Cell phone is found at murder scene. Do the officers have to stop and get a search warrant to look at the calls & texts?

There is no constitutional protection against the search or seizure of abandoned property. If the owner or possessor of property has voluntarily thrown it away or left it behind, the government is entitled to appropriate the property, without any need for a search warrant [ Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 241, 80 S. Ct. 683, 4 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1960).

Please excuse the hasty, in-a-panic post.

That works so long as the crime scene isn't in a home and the phone belongs to a resident. But I figure that is not your situation.

No, that is not my situation. Thanks for the follow up, though.