Murder book

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In law enforcement parlance, the term murder book refers to the case file of a murder investigation. Typically, murder books include crime scene photographs and sketches, autopsy and forensic reports, transcripts of investigators' notes and witness interviews. The murder book encapsulates the complete paper trail of a murder, from the time it is first reported through the arrest of a suspect.

Law enforcement agencies typically guard murder books carefully, and it's relatively unusual for civilians to be given unfettered access to these kinds of records, especially for unsolved cases.

[edit] Murder book in modern culture

In the thriller The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman a murder book is sent to the psychologist Alex Delaware and it starts the hunt for a murderer in a twenty-year old case.

Episode 387 of the TV series Law & Order is also called The Murder Book^[1].