Coroner Stories

In order to appreciate the monumental task facing authorities in New Orleans and the surrounding area, here’s a scenario involving an event of a much smaller scale:

A flood rips through a much smaller town in the Mississippi Delta resulting in six fatalities. Rescue attempts during the first few hours of the flood lead to the discovery of two bodies. Body #1 was recovered from inside the cab of his pickup. A state driver’s license was located in the wallet found on the body and the photo matched the face of the deceased. Body #2 was recovered floating among vegetation. There was no identification present on the body, but fingerprints were taken and matched with those on file from a previous incarceration.

The remaining four bodies were not found until days after the flood because they had been washed to remote locations. The condition of all four of these bodies had been altered by the stages of decomposition, the effects of prolonged immersion, and animal activity. Being a small town, possible identities on the remaining four were surmised fairly easily based on missing person reports filed by surviving family members. Body #3 was identified using tattoos that were accurately described by the family.

The remaining three bodies had no form of identification. Visual identification even by an immediate family member was not possible because of the severe swelling to the facial tissues that occurs in the advanced stages of decomposition. Prolonged immersion had caused the epidermal layers of skin containing the fingerprints to separate from the dermis. These glove-like sections of skin tissue were either washed away or fed on by fish, turtles, or other creatures. The remaining printed images sometimes left behind on the dermis were insufficient for comparison.

Body #4 had extensive dental work and was identified using a postmortem dental comparison using antemortem dental charting and x-rays obtained from the deceased’s dentist. Body #5 was that of a young male in his early teens with no tattoos, no prints of file, and no dental work. Fortunately the deceased did have a cranial x-ray on file at an area hospital following a head injury the year before. A postmortem x-ray was taken and a positive identification was made using sinus pattern comparison.

Body #6 was the most difficult to identify. Authorities were unable to obtain prints from the deceased and there were no external identifying marks such as tattoos or scars present. The suspected family members of Body #6 reported that the deceased had not been to a dentist or a doctor in over twenty years. The body was recovered from a location that placed it in close proximity to the area it was last seen in. Based on the circumstances and the fact that there was only one person still unaccounted for, both family and law enforcement were willing to accept the identity of Body #6.

Ultimately though the burden of accurately identifying the dead falls on the shoulders of the person certifying the death, so the medical examiner/coroner must exhaust all available means of identification before resorting to a circumstantial identification. The decision was made to release the body to the family with the understanding that the identification was only circumstantial until a DNA comparison could be conducted. Tissue samples from Body #6 were submitted to a DNA lab along with buccal swabs obtained from immediate family members. Body #6 was positively identified several weeks later when DNA tests were completed.

Now let’s compare the above scenario with the reality of New Orleans:

Let’s say a flood rips through a much larger metropolitan area. Rescue attempts during the first few hours of the flood lead to the discovery of numerous dead bodies, but it is soon realized that collecting the dead should wait until the living are rescued. As a result, bodies that could have been fairly easily identified remain exposed to the elements and begin to decompose. The high temperatures ensure that the rate of decomposition is accelerated, and photographic and tattoo comparisons are no longer possible as everyone is the same color and similarly swollen. Fingerprints have been washed away from prolonged immersion or eaten away by critters that like small surfaces they can fit in their mouths.

A list of potential identifications of missing persons is almost impossible to come up with because the living have been scattered among cities all over the region. Dental and radiological exams can be conducted on the dead, but there is no guarantee that they’ve had dental work done or that the dentist or doctor’s office housing their records even exists anymore. A circumstantial identification pending a DNA test on one body or on a few bodies is manageable, but the reality is that there are likely going to be thousands of circumstantial identifications made in the coming days and weeks. Circumstantial identifications could likely become a necessary compromise for the time being. Ordinarily, medical examiners and coroners are tasked with determining cause and manner of death. In this instance and others like it, however, the primary concern is going to be accurately identifying the dead.

In light of recent events such as floods and stampedes, I have decided to be a little more introspective than usual by divulging a personal quirk of mine—when it comes to natural disasters (or manmade ones) that involve mass fatalities I go out of my way to avoid any news story on the subject. I don’t need to hear the same old stories they use for every event—stories so formulaic that I suspect there is a Microsoft Word patch with a News Story Wizard that only journalists know about.

