Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 1, Episode 7 - Dark Waters - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A mystery man is found in a watery grave. RYAN MCCOUNAUGHEY: We couldn't find
any point of entry or foot markings into the water from the victim. NARRATOR: To uncover the truth, Dr. G
must conduct her autopsy as the man's body decomposes before her eyes. JAN GARAVAGLIA: People really don't like
dealing with decomposed bodies. They're green, they're bloated, and they smell. NARRATOR: Then, every mother's nightmare
comes true for one Texas woman when her son dies in daycare. JAN GARAVAGLIA: The ER doctor was suspicious and felt
that this was a strangulation. NARRATOR: Can Dr. G help police catch the suspected killer?
And later, a tourist dies suddenly after a bitter argument, leaving a family wracked with guilt.
We blamed ourselves. We completely blamed ourselves. We feel we basically killed him.
NARRATOR: Is rage to blame? There's all sorts of research on how stress is a negative influence on your body.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations.
These are the everyday cases of Dr. G, Medical Examiner. Dr. G's investigations don't stop at the autopsy table.
Sometimes, she must simply reach out to those who knew the deceased to get the full story to make
sense of what she finds. Hi, this is Dr. Garavaglia at the medical examiner's office in Orlando.
NARRATOR: When she does, she often discovers that how an individual died isn't nearly as
remarkable as how they lived. On a March afternoon, a passerby sees a body floating face down in a pond
near Orlando's John Young Parkway. Orlando police and fire department EMTs rush to the scene.
[SIRENS WAILING] From the truck, we can see two retention ponds. One of them appeared to have a body floating.
NARRATOR: The retention pond itself is a three foot deep pool designed to collect rainwater runoff.
RYAN MCCOUNAUGHEY: The victim was in the retention pond, about 10 to 12 feet from the shore.
So I just waded out approximately to my waist. I was able to draw the victim closer to me,
and I was able to notice that the victim was non-viable at that time. NARRATOR: In EMS terminology, non-viable means dead.
A call goes out to Dr. G's morgue, and a medical investigator is dispatched. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Near the retention pond, police find a makeshift shelter. After securing the area, they make note of its contents.
The medical investigator estimates that the body has been in the water under the hot Florida Sun for over a day,
and the body has begun to decompose. Decomposing bodies often emit an odor that can
induce gagging and fainting. So Dr. G and her assistants, Dave and Sandy, must deal with this case in a separate area
of the morgue known simply as the decomp room. One of the things that keeps people out of this field,
they really don't like dealing with decomposed bodies. They're green, they're bloated, and they smell.
Honestly, they don't bother me one little bit. And I don't smell a thing. I'm the one that has to figure this out,
and I don't smell a thing. The way he's coming out of the pond, he's got his shoes on.
NARRATOR: But a decomposed body poses many more problems for medical examiners than just smell.
Minnie and Mickey skating on the front. NARRATOR: Autopsying a decomposing body is a race against nature's grim clock.
The moment we die, our bodies begin a metamorphosis. Our tissues and fluids start to decay,
to break down into their fundamental elements. There's two things that are going down.
There are the enzymes that are breaking down the tissues, and then there's the bacteria.
The autolysis is basically the enzymes breaking it down. And so anything that's high, like your spleen tends to break
down very quickly and just gets almost soupy, the pancreas, there's a lot of enzymes in there, that tends
to break down very quickly. But then there's the bacteria doing their job too, because your bacteria is all through your gastrointestinal
tract, and then once you die, they have free reign, and they kind of take over, going to a lot of your tissues
and start forming gases, and that's what bloats up a lot of your tissue. So you have a lot of different things going on.
It gets to the point we're under the microscope, you can hardly even tell what's what.
NARRATOR: In addition to the obstacle of decomposition, the most obvious possible cause of death, drowning,
can't be ruled in or out. There's really no good one test for drowning. It's a lot of little things, plus the circumstances.
NARRATOR: Though a drowning victim would have water in the lungs, so would a body that
had simply lain in the water for a significant amount of time. This is because the natural movement of the water
works fluid into the lungs. So the mystery is, why is he there? Why is this man in the water?
Is he a victim of possibly assault? [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: But Dr. G's first step is
to make sense of what police and investigators found at the scene. JAN GARAVAGLIA: His camp, which was 50 yards from the pond,
is described as a 10 by 10 tent with a bed, a desk, shelves for clothing and personal items.
