バーバラ・ブッチャーは、死因調査、災害時の犠牲者の身元確認、法医学分野の研修に携わってきた死体調査の専門家、ノンフィクション作家。1992年にニューヨーク市検死局で死体調査の仕事を始め、2014年に退職するまで現場調査と組織運営に従事した。5,500件を超える死亡現場を調査し、そのうち680件が殺人事件だった。調査部門の管理職を経て、局の運営や他機関との連携を担い、実務者を育成する法医学研修プログラムを創設して責任者を務めた。2001年9月11日の世界貿易センターへの攻撃後には遺体の収容作業を統括し、国際的な活動ではタイの津波被災地などで大量死への対応に関わった。2023年の回想録『死体と話す ＮＹ死体調査官が見た5000の死』（原題 “What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator”、邦訳2024年）では、死亡現場の観察や証拠の扱い、遺族とのやりとりを通して、死因調査の実際を記した。孤独死や殺人、自殺、大規模災害を扱う一方、自身のうつ病やアルコール依存症からの回復、仕事による心理的な負担も綴った。多数の死に接した職業経験と、自分自身の生を立て直していく過程を同じ回想のなかに描いた。
Barbara Butcher is a medicolegal death investigation specialist and nonfiction writer whose career has encompassed death-scene investigation, disaster victim identification, and forensic training. She joined New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner in 1992 and worked there until retiring in 2014. She investigated more than 5,500 death scenes, including 680 homicides. After holding investigative management roles, she became chief of staff, overseeing agency operations and relationships with other organizations. She also established and directed the office’s Forensic Sciences Training Program for practitioners. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, she oversaw the recovery of human remains. Her international work included responding to the tsunami in Thailand and advising on mass-fatality management. Her memoir What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator (2023), translated into Japanese in 2024, described the practical work of observing death scenes, handling evidence, and speaking with families. Its accounts of solitary deaths, homicide, suicide, and mass disasters were interwoven with her experiences of recovery from depression and alcoholism and the psychological demands of her profession. The book brought her work with the dead together with the process of rebuilding her own life.
