Marisa Edelberg has worked over 16 years as a Medicolegal Death Investigator for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Connecticut. She is 1 out of 268 investigators in the country who is Board Certified as a Fellow for The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, and the only board certified fellow at the OCME. She is also a CT POST certified instructor in the fields of crime scene processing as well as drug evidence recognition and identification.
In addition to her daily workload of homicide, suicide, and accident scene investigation, Marisa has collaborated on illicit drug task force working groups alongside CTIC, CT Statewide Narcotics, and the DEA to gather data on CT overdoses. Marisa’s focus in these groups is typically limited to heroin, synthetic opioids, and fentanyl related deaths. She presents to a variety of government, state, and local agencies, including but not limited to the FBI, HIDTA INTEL, CT Fairfield Detective School, and NEOA Criminal Investigation School. She presented at the International Forensic Medicine Association Death Investigation seminar in Daytona Beach, Florida, working alongside death investigators from around the country. She trained the Vermont State Troopers as well as their local State’s Attorneys. She has trained various police departments in Connecticut including Hartford, East Hartford, Enfield, Southington, Manchester, Waterbury, and Shelton, as well as CT State’s Attorneys. She has also trained for Hartford Healthcare Hospitals, EMS PRO, and local EMS, EMT, and paramedic first responders. She has provided brief synopsis training at various public opioid conferences sponsored by and for the DPH in CT. Marisa has worked as an expert witness on an overdose death medical malpractice lawsuit in RI.
Marisa’s trainings typically focus on anatomy of a drug overdose at death scenes as well as recognizing red flags of likely overdoses. Her list titled “Red Flags Indicating Drug Overdoses at Death Scenes” has been widely dispersed to agencies throughout the state and has been used as a model for neighboring states. She focuses on analyzing evidence that is present, as well as evidence that is missing from scenes. She also focuses on differential diagnosis related to cause and manner of deaths on crime scenes. In addition to deaths related to drug overdose trainings, Marisa offers overall death investigation trainings so that those present on death scenes may interpret evidence and post mortem artifacts properly.
Marisa has a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Russian from Binghamton University, and an M.S. in Criminal Justice: Forensic Computer Investigation specializing in Forensic Science: Advanced Investigation from the University of New Haven.