This is, I guess, all, you know, just outside. Several bottles of mouthwash. ID card was in a billfold.
I mean, he doesn't look like a transient. His beard is well kept. His head is kept very short.
His hair, appears that he shaves his head. And that kind of goes along with how they find his little transient camp, very neat.
I mean, how many transients do you know that use mouthwash and have shelves for their clothing outside?
Sounds like an interesting fella. Sounds like I might've liked him. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Aside from the name on the ID found at the nearby shelter, Dr. G hasn't much to go on.
You never know why these people are transient. NARRATOR: She has no medical history,
no background, no witnesses. It's not even clear if Mark Thompson is his real name.
Yet somehow, she must accomplish a full medical identification. Now, the one thing, I don't mind the decomp, but--
and I will completely change clothes so the decomp smell will be off of me. But I have hairspray on, and that hairspray
tends to collect the smell of the this decomp in my hair. So that's why we're gonna cover my hair.
Because other people will be bothered by it, not me. So what we see is some bloating, greening discoloration.
Some normal Caucasian skin can be still seen. Really well kept beard and mustache, very nicely trimmed.
I don't see any-- any scars. OK, look for tattoos. He still has finger ridges. We should be able to do fingerprints on this fella.
NARRATOR: This is a lucky break. Usually, soaking in water for days, the skin of the hand
splits and slips off, what medical examiners call degloving. But in this case, the skin of the fingers
has only just begun to peel. See how the skin is coming off his hand? And so the whole degloving, you can just pull your--
eventually, the skin will all come off from the hand. So his have not, and so we can still print him.
NARRATOR: As to the rest of the body, it is not too decayed to check for gunshot wounds,
knife wounds, or other trauma. Surprisingly, while immersion in water will saturate and swell some tissues,
it also slows the rate of decomposition. Very tense, firm skin. That's what you see from the bloating,
that gas is formed from the bacteria in the body and start bloating it. What's happened now is the bacteria
has gone through his body forming gases, so basically, all he's got in his vessels are just gas,
and no longer he has any blood. So what we're gonna have to do is collect some muscle
and we'll do organs. We're gonna have to check different things for toxicology here.
We're gonna need more tissue. OK, left lung is 350. NARRATOR: While the blood is no longer viable for many
of the tests routinely run at the forensic laboratory, partially decomposed organs could still reveal the presence
of drugs in laboratory tests. But the results even from these could be inconclusive.
Only when she cuts open the stomach to examine the contents does Dr. G get a tantalizing and unusual clue.
I don't know. Mouthwash. Smell that. His stomach and his stomach contents smell like mouthwash.
It's not a bad odor at all. And I wonder if that-- I hope we doesn't drink the mouthwash to get drunk.
It can get you drank. A lot of them have fairly high alcohol content. NARRATOR: The bottles of mouthwash found
in the man's tent may not have been for personal hygiene after all. And yet, as she reaches the end of the autopsy,
the dissected organs have yielded few answers. So far, there is no trauma internally or externally.
NARRATOR: Whatever caused this man's death is still a complete mystery. We know that he so far hasn't been beaten.
We know that we don't see any specific natural disease. Now, keep in mind, the decomposition could mask
some subtle natural disease. But he didn't have coronary artery disease. His heart's really not that large.
His lungs don't have horrible disease. There's no tumor anywhere. There's a lot of things we've ruled out.
We just haven't ruled a lot in. NARRATOR: The next clues will have to come from toxicology
tests, and from police as they continue their search for a positive identification of the body.
[MUSIC PLAYING] When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues, a tip from the past gives Dr. G a surprising portrait of life this man led.
He seemed like kind of an interesting fella. NARRATOR: And later, a sudden death of an infant.
Was it an accident or a homicide? We see too many kids that get killed by caretakers,
be they parents, or stepparents, or siblings, or providers. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G has finished the autopsy
of a body found floating in a retention pond by an Orlando highway. But because most of the tissues are decomposed,
her findings are sparse. Her biggest clue is an odor emanating from the man's stomach contents.
His stomach contents smell like mouthwash. NARRATOR: But despite the decomposition,
Dr. G was able to secure partial fingerprints, and within two days of the autopsy,
the fingerprint experts have done their work. The man found in the retention pond
is indeed Mark Thompson, as the wallet found at the camp suggested. And he was living in the makeshift shelter
police found under the highway. But with the confirmation of his identity, the mystery only deepens.