I’m not the type of person that gets all warm and fuzzy inside because of some pathos-laden feel-good story when I know there are thousands of stories that ended in tragedy preceded by terror the likes of which no living person has ever experienced. Not to say that I sit around and dwell on the tragic outcomes, I just don’t want to be someone that can have a story about one person spared by fate overshadow a story about a thousand who weren’t.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about news stories filled with speculation about the economic impact on the global economy or the impact at the pump or on my wallet. Those issues are going to be what they are going to be. Discussing them is as pointless as two meteorologists arguing about the chance of rain a week from Thursday. There isn’t anything that you or I can do about the price of gas—unless you’ve secretly been sitting on a renewable energy resource waiting for just the right time to unveil it. If you are, I beg you to do so now—before I have to work a homicide where someone is shot while siphoning gas from a neighbor’s car. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

There is however one aspect of all mass fatality events that I do pay attention to. I don’t even have to read a single article to follow the story—just keep my eye on the current headlines on the main page at Yahoo and sooner of later the body count begins to show up. I don’t follow the body count because of some morbid fascination or because I want to know how this disaster compares to others as though disasters should be compared as if they were major league ballplayers. I follow the body count because I have a professional appreciation for the monumental task facing those who are responsible for handling the fatalities.

In using the phrase “handling the fatalities,�? I realize I’ve used the same misleading verbiage that I’ve often criticized the media for using. Many of the news stories in the coming days will genuinely pay tribute to the task of handling the fatalities, but few will discuss the reality of the situation because it’s a sensitive issue for viewers or readers. “Handling the fatalities�? is so much more than simply finding them and moving them to an appropriate location. When considering the overall role of the coroners and medical examiners in a mass fatality, the “handling�? can appear to be the easiest part.

(To be continued in next post…)

Things have been out of control at work lately, so no real post this time around. I’d say we were short-handed, but we don’t have enough people to be considered short-handed. For your amusement, I’m posting some of the more unusual search strings people have entered that have pulled up my site.

–body language misrepresentation of face
–filthy houses
–stories about respect and politeness
–algor mortis baby
–body language misrepresentation
–chicken wounds
–children’s stories about respect and politeness
–color of human decomposition
–coroner photos of famous people
–death by hanging urination
–dogs underbelly discoloration
–female turd stories
–filthy house rotting
–how to clean decomposed body
–how to do auto body work
–how to fingerprinting a decomposed dead body
–human toilet stories
–ingestion of heroin pellets for traffic
–morgue cooler temperature decomposition
–naked police bath field
–property damage suicide
–rectal temperature stories
–skin exam stories
–sleeper hold (rectal)
–swelling of body before death
–blunt force trauma in weight lifting
–child’s sleeping bag
–collapsed windpipe
–conversion van child deaths
–coroner smell decomposition
–death urination defecation forensics
–defecation after death
–drag reduces on the blunt body
–filthy stories blogspot
–photos of child autopsy skin slippage
–popped blood vessels in the face
–rectal thermometer experience stories
–removing odor dead human
–see photos of husband and wife in bath tub
–sleeper hold stories
–tree trunk discoloration blueish

One of my earliest memories of working death scenes goes back to my days in training. A man had gone to the edge of the patio in his backyard, placed the butt of a 12-gauge shotgun against the ground, bent over the shotgun with the barrel at the bridge of his nose, and pulled the trigger.

The receipt for the shotgun was found in the man’s wallet and indicated that he had purchased the shotgun that very morning using his credit card. A suicide note was recovered from inside the house. It referenced the man’s failing health and his unwillingness to become a burden on his family. The butt of the weapon had stamped a depression into the ground when it was fired.

As for the circumstances of the death, there wasn’t anything too remarkable. I would estimate that I’ve probably worked dozens like it. Still, there was one particular aspect of this scene that makes it stand out in my memory. I was amazed at how far skull fragments could travel as the result of a shotgun wound.

