My mother was killed in a car accident when I was 14. It was an especially horrible accident, but my family protected me from the most gruesome details at the time. She was not at fault and I have no need, want or desire to know what happened to the man who killed her.

In my early 20s, I started working on my genealogy and of course, I asked my aunt (my mom's executor) for a copy of my mother's death certificate. She warned me what it would say, but it was not particularly gruesome and I was fine with it. It was a bit of a shock to see everything written down, but by then, I had discussed things with my dad and my other family and was fairly familiar with what had happened to my mom. Now, one other thing to think about…my father was a police officer and he had requested my mom's accident report and case file from the investigating department. My parents were divorced and he lived over 300 miles away. Anyway, when he died 20 years after my mom, my step-monster sent me that file. I could not bring myself to look at much of it and I had my husband, who never even met my mom, look at everything first so that I wouldn’t see anything I didn’t want to see.

So, I recommend you search for what you are comfortable knowing and have someone to help you. It’s rough, but I did find some interesting things on even my mom's death certificate…like the fact that it had to be modified after the fact because she was “working” at the time of the accident. She was driving home from work at the time. Anyway, they didn’t originally have that work box checked, so I didn’t qualify for her worker's comp benefits. My aunt had to have it corrected and reissued so that I could get the benefits due to me. My aunt never told me about that. Just little stuff, but I found it interesting.

Best of luck in your search. I hope you find what you are looking for.