Murder question

[Mouse]

One for the quick fire thread but...

I've tried Googling but got some really odd (I mean, really odd) responses so I thought I'd ask here.

My MC has just discovered his neighbour's been murdered. The police have arrived and spoken to him and whatnot and now he's just sitting in his house.

How long do the police wait before moving the body? And would they shut the whole street off? Would they stop anybody who arrived at my MC's house?

I've come to a grinding halt because I have no answers.

[HareBrain]

From all my experience watching the lunchtime news in my dressing gown, if the neighbour was murdered in his house (you haven't said) they wouldn't cordon off the street, only the house (unless they thought there was likely to be evidence in the street). And I don't see why they would stop the MC's visitors.

[Mouse]

Murdered in his house, yes. Sorry, missed that bit!

Yeah, I'm trying to think back to things I've seen in the news.

[HareBrain]

There is such a thing as research, you know. Could you not murder your neighbour and see how the police deal with it first-hand?

[Mouse]

Tempting...

Edit: rephrased my googling for better results. This is good if anybody's looking for something similar: http://answers.google.com/answers/th...id/548198.html
And www.scenesafe.co.uk is interesting regardless.

[allmywires]

Thanks to my expert knowledge of being an avid CSI fan as a thirteen -year-old, I guess the police could take your MC in for questioning (that's if you're looking for reasons for him to be protected from something getting into his house?) I expect one of the first things they do is process the body, as you know, can't leave it there fermenting while they take 10 million years to process the house...

Might be absolutely no help at all, Mouse, but my two pennyworth nonetheless.

[Warren_Paul]

I'm suspecting 'processing the body' wouldn't be a quick process through, depending on the nature of the murder - serial killer? - would slow it down because multiple groups would be coming to investigate the body before it's allowed to be moved. A serial killer that has been on the run for awhile would probably draw interest from the FBI maybe? So the local police would have to wait for them to arrive and look at it.

[Mouse]

AMW, Yeah, I wondered if they'd take him in for questioning, especially as he revealed to an officer that he thinks the murderer was after him. I'm not sure how to go from there really - the police sort of said they'd get back to him.

Warren, I'm not sure if they'd make the serial killer connection, as there's been four murders happen between two counties.

[allmywires]

I guess they'd give him a call later in the week, set him down in a (not-so-)comfy interview room with a tape recorder and go from there

[Mouse]

That's what I'm hoping - that they wouldn't take him in right away. They've questioned him sort of unofficially in his home, but that's it. I need to give him time to scarper.

[Gary Compton]

Police would arrive team handed and cordon off the area of murder, prob moving you to another room.

Your statement would be taken and house to house undertaken by CID. They would cordon off street in case murder weapon, prob a Gucci handbag in your case, was found in the street.

There would be no rush to move the body until scenes of crimes officers arrived, they could take 24 hours to check things before they got rid of the slime ball, I mean much loved neighbour

[Mouse]

Hmm.

Ok, so, I think the police will have cordoned off the house rather than the whole street because it's a really well-off area full of pop stars and what have you.

And, they've spoken to Ambrose as he's the one who discovered the body, then they've left him in his house (because they can't boot him out of his own house, can they?).

So now the forensic team are going into the neighbour's house and doing their thing and I suppose they'll want to question other residents of the street.

My other POV character is on his way, but has had to park further down the road. He's just been stopped now and is currently talking to a copper.

All sound plausible?

[allmywires]

Sounds a-ok to me. But if it's a wealthy area, what about those dreaded rats that are the paparazzi? Maybe then they would cordon off the whole road.

[Mouse]

Maybe they could be in the middle of cordoning off the road as my other character arrived?

I didn't think of the paps! Ta.

[Gary Compton]

Plausible but they would cordon street, any toffs wanting to go home would be accompanied by an officer.

Police at this stage dont know if the weapon hasnt been dumped in a front garden and the brazen pop-star trying to go home isnt the killer and going to pick it up.