It’s a chilling thought: Could homicides be slipping through the cracks on an island where there is no death investigator to probe suspicious deaths alongside Guam police?

KUAM asked Chief of Police and Post-Mortem Commission member, Steve Ignacio, “Do you think that people have gotten away with murder?”

He responded, “I’m not tracking any unsolved homicides or any deaths that are suspicious that either we were not properly notified to investigate or that we have not properly investigated.”

It’s questions like these rising out of a round table hearing between the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Jeffrey Nine, and lawmakers last week. Nine confirmed he had disagreements with police on their conclusions of cases.

Sen. Chris Barnett, Committee Chair of Public Safety questioned, “What is the remedy for a family if they’re being told by law enforcement that their loved one took their own life–but your office is saying we’re not so sure about that?”

But Ignacio said these differences have happened with past and present medical examiners.

“Sometimes, the medical examiner will say, I don’t believe your findings support a suicide, and I think maybe it’s a homicide. And we’ll tell him we don’t have any evidence that this is a homicide. There’s no suspect in this case, there’s no findings to support that this is a homicide, and that’s where we come to an impasse, and that’s why in some cases it’s ruled as undetermined,” said Ignacio.

There have been 9 recorded cases classified as “undetermined” in 2023.

Meantime, Nine said the remedy lies in the hands of lawmakers to get a death investigator at the minimum to support the OCME and to establish policies that make it clear which death cases require police to notify the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ignacio added, “That medical-legal investigator works in tandem with the Guam Police Department or any other law enforcement agency–whatever the jurisdiction is to ensure that death investigations are executed properly.”

It’s why there’s now a re-ignited push for medical-legal death investigators through Senator Barnett’s Bill 270.