be a bullet wound. However instead of jumping to conclusions the pathologist will look at medical records and examine the wound to see when the gunshot wound may have taken place, if the persons medical records show that he was treated for a gunshot wound then this would not make it suspicious as it is a past incident. The involvement of a pathologist in a fire investigation is very beneficial because they are the people that determine what the cause of death is, this is very important in a fire investigation because it may not always be what it seems and the fire may just be a cover up. So the pathologist is very important because they can help examine the body and come to a conclusion whether the fire was just a fire or it was set to cover up a crime.