Barbara Butcher — forensic work, empathy, and emotional survival

Our eye & heart-opening discussion with American forensic scientist Barbara Butcher, former New York City death investigator and author of What the Dead Know, featured in Netflix and Amazon Prime true-crime series.

Set against this background, the conversation we explore what it means to work daily with death — not as spectacle, but as responsibility. At its core is a question that defines forensic work: how to remain precise and professional while confronting extreme violence, grief, and irreversible loss.

Barbara Butcher:

“When we start to be empathetic, we look at the victim, our hearts break, and we say, “Honey, what happened to you?” For the sake of the cause, I have to turn off my empathy.”

Key points from our conversation:

• Empathy under control
  It was striking to see the tension between human empathy and professional distance. Emotional restraint is not coldness; it is what allows accuracy, fairness, and justice to prevail, even in the face of unimaginable loss…

• Listening to the body
  What moved me most was how forensic investigators can “read” the body — interpreting position, surroundings, and subtle physical details to reconstruct the final moments of life. In this work, the body speaks, becoming a powerful testimony of events that can no longer be told in words.

• The scale of unresolved violence
  The conversation made palpable the emotional weight of the hundreds of homicide cases in New York City each year. Many remain unsolved despite meticulous investigation — a sobering reminder of the limits of human effort against violence.

• Evidence as justice
  Perhaps the most profound takeaway is that collecting and preserving evidence is itself an ethical act — giving voice to victims who can no longer speak and offering their families a chance for truth and accountability.

Authors: Jane Knap, Joanna Rubin - Sobolewska