Thompson was fairly young, only 39 years old, and according to a college friend,
was not a typical transient. In fact, he was a bright, college-trained commercial artist from a middle class family in Wisconsin.
Mark was definitely that stand out or stand alone individual. He was a phenomenal, phenomenal piece of work.
NARRATOR: Ron McDonald met Mark Thompson in art school in Denver in 1985. RON MCDONALD: Anything he picked up just became golden.
There wasn't anything he couldn't do, any medium that he couldn't handle. And anything that he tried, any attempt,
it just came out great. NARRATOR: But it's a long way from painting class to the retention pond by the John Young Parkway, a path that
begins when Thompson drops out of art school a year after enrolling. For several years, McDonald loses
track of his talented friend, until McDonald moves to Florida in 1987 to take up surfing.
But although Thompson seems as friendly as he was in art school, it's a changed man with whom
McDonald renews his friendship. Those changes become all too clear after McDonald helps Thompson get a few jobs
as a freelance artist. He would come to me and go, you know, your friend, he's a phenomenal artist, you know, is a great craftsman,
but he's got a problem, OK? He has-- he has a drinking problem, and it affects his work.
So in that aspect, and from what I understand, that kind of burned his bridges every place he worked.
Even though he could-- he could produce and put out the talent, he had this problem that kept reappearing.
NARRATOR: When McDonald raises the subject of drinking, Mark pushes the subject aside.
According to McDonald, Mark later confides to him that he has a bipolar disorder, and that he
is unable to overcome the obstacles of his illness. For the longest time, he was--
I think he was worried about maintaining a status, the job, the 9:00 to 5:00, the apartment, the car.
When he realized that he didn't need the apartment and the car, jobs became less important to him.
He became my homeless friend. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: That's when Thompson takes refuge
in his homemade cabin at the retention pond near the John Young Parkway. RON MCDONALD: He would not stay stumbling
drunk, smelly, homeless, OK? Didn't go round in tatters and tags. Didn't stand on the corner begging
for food, begging for money. Wasn't him. NARRATOR: But despite Mark's unique lifestyle, none of this
explains how he wound up face down in the retention pond. Back at the morgue, Dr. G has received the reports
from the toxicity tests. Tests on Thompson's liver tissue have revealed an alcohol level
of just below 10%, or 0.1. But even that figure is not reliable because of the advanced state of decay.
Do I think it was accurate? No, because we're checking it in the liver. It may be falsely elevated.
Maybe he had no alcohol and it was just all due from decomposition. NARRATOR: When the bacteria in the body
ran loose during decomposition, one of the materials they produce is alcohol. So the test results don't necessarily prove anything
about his blood alcohol level. You know, another possibility is that maybe that's lower
than he normally has, and he has an alcohol withdrawal seizure. I don't know. You know, it's hard.
We don't have all the pieces. I felt the preponderance of the evidence showed that there was no foul play.
He's found in the water with no evidence of trauma. NARRATOR: In the end, Dr. G must fall back on the one solid clue
she found during the autopsy, the large amount of mouthwash in Thompson's stomach.
Some of the people who have a hard time getting alcohol will drink mouthwash because of the high alcohol content.
My investigators said there were numerous bottles of mouthwash in his little tent.
The mouthwash was 27% alcohol, because we had a lot of still those alcohol bottles.
It was off brand. It looks like he bought-- I think that it even said $0.99 for a big model,
and 27% alcohol. NARRATOR: At this point, Dr. G is able to reconstruct the simple tragedy
of Mark Thompson's death. Although he has found a way of life that seems to be satisfying, according to his friends,
Thompson also appears to be occasionally drinking to excess. Well-kept and tidy as he is, he keeps an abundant supply
of the cheapest possible source, mouthwash, which is inexpensive and has a relatively high alcohol content.
On the day of his death, Thompson has consumed a large amount of his mouthwash. Either restless, or possibly because his bladder is full,
he stumbles from his tent and walks toward the retention pond. [MUSIC PLAYING] JAN GARAVAGLIA: Looks like he was just drunk
and fell in the water. No trauma, no foul play that we can find. So it will be ruled as just an accidental drowning.
