Suspicious death investigations and domestic abuse 778/2026

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FOI Reference: 778/2026

Request

Domestic Abuse Related Deaths or so called "Staged/Hidden Homicides"—deaths that are initially classified as suicide, accidental, unexplained or non-suspicious, but where domestic abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour, or the actions of another person may have contributed to or caused the death.

These cases may include, but are not limited to, deaths following falls from height, suspected domestic abuse-related suicides, poisonings, drownings, fires, road traffic incidents and other unexplained deaths where homicide may not be recognised at the outset.

The purpose of this request is to understand whether police forces have consistent investigative policies, governance arrangements, recording practices and safeguards to ensure that potential domestic homicides are recognised and thoroughly investigated before conclusions are reached.

Please provide the following information.

Does your force have a policy, procedure or guidance governing the investigation of unexplained or suspicious deaths where domestic abuse may be a factor?

If yes, please provide a copy.

Does your force require investigators to consider domestic abuse, including coercive and controlling behaviour, as a line of enquiry when attending an unexplained death involving a current or former intimate partner?
Where a current or former intimate partner is:

- the only witness;
- the last known person to have seen the deceased alive; or
- a principal person of interest,

Does your force require the death to be treated as suspicious, or investigated as a potential domestic homicide, until reasonable investigative enquiries have been completed?

If not, please explain the threshold applied.

Does your force have any policy, guidance or training requiring investigators to preserve all reasonable lines of enquiry until they have been eliminated, rather than reaching an early conclusion regarding the cause or manner of death?

If yes, please provide a copy.

What is the minimum rank of the Senior Investigating Officer responsible for investigating:

- suspected domestic homicides;
- suspicious deaths where domestic abuse is suspected; and
- unexplained deaths involving a current or former intimate partner?

Please state whether these investigations are ordinarily led by a Detective Inspector, Detective Chief Inspector or another rank.

Before an unexplained death involving a current or former intimate partner is concluded to be:

- suicide;
- accidental;
- unexplained; or
- non-suspicious,

is supervisory approval or review required?

If yes, please state:

- the rank responsible;
- whether the Major Crime Team or Homicide Team is consulted; and
- whether there is any mandatory review process.

Does your force maintain a recording category, investigative guidance or typology specifically relating to deaths following a fall from height?

If yes, please provide:

- the categories used;
- any investigative guidance;
- whether domestic abuse history is recorded;
- whether current or former partner involvement is recorded; and
- whether the presence of a sole witness is recorded.

Does your force routinely record, where relevant:

- previous reports of domestic abuse;
- coercive or controlling behaviour;
- current or former intimate partner involvement;
- sole witness status;
- previous police attendance at the address;
- child witnesses or children ordinarily resident within the household?

Since 1 January 2020, how many deaths initially classified as:

- suicide;
- accidental death;
- unexplained death; or
- non-suspicious death

were subsequently reclassified as homicide or manslaughter?

Where recorded, please state how many involved a current or former intimate partner.

Since 1 January 2020, has your force introduced any changes to policy, investigative practice or training relating to suspicious deaths where domestic abuse may be a factor following:

- Domestic Homicide Reviews;
- Independent Office for Police Conduct investigations;
- Coroners' Prevention of Future Death reports;
- homicide investigations; or
- internal learning reviews?

If yes, please provide details.

Response Q1

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, however the following exemption has been applied to Q1 of the information you have requested, as the force DA policy is published externally:

Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means:

(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—

(a) information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and

(b) information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.”

The information requested can be accessed via the following hyperlink –

Domestic Abuse Policy | Dyfed-Powys Police

Response Q2

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below:

Yes.

Prompts for attending officers include - • Consider DV circumstances of deceased • Has the deceased been involved in ANY domestic incident at ANY time? • If yes, to what extent has this contributed to the actions of the deceased? – INVESTIGATE THIS AS A PERTINENT LINE OF ENQUIRY • LISTEN and RECORD information from family members (relationships with others) • ALERT VULNERABILITY HUB (email)

Response Q3