Treat all sudden and unexpected deaths of domestic abuse victims as suspicious

Background

Police must treat all sudden and unexpected deaths of domestic abuse victims as suspicious until proven otherwise, ensuring the scene is locked down and all evidence is gathered and secured correctly.

Additional details

We are seeing an increase in the number of hidden homicides, where victims of domestic abuse are being killed by their partners, in staged suicides or uninvestigated accidents. The real number of hidden homicides is not officially known. Therefore police must treat these sudden and unexpected deaths of domestic abuse victims as suspicious to prevent these deaths from being uninvesigated and unrecognised.