04-05-2025
'Take a chance': Veteran investigator urges coroners to embrace new technology, ideas in death cases
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Standing in a room full of staffers from Pennsylvania coroners' offices, veteran death investigator P. Michael Murphy displayed a computerized facial reconstruction from a CT scan that helped close a difficult case.
He pointed to a social media post depicting a missing child that reached 54 million homes. And he recalled how listening to his wife's suggestion about sharing an 'Unidentified Person' photo with a group of law enforcement trainees led to an arrest in the case of one boy's death.
'Solving these cases is about being willing to take a chance and rethink how you look at things,' said Murphy, who spent years as the top coroner for the 2.3 million-population Nevada county that is home to the Las Vegas Strip.
Murphy now works as a consultant for Nevada-based MPower USA.
And he cited a willingness to embrace new technology – as well as new suggestions 'that might not be your own' – as keys to solving difficult death cases Friday during the Cambria County Coroner's Office's annual training seminar.
The event was held at Pennsylvania Highlands Community College and included approximately 80 coroners, deputy coroners and other death investigators.
Murphy, who until recently served as special services director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, urged the group not to let failed attempts discourage them from continuing to pursue a tough case.
'If you fail, fail forward,' he said. 'Keep going. It takes effort, but (the end result) is worth it.'
This year's day-long seminar, with Murphy as the keynote speaker, drew both new and seasoned death investigators from 19 counties. Both stand to benefit from Friday's sessions, said Cambria County Chief Deputy Coroner Joe Hribar.
Murphy spoke about cold case reviews, how new technology and advances in DNA testing can break cases, and how to deliver effective death notifications.
For county coroners and their staffs, death notifications are a difficult, often daily task – and it means delivering painful and sometimes sudden news to people that a loved one has died, Hribar said.
'We're giving people awful news every day, and it's important to do that with sympathy and professionalism,' he said.
Over time, the stress of it all can lead to 'compassion fatigue' if death investigators aren't careful, Hribar added.
'It's a reminder that we have to take care of ourselves, too,' Hribar said.
Getting a chance to network with colleagues in the same field serves as a reminder that there are other people dealing with similar tragedies every day, he said.
But Murphy reminded members of the group that they can also be there for one another when it comes to unanswered questions and complex cases.
'This isn't just a room full of people – it's a room full of ideas,' he told them.
Seasoned death investigators bring experience, while younger ones bring fresh perspectives, he said, telling his listeners to resist the urge to keep rookies 'on the sidelines.' Be willing to listen and keep an open mind, he said, recalling how one complex case was solved through a pollen sample.
'If someone has a crazy idea, explore it,' he said. 'Let's quit thinking about what we can't do and start trying what we can.'
Perry County Coroner Robert Ressler appreciated Murphy's message.
Reflecting on unidentified persons' cases, he said it's eye-opening to see that modern software can turn skeletal remains into an image of a missing man, woman or child that someone somewhere loves and lost.
'Five or 10 years ago, we never would have even thought of this' as possible, Ressler said.
Friday's seminar was held in partnership with Pennsylvania Highlands Community College's Criminal Justice Training Seminar.
