Factors varied in relative importance according to the method used to cause death. Significant factors included life-style, recent stress, suicidal communications, previous self-destructive behaviors, history of depression, and obvious factors from the physical evidence such as large amounts of drugs in the blood. Although the court-provided decision guideline is 'a preponderance of the evidence,' in practice, the assembled evidence is often used to construct a 'most credible' scenario to explain the death. (Author abstract)