Coroner Stories

Based on a comment I received about my last post, I seem to have given the impression that I speed or drive recklessly without regard for the general public. In this post, I’ll attempt to explain myself and the “need for speed�? commonly required by this job more effectively.

My work schedule is on an “as needed” basis. As such, I never have to rush because I’m worried about being late for work. I don’t fly around town in my personal car while running errands counting on police officers to look the other way. When I rush to a scene emergently it is with greater care than a majority of the population exercises when driving under the speed limit. In fact, more accidents (both fatal and non-fatal) result from inattention than from excessive speed. I can drive quickly and safely—I’ve been trained to do both.

Clearing certain types of scenes quickly is often a primary concern for the authorities. In the case that I presented, most outsiders would probably assume the primary reason for clearing the scene is to remove a public spectacle. Oftentimes the primary concern of those working the scene is for the loved ones of the person who just committed suicide rather than the bystanders that willfully gather around. The concern is this case was that the family members would turn on their televisions to the morning news and recognize the vehicle and the location before proper notification could be made.

To avoid such a possibility, the police department had intentionally avoided radio traffic about the suicide. This practice is a common technique used by police to avoid the media swarm that occurs after the local news hears of an incident over the police scanner. I suppose a tragic event like that is technically news—I have no idea why.

There is typically a very small window between the time that police arrive at a scene and the time that a passerby calls one of the news hotlines and the swarm occurs anyway. It is within this window that I am often called on to conduct my part of the investigation.

I can give dozens of other stories with just as much—or even more—justification for speeding. For brevity’s sake, I’ll stick to just one categorical justification—auto fatalities. Again, the most obvious reason to clear the scene of a crash is to remove the public spectacle. Also, Secondary accidents often occur within the traffic jams that are created by auto fatalities. Many people insist on rushing in spite of the traffic and create other accidents simply because they have it in their head that they are the only person late for work.

I cringe at the thought of a close friend or family member lying strewn across the paved surface of the road as traffic on the other side slows to a crawl so that everyone can satisfy their morbid curiosity. But these accidents are unlike typical car crashes that can be settled with an exchange of insurance information. A death has occurred and must be investigated thoroughly but expediently.

I can see now that the title I chose for the post was a poor choice. I didn’t mean to imply that I had a “Top Gun�? style obsession with speed. I was merely providing outsiders a glimpse into my profession by using a situation in which speed was necessary.

If anything, I’m a more careful driver now than I ever was. I’m always afraid the person in the oncoming car is fumbling for a CD case in the opposite floorboard and oblivious to the fact they are drifting left of center. I certainly wouldn’t want to be responsible for causing someone physical pain or emotional pain because of the loss of a loved one. I’ve seen enough of that for a hundred lifetimes.

The following is an amendment to the original post:

Comment received from Scott at scooterksu.blogspot.com:

I was interested in your quote where you say, “I can drive quickly and safely—I’ve been trained to do both.�? I was wondering if you were indeed trained to drive quickly in your personal car or was it specifically for an emergency vehicle. Because driving with sirens blaring where others know you care coming and will be driving fast is very different from being in your personal car with the drivers around you thinking you are just another inconsiderate speeder. Sadly, even in your “clarification�? post you still come off as holier than thou.

I’m hesitant to clarify myself any further as I seem to be making my explanation worse instead of better. Still, you took time to comment, and I would like to provide you with a response. In the statement you quoted, I was merely pointing out that I’ve received specialized training to drive the way that my job often requires. My training applies to the act of driving and not the vehicle. I was taught to swim in a municipal swimming pool, but that doesn’t mean I can’t swim equally well in any other body of water. Similarly, police officers receive the same training to drive marked and unmarked vehicles.

I do not drive emergently whenever I want–only when required by my job. The times I have driven my personal car to a scene, it has been in an official capacity and I have acted in an official capacity. My personal car just happens to be the same model as many other official cars. You’d be amazed at the number of people who assume my personal car is an unmarked vehicle and move to the slow lane automatically. The same can be said of those who assume the agency car is a patrol car. As such, I typically have wide open lanes in which to drive.