I think maybe there's a few pieces of the puzzle that we're not quite sure of, but what
we're sure of is it didn't look like any foul play came his way. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: A clear conclusion, Mark Thompson died as he lived in the world he carved
out for himself on the fringes of mainstream society. He seemed like kind of an interesting fella.
He actually had an article in his back pocket that I pulled out from "Reader's Digest."
It sounded really interesting. I think it was something on nutrition that I wanted to read.
So I might've liked the guy. NARRATOR: Next on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" a dead baby and a story that isn't adding up.
It wasn't making sense. The marks aren't making sense. NARRATOR: Coming up later on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner,"
an Orlando vacation for a British family concludes with a trip to Dr. G's morgue.
I kept saying, pinch me, I'm dreaming. This is a nightmare. It's not really happening.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Few tragedies are more agonizing than the death of a child.
For Dr. G, a child's death is both a tragedy and an assignment. No case requires closer attention,
because scrutiny from Dr. G can trap the guilty or clear the innocent. That difficult task was at the heart of a case
that Dr. G covered while serving as medical examiner in Texas during the 1990s. For Charlotte Kansler, the day that would change her life
forever began with a morning ritual familiar to many working parents. Heading off to her job, she leaves her 1 and 1/2 year old
son, Danny, in the hands of a trusted babysitter who cares for several neighborhood
children on a regular basis. It is the last time she will ever see her little boy alive.
Just a few hours after Danny is handed over, police receive a panic 9-1-1 call. Babysitter Hilary Turner claims to have
found Danny in his playpen unconscious and not breathing. Turner tells police that the death was a freak accident,
and that she simply found Danny already unconscious when she came in to check on him.
But when the ER doctor examines Danny's body, he makes a far more troubling diagnosis.
The emergency room doctor was concerned because of the trauma patterns that were on the head and neck.
There were some bruising around the neck, and it was just inconsistent with like, a natural process.
So it was something that he couldn't explain. DOCTOR: Still very concerned about the exam findings.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: The ER doctor was suspicious and felt that this was a strangulation, and that he
had told police that it was a strangulation death. NARRATOR: Based on the findings of the ER doctor,
police bring in Hilary Turner on suspicion of murder. But for a formal murder charge to be levied,
a ruling of homicide must be declared by the medical examiner's office, a task that falls to Dr. G.
[MUSIC PLAYING] When Danny's body arrives at the morgue, Dr. G can see right away what alarmed the ER doctor.
Along with an abrasion and neck bruises, Danny bears the telltale signs of asphyxiation.
The baby had petechiae of its skin of its face. The petechiae are the little capillaries that bleed,
and you get the little pinpoint hemorrhages. Had them all over his face, and he had them
in the conjunctiva of his eye, you know, you look down on the clear part? He had all the little hemorrhages in there.
NARRATOR: Often during strangulation, blood continues to pump into the head through the arteries,
but the strangling force stops blood from freely flowing back out of the head. Like over filling a balloon, the resulting pressure
ruptures the small vessels, causing the symptomatic petechiae. But what exactly can Dr. G deduce from those clues?
What or who caused Danny's strangulation? JAN GARAVAGLIA: The only thing I knew is that the woman running the daycare
found this child unresponsive. We didn't have exactly what her story was. I didn't quite understand what the circumstances were.
So things were just a little hazy. STEVEN HANSON: It's unfortunate, but in this line of work,
we see too many kids that are killed by caretakers, be they parents, or step parents, or siblings,
or providers. NARRATOR: Recent statistics indicate that 20% of all children in America
suffer from some form of abuse, and as many as 1,400 can die from abuse in one year.
So a lot of these cases come in as nothing, and we find somebody did something to the kid.
NARRATOR: One of Dr. G's first steps is to read her investigator's field report,
but the report doesn't describe the nature of the accident that babysitter Turner claims took place.
Given the ER doctor's findings, and the fact that Turner was the only adult with access to the little boy,
police find Turner's story hard to swallow. Any adult that was within that household in charge
of supervision of these children automatically, you know, can be termed as suspects.
