The following day after returning from Austin Minnesota I headed to the Ramsey County Morgue to assist in any possible way with the autopsy. By the time I made it to the morgue, the body had already been processed, which means blood and fluids had been taken. An autopsy begins with the gross examination, and if necessary will proceed to the microscopic. After processing, Doctor McGee did a thorough examination of the exterior of the body noting all bruises, bullet holes, or abrasions. He does this to ensure that the physical evidence on the body matches independently to the story that the detectives are feeding him for the most likely cause and manner of death. The doctor must rule out all possibilities before determining the cause and manner of death.
When the doc proceeded to track the entry and exit wounds. He had x-rays taken to assist with any remaining bullet or shrapnel still left in the body. He then used a plastic transparent rod that looked like it was taken from venetian blinds. He inserted the long rod and tracked the pathway the bullet travelled. He would do this for every suspected bullet wound. He matched every entrance and exit wound and indicated the suspected trajectory or angle of entry. He then used this to determine if there were any remaining bullets still left in the body the x-rays didn’t detect.
He asked me to help him hold the victim’s arm in varying positions to try and determine the angles and also to find the proper entrance and exits. After he was complete with the process, he proceeded to remove all of the organs and weigh them and inspect them for abnormalities. He needed to determine the exact bullet or wound that caused the victim’s death. Even with so many bullet wounds, he needed to determine as best as possible. The Doctor determined the angles and confirmed from the crime scene evidence there was two shooters, and that the second shooter most likely had a revolver. If you think about it, if the pathways were determined and the bullets were retrieved, one of the two shooters caused the man’s death. How do they prosecute the other? Also as murder? The two shooters may not have known which actually killed the man, but the science can determine it.
Since the beginning of the summer of 1997, as part of my internship with the BCA, I’d been given an office in the Ramsey County Morgue. It was located near the capital in downtown Saint Paul Minnesota. I was teamed up with my mentor Senior Special Agent Joel Kohout and Assistant Medical Examiner Doctor Susan Roe. I was to research cases of neonaticide, the murder of newborn infants by categorizing and collecting case files that fit a certain pattern to determine the possibility of a profile that could be generalized to predict behavior in the prosecution or prevention of these incidents.
When I wasn’t studying for the MCAT exam I was pulling records, reading autopsy reports and researching published articles on the topic. They hoped by the end of the summer we may apply for a grant with the federal government to take the research to another level. Over the course of a few years, many babies were being found in dumpsters, trash cans, toilets; it was all over the news. In all of these cases, the law enforcement had little to no leads. It was difficult to know what happened? What was the intent of the mother? Could the babies have been born as stillbirths? If they weren’t, what happened and where was the mother? In most of the cases in which the mother’s were found, they were usually very young and immature, they didn’t know they were pregnant nor that they were 36-40 weeks pregnant when they delivered. They were young, lost, alone, and scared.
The autopsy of the babies would indicate often times that the newborns were born alive. The science was weak and it was difficult to determine without a doubt, but that was the challenge and why it was so important to understand. Where and who performs the autopsy is critical for the investigation of a crime. I read so many case files during that summer and I learned something that seems obvious but it wasn’t. The autopsy is basically treated as physical evidence for testimony in the court of law. The coroner or medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death and present the report to the court. It doesn’t seem obvious, but in the court of law, if the lawyers are going to present a fact or piece of evidence related to the state of the victim, they would have to do so by bringing in the body to the courtroom. Obviously that isn’t going to happen, so the autopsy is basically a replacement to the body.
There was a case that I helped with in which a man had been found after being dead for several days. He was in a very bad shape. It was more difficult to determine the cause of death because of the prolonged decomposition.
Agent Joel gave me the polaroids of the scene of the crime and asked me what I saw. She had already told me it was a suspected suicide. The man had a history of depression. I looked at the pictures and there were no posters or photographs on the walls, the room was bare of furniture. I commented on this and thought depression fit the description of the room.
Both of the ladies chastised me. They said that an assumption like that is dangerous and limits the investigation. The man could have just moved in, or maybe he was painting, or possibly he just didn’t like to put things up. A lesson in assumptions. Doc Roe took x-rays and found shotgun pellets in the man’s skull and it certainly looked conclusive that he died of his self inflicted gunshot wounds.
Then it hit her, she became so excited. She found a small piece of skull that was dislodged in a way that wasn’t consistent with a shotgun wound. She told Agent Kohout that the roommate or others needed to be interviewed as possible leads. Sure enough, the roommate confessed later, he told Agent Kohout that he was fighting with the victim, he hit him over the head with a baseball bat. The blow crushed the victim’s skull and he died. He tried to cover it up with the shotgun and claim the man committed suicide. It was amazing that this tiny bit of evidence, which could have easily been overlooked, made the difference.
I had the unique opportunity to work with so many amazing detectives, doctor’s, lab technicians, and good people from the beginning of the Austin case to its conclusion. The two shooters were finally found, and prosecuted. They did find one of them with a revolver just as Doctor McGee suspected.
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