I should also point out that I limit the elements of emergent driving I employ to faster acceleration, faster decceleration, and driving on average 10mph over the limit. It does not include running red lights, passing in no passing zones, acting out NASCAR fantasies, or any other traffic transgression that would create a risk to others.

Even when I have lights and sirens at my disposal, as in the agency car, I avoid using them. On numerous occasions I’ve posed more of a threat to auto insurance premiums with my lights flashing than without. In my experience all they do is make other drivers panic. I once had a driver in front of me swerve into the center median of the interstate and spin out when they saw my lights behind them. Other times, I’ve had drivers force cars in the slow lane off the right side of the road in their haste to change lanes.

Sirens are esssentially worthless. Nowadays car interiors are so quiet that sirens are difficult to hear when right next to you even without the radio on and ambient road noise. As proof, our state police typically only use lights for traffic stops.

As for sounding “holier than thou” all I can say is that was not my intention. Please keep in mind, you are reading what I have to say without the benefit of hearing or seeing me say it. I’m afraid sincerity doesn’t translate into writing as well as I would like for it to.

Thanks to all who have responded both positively and negatively to this post as well as previous ones. I am surprised I struck such a nerve with this subject, but I appreciate your input. I will continue to post critical responses from readers in the future. As for this particular subject, I will only respond to those comments that present a particular issue that I don’t feel as though I have already addressed sufficiently.

The following is an expanded version of Item 7 on my “Top 10 Unique Things I’ve Done�? list:

Working for the medical examiner’s office does not give me carte blanche to ignore posted speed limits, and I certainly don’t feel entitled to special treatment simply because of my employer. Although when it’s 3 a.m. and there are very few people on the road, I like to get where I’m going and get back home.

There is no written rule that prevents an officer from giving a ticket to any official—only individual discretion. Fortunately for me, every officer I’ve been stopped by has seen fit to let me off the hook—possibly because they’ve worked with our office before or possibly because they expect to need us again.

So far, the few times I have been pulled over in my own car, I have managed to avoid a speeding ticket. I’ve never been arrogant enough to point out where I work. I don’t ever plan on testing out the phrase “Do you know who I am?�? as I’m sure the consequence would be rather expensive. Luckily, police officers are trained to be observant and not one has failed to notice my badge as I produced my driver’s license.

Most of the times I’ve been stopped or nearly stopped took place in the agency car. Ordinarily, a patrol car will come up behind me, see the markings on the vehicle, and decide to pick on someone else. Other times, I’ve been pulled over and the officer has actually apologized for making me stop. I’ve even been stopped in a rural area I was traveling through just because the officer was curious about what kind of scene I was going out on.

Not all stops have gone that easily. On one occasion, I was stopped in broad daylight by a state policeman who clocked me at 17 mph over the limit. In my defense, the location was a 6 lane divided highway, and I couldn’t have been going more than 2 mph faster than the group of cars I was traveling with. I can only assume that my failure to brake as everyone else did at the sight of the patrol car in the center median made me stand out or appear arrogant.

After pulling me over, the trooper came up to my window and asked, “Where’s the fire?�?

It was all I could do to avoid the first smartass remark that popped into my head—“713 Morgan Blvd.�?

Instead, I opted for playing nice. I politely informed him that the detectives at the scene asked me to get to the scene as quickly as possible.

His response was, “What’s the rush? They’re dead, aren’t they?�?

I further explained, with less politeness, that a suicide had been committed in the parking lot of a public building. As such, the department working the scene was eager to remove the body before people began to show up for work.

He asked me to slow it down and returned to his patrol car. I responded by accelerating away from the side of the road as quickly as possible to make up for lost time. I’ve since forgotten his name, but for several months I remembered it—patiently waiting for him to report a traffic fatality so I could be sure to obey all traffic laws en route to his location.

The following is an expanded version of Item 8 on my “Top 10 Unique Things I’ve Done�? list:

On occasion, a structure fire will take the life of the family dog. Depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary to examine the dog as well to determine whether it was alive at the time of the fire. The possibility exists that if foul play was involved the dog may have attempted to protect the homeowner and could have been incapacitated by the perpetrator before the fire was set. Fortunately, a dog can be examined much in the same way that a person can.

Any time a person is found dead at the scene of a fire, a key step in the investigation is to determine whether or not the person was alive before the fire ignited. Body location and position at the scene can suggest that the person made an attempt to exit the house. An external examination of the body while at the scene can also help determine if the person died as a result of the fire.

Any area of the skin that isn’t charred can be examined for a cherry pink discoloration, thus indicating the person inhaled a significant amount of carbon monoxide. Typically, the areas of the body that are best preserved are those areas that were against a second surface. Once the body is at the morgue, blood specimens are collected and tested to determine the exact concentration of carbon monoxide in the blood stream and whether or not the level was high enough to be fatal.

If the face is still intact, the mouth and nostrils can be examined for soot deposits. These deposits at the entrances of the airways suggest that the person was breathing during the fire. Being alive at the time of a fire is no doubt tragic for the deceased but a genuine relief for everyone involved in the investigation—it significantly reduces the likelihood that the fire was ignited to cover up evidence of foul play.

Smallest objects burn the fastest. That said, most of the dogs I’ve encountered have been so severely burned that it was basically impossible to recognize signs of carbon monoxide inhalation or soot deposits. I do however recall one occasion in which an exam proved useful.

The scene was a house fire where the body of an apparent female was found on the charred remains of her bed. It was presumed by fire investigators that the woman had either been overcome by fumes while in bed or had otherwise been incapacitated while in bed.

Fires are treated as suspicious until a cause for ignition is found. In most cases, I am called in fairly early on in the investigation so the cause is usually preliminary at best. In this particular case, fire investigators were initially concerned about the location of the woman. There appeared to be little that would have prevented the woman from getting out of the house. The bed was burned out from under the body so there was no protected area of the skin to examine for signs of carbon monoxide inhalation. The thermal injuries were too extensive to the face to find obvious soot deposits.

There was also a medium size dog found dead just inside the back door of the house. The fire damage was not as extensive in this area, so the dog was in pretty fair shape. The back door was also intact and there was no sign of forced entry present. I examined the dog as best I could. There didn’t appear to be any accumulation of blood under the dog and no signs of external trauma. The presence of soot deposits at the airways was hard to determine because of the nostrils’ size and color. The dog’s underbelly wasn’t especially pink, but as I rubbed the hair backwards, I could tell that the skin in other areas appeared to have a cherry pink tint.

If the dog had suffered a great deal of thermal damage, then the dog itself could have been brought to the morgue for a closer examination. At the very least, the dog’s exam would have included a carbon monoxide test and possibly an x-ray to rule out the presence of any projectiles.

My impression was that the dog was most likely alive at the time of the fire. If I had found evidence to the contrary, I would have been much more suspicious of the cause for the fire. Admittedly, this observation certainly wasn’t the final piece of the puzzle, but it did however provide some initial piece of mind for the fire investigators. Ultimately it would be the blood work that revealed high concentrations of carbon monoxide and confirmed the woman had in fact been overcome by fumes prior to her death. In the coming days, fire investigators ruled that the fire was accidental.

The following is an expanded version of Item 9 on my “Top 10 Unique Things I’ve Done�? list:

There’s a proprietary element to death investigation. Legally, the body belongs to the medical examiner and the scene belongs to the law enforcement agency. I’ve noticed that no one in law enforcement ever has to be reminded of this arrangement when the body is particularly difficult to get to—like 50’ inside a sewer pipe. I can’t say that I blame them. Even though I wasn’t wearing a loaded utility belt and a bulletproof vest, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the crawl myself.

This particular sewer pipe served as a sleeping quarters for transients in the area. In truth, it wasn’t as much a main sewage pipe as it was a drain for sewage overflow from the main pipes. Fortunately, the pipe only had small pools of sewage that had collected down its center, but the smell was certainly authentic. Patrolmen at the scene indicated that they routinely rousted transients from the pipes. As a result, the transients had taken to crawling even further into the pipes. This particular transient was found dead by another that tried to wake him.