And our job is to come back and find facts and evidence to be able to support our beliefs on our allegations.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Knowing that the only thing standing between the babysitter and a murder trial
are her own findings, Dr. G makes no snap judgments. While the police and the babysitter
wait for her decision, Dr. G makes it clear that she won't be rushed. She declined to make a ruling or determination of what
the cause of death was because there were some areas of concern on both sides, on the medical side,
and on the law enforcement side, as to really what may have caused the death of this child.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: I do a lot of autopsies. I do a lot of autopsies on children who are murdered.
You don't really need to strangle a baby to kill it. That's not usually how people kill babies.
It didn't-- it wasn't making sense. The marks weren't making sense. NARRATOR: But the autopsy findings
are still not enough to put the remaining pieces of this puzzle together. And that's when Dr. G decides on an unusual plan
to get to the truth. First, she calls in her field investigator. At that point, I told my investigator,
go back to that crime scene with the police and make sure we have her story correct,
because it does not make sense, these marks on this child. Normally, medical examiners officers
don't send an investigator to a scene when the body's already been removed unless there's a reason for it.
This was obviously an excellent reason. We can't do everything in the autopsy room.
I have to correlate that with what's found at the scene. I have to sometimes determine, is the story right,
or is the story wrong? Do these findings corroborate this story, or is this telling us this person lied?
NARRATOR: On the orders of Dr. G, investigators arrive at the home of Hilary Turner,
the scene of Danny's death. Their purpose, re-enact the baby's death to see if it could have been
an accident, as Turner claims. [MUSIC PLAYING] Coming up on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner,"
will the recreation of the scene concerning the baby sitter's innocence or guilt?
JAN GARAVAGLIA: I want her, in her own words, to say what happened and how she found the baby,
and I want pictures. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G is trying to determine what happened to a 17-month-old boy who died in daycare.
According to the babysitter, Hilary Turner, his death was an accident. But police think she could have killed him.
On the orders of Dr. G, Turner's story is about to be revealed and put to the test in a recreation
of the death scene. JAN GARAVAGLIA: I told my investigator, I want her, in her own words, to say what happened
and how she found the baby, and I want pictures to recreate the scene, so I can tell and look at what she's saying has
happened to that baby and correlate it to what I'm finding at autopsy. NARRATOR: Now, with the police and the field investigators
observing, Hilary Turner tells her whole story for the first time. Investigators follow along.
DETECTIVE: We put the crib back in the position that she said it was in, and we used a large doll
just to represent a child. NARRATOR: Turner explains that Danny Kansler is an overly active toddler who often manages
to climb out of his crib. Turner, who has other children in her care, tells Danny's mother that she needs
a way to keep Danny from wandering around unsupervised. Together, they come up with a seemingly simple
measure to solve the problem. STEVEN HANSON: So they came to a decision that they would put something over the top of the playpen
so that the kid couldn't get out. And was kind of a bed frame that had a springs drawn
across it, the kind of thing that you would put a mattress on top of. He'd wake up, he'd try to get out, he couldn't, he'd cry,
and then the woman would hear him and come out, lift it off, and everything would be fine.
NARRATOR: Next, Turner tells them that a plastic tub filled with toys was sitting on an end table near the crib.
She then claims to have left the room so Danny could nap. She didn't even think about the rest of the room.
Had never been a factor, never been anything to think of before. The toys could have all been on the floor,
they could have been in the playpen, but now, this is where they were when she left the room.
NARRATOR: The investigators take photographs of the crib and surrounding area from different angles, then based
on Turner's accounts, they reconfigure the scene to mirror how it appeared when she returned.
STEVEN HANSON: She comes back into the room, she sees a tub of toys on the bed frame,
and she sees the child hung up between the bed frame and the edge of the playpen.
NARRATOR: Horrified, Turner claims to have removed Danny immediately, and after attempting to revive him,
called 9-1-1. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now, back at the morgue, Dr. G examines this new field evidence.
Does the babysitter's description match the injuries seen during the autopsy? She said when she found that baby,
she had the metal spring was entrapped under the child on one side of the neck, and the playpen edge was entrapping
the front of the neck. STEVEN HANSON: Dr. G saw marks on the kid's neck, and on the back of his neck, and on his head.
This is the kind of pattern that you would expect to see then if that child was in that position.
Everything now seems to make sense. The injury pattern is consistent with the story based on what
we were able to re-enact. How she explained the death matched perfectly to what I found at autopsy.