Prior to that particular scene, I had already been exposed to the devastating effects a shotgun can have on a body. I had seen skull fragments embedded in walls and ceilings. I had seen brain matter ricochet off a bathroom mirror and land in the hallway. I had even seen an eye connected only by its optic nerve. But all these situations involved an injury indoors. It wasn’t until the gentleman shot himself outdoors that I was able to fully comprehend the force involved.

As I said, the man shot himself at the edge of his patio. The weapon was presumably perfectly perpendicular to the ground. The arrangement of skull fragments and brain matter in a 360-degree area around the body gave me the impression that the initial blast must have resulted in a mushroom cloud-like distribution about the yard. The house was a single story ranch style home, and to my amazement there were fragments that had landed on top of the house despite the fact that the edge of the patio was a good twelve feet from the edge of the roof.

After examining the body in the backyard, it was time to go about the task of collecting as much of the shattered fragments of bone and tissue as possible. I was on my way back to the car to get a biohazard bag to place them in when I noticed a fairly sizeable skull fragment that was in the front yard near the street—at least forty feet from where the shot was fired.

I returned to the fragment with my biohazard bag and collected it. Still marveling at the force put forth by the shotgun, I canvassed the area collecting other fragments in what must have appeared to others to be some morbid version of an Easter egg hunt.

I recently received an email from a reader that was very complimentary of the subject matter I’ve discussed, but at the same time they couldn’t help but want to know more about some of the more gruesome aspects of my job. I’ve received similar “requests�? such as this one—direct or implied. I responded with my usual explanation that I did not wish to alienate or offend anyone nor did I wish to use the misfortune of others as shock value to attract readers.

The reader wrote me back, pointing out that anyone who continued to “voluntarily read�? beyond a title such as “Coroner Stories�? should be prepared for whatever gruesome subject matter that follows.

Almost immediately, I realized that there was a parallel between the offensiveness of my website and the offensiveness of an auto fatality. Every so often a citizen calls the office and complains because they were driving past an auto collision on the highway and saw a dead body at the side of the road or hanging from a car. The image haunted them to the point that they were unable to sleep that night.

I’ve ended up talking to some of these callers. I explain that 99% of the deaths that we work in the public eye are covered long before our office responds to the scene—a polite way of saying it’s not our fault. Instead of assigning blame to another agency, I assure them that they were probably just unfortunate enough to drive by moments before the body was covered. After hanging up, I daydream about the response I would have liked to have given…

“Here’s an idea—don’t look! Any time there are more than two patrol cars at the side of the road, it’s more than just a traffic stop. Lanes of traffic merging into one, road flares, and the presence of rescue vehicles indicate there is not a routine “exchange of information�? collision ahead. Upon arriving at a scene, officers aren’t concerned about the weak constitutions of rubberneckers. Their primary concern is to determine who needs medical attention and who is beyond it. Just watch the car in front of you instead of surveying the damage as you pass so you don’t cause a secondary collision blocking the only lane around the first one.�?

Sorry for the tangent just then. I guess I’ve handled more of those complaints than I’d realized. I’ll try to get back on topic now. Long story short, here are my thoughts. Since I started this website, no one has complained about the current level of graphic content and several people have posed questions that would have required more graphic content. Most of those questions have been variations of “What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever seen?�?

As I said, I’ve politely steered clear of those types of questions and instead have presented more vanilla aspects of this job such as filthy houses or general aspects of decomposition and such. My goal has always been to provide an accurate glimpse of life as a death investigator for those who have only seen Hollywood’s version of reality.

In the future I’ll try to offer a little more insight into the more gruesome aspects of death investigation. I’ll continue to present details matter-of-factly and with all due respect in order to avoid employing techniques that I criticize Hollywood for using.

The way I see it, this job is what it is. At any given moment it can be gruesome, rewarding, humorous, tragic—just about anything that any other job can be. I’m sure it will continue to be long after I move on to something else, decide to retire, or snap while waiting in line at Krispy Kreme and end up on the losing end of a hostage negotiation.

I’ve probably given the subject (not the hostage taking part) a lot more consideration than was necessary, but it’s in my nature. I’d be interested in hearing the thoughts of others—public or private. I’ll continue with my policy of publicly posting comments (good or bad, but relevant) and keeping emails private using only paraphrased excerpts in my posts. I look forward to any non-Texas Hold’em comments…