I keep a wide array of items in the trunk, and I was lucky on that day that a 100′ rope just happened to be one of them. My collection of items has grown considerably over the years. Every time I’ve wished I had a particular item at a scene, I’ve added it soon after. I tied one end of the rope to my left wrist and crawled inside. As I approached the body, I was relieved to see that the feet were towards me and as such were much easier (and appropriate) to tie off to than the neck would have been. The diameter of the pipe itself wasn’t large enough for me to feel comfortable trying to turn around. My only real option was to crawl backwards as the officers pulled on the rope.

Never having been in this particular situation before, I severely underestimated the speed at which two officers can “reel in�? a body from a sewer pipe. It’s a shame that no one was able to see me or the look of concentration on my face. I’m sure it would’ve been an amusing sight to watch me scrambling backwards as fast as I could to avoid collapsing face-first onto a rapidly approaching dead body.

The following is an expanded version of Item 10 on my “Top 10 Unique Things I’ve Done�? list:

I was called out in the middle of the night to a scene where a woman found her estranged husband dead. The man had been living in a conversion van parked in the driveway since their separation. Upon examining the body, I found a used syringe underneath the man and a fresh needle stick in his arm.

I looked around for some sign of illicit drugs and couldn’t find any out in the open. It’s been my experience that IV drug abusers are not known for “picking up their toys�? before getting their fix. For that reason, I suspected the wife had attempted to clean up the scene before I arrived but had not seen the syringe. The officers there doubted that possibility because the van was locked on their arrival with the keys inside and the wife did not have a key.

Upon learning that, I searched a little harder the second time around. Searching is one of the more interesting parts of this job. To alter a famous phrase: “Life’s like a search of a complete stranger’s personal property—you never know what you’re going to get.�? It’s amazing what some people have tucked away in their drawers and closets. In this particular case, there wasn’t really anything too shocking.

I generally start searching those areas where I would be inclined to hide drugs or paraphernalia. As it turned out, the husband had stuffed a Crown Royal bag behind a loose section of paneling on the wall of the van. Inside the bag was a large amount of powdered substance in three plastic bags and a few accessories.

When it was time to leave, I got the impression that neither of the officers was interested in taking custody of the unknown substance. It was nearing the end of their shift, and whichever one took the substance would have to write an additional report and return to the central lab to book in the substance as evidence. I knew my protocols were much more user-friendly, so I offered to take it. All I had to do was sign in the substance at our internal lab, and I was going back to the office anyway. Needless to say, the officers were happy to let me take custody.

I left the scene anxious to get to the office and then home so I could get some more sleep before morning. In those situations, I often find myself traveling faster than posted limits. Ordinarily, I’m in a marked agency car, but on this particular night I happened to be in my car. Prior to the scene I just worked, I hadn’t been called out, so I hadn’t yet stopped by the office to trade cars.

Whether I was tired or just didn’t care, I initially failed to notice the patrol car that was keeping pace with me from behind. As soon as I saw him, I started pulling to the side of the highway even before the officer turned on his lights. I’ve never been employed as a drug mule before, so it never occurred to me that I needed to hide the drugs that were lying in plain view on the seat next to me.

As the officer came up to the window he shined his flashlight in my face and almost immediately I could tell—even in my momentary blindness—that his flashlight was aimed on the passenger seat.

It was then that the gravity of the situation hit me. I wasn’t in a car marked “Medical Examiner.�? It was 3 a.m. and there I was stopped for speeding on an interstate with three bags of dope in the front seat. Any instant I expected to be jerked from the car by my hair and thrown face down on the asphalt with a knee in my back and a gun at the back of my head. I scrambled frantically in my head for the shortest explanation as possible.

Instead, he spoke. “Out kind of late aren’t you?�?

I explained the situation, showed him my identification, and told him the city dispatcher could verify if he wished to call. He said that wouldn’t be necessary and added, “I figured it was something like that, or you were the dumbest drug smuggler I’ve ever seen.�?

As for the substance itself, it turned out to be heroin that would have yielded a few thousand dollars on the street once it had been cut for distribution. The apparent lack of a cutting agent at the scene suggested the deceased had unknowingly injected himself with uncut heroin.