NARRATOR: The re-enactment photographs also enable Dr. G to discover the most likely series of events
that led to baby Danny's death. Danny wakes soon after Turner leaves and sees the tub
full of toys just out of reach. With the surprising strength of a determined child,
he forces the bed frame up a few inches and squeezes into the opening. As he reaches to grab a toy, the tub slides onto the bed frame,
making it heavier still, and trapping Danny against the railing of the crib. You could really understand how he tried to tiptoe,
and the metal hit the back of his head pretty hard, because the tub came over and hit the metal
and then it slid down. STEVEN HANSON: And it was logical as we went through it, that yes, this very well
could have happened this way. And it seemed to be consistent with everything that we'd heard.
So what originally was felt to be a strangulation, possible murder or homicide, a strangulation
homicide, actually turned out to be an accidental death with entrapment and suffocation.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: With the truth in hand, Dr. G calls the police and tells them to stop their criminal investigation.
Hilary Turner is innocent. After Dr. G presents a full and detailed explanation of the forensic findings, all charges against Hillary Turner
are dropped. We were totally satisfied, and are satisfied today, that the daycare provider is not responsible
for any criminal activity that led to the death of the child. JAN GARAVAGLIA: My medical investigator
did a great job for me. I thought the sheriff's office did a great job letting her speak in her own words, taking
the key pictures that I needed. And I think the whole team did a great job in finding
out what the truth was. NARRATOR: All too often, it is the medical examiner's duty
to see that a guilty party gets punished. Putting the tragic case of Danny Kansler Dr. G
had the rewarding task of seeing to it that the innocent went free. The mother came in months after the child had died
to bring me pictures of the funeral and to talk about that she was thankful that I had cleared
her friend of any wrongdoing. It's great when you can clear somebody too, to say,
you know what, her story is completely true. And that's a great feeling that you can clear somebody also.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Coming up on "Dr. G, Medical Examiner," could the sudden death of a tourist
be linked to a life of stress and anger? We loved him so much. He was a lovely guy, but you know,
he had a bit of a-- had a bit of a temper on him. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Every year, millions of tourists
invade Orlando, Florida, the theme park capital of America. For most people, it's a place where relaxation
and family fun are a natural. But for a known curmudgeon like Michael Banks, having fun
can be a struggle. The 55-year-old pest control expert has just arrived from his hometown of London, England.
Traveling with his wife, Marion, and daughter, Elizabeth, he is about to embark on his first vacation in 15 years.
Michael's sister, an Orlando resident, has spent months trying to convince Michael to take some time off.
Finally, she succeeds, and gladly meets the family at the airport. I was looking forward to my brother and his family coming
over for the first time to have a vacation with us here in Florida. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Michael and his family spend the first day in Orlando enjoying the sights.
But on the second day, Michael decides the admission price to a theme park is too high.
He's so upset he abandons his family at the gate and walks 6 miles back to the hotel in a huff.
It's a typical reaction for Michael. Nothing was ever simple with my dad. The simplest thing, if he was fixing--
is he was changing a plug, everyone would be involved. Bring me the screwdriver, make me a cup of tea.
It was-- everything was drama. NARRATOR: On day three of the trip, one drama escalates.
At a restaurant, Elizabeth orders Michael a cola. Michael thinks the restaurant is overcharging
for their soft drinks. Did such a stupid thing. He just decided that day he was gonna be difficult, basically,
and say, well, I'm not having that. And I said, but you always say you don't want it when we go for a meal,
and we always get you one. And he says, you're all picking on me. I'm not staying here to listen to this.
NARRATOR: The cola incident intensifies into a full-blown family argument, and Michael storms out in a rage.
Well, I'm going. He was a lovely guy, but you know, he had a bit of a-- had a bit of a temper on him.
NARRATOR: In a huff, Michael has decided to walk the 9 miles back to the hotel. 45 minutes after leaving the restaurant,
witnesses see Michael approach a bus stop and collapse to the ground. A woman calls 911.
EMS workers tried desperately to revive Michael, but it's too late. Michael dies by the side of the road.
[MUSIC PLAYING] A few hours later, Michael Banks's body is brought to the morgue.
Bystanders called 9-1-1, who responded. They transported the victim to the hospital,
where a code was worked until he was pronounced. NARRATOR: His pockets hold a credit card and key,
enough to lead Dr. G's staff to his empty hotel room and locate his sister. Elizabeth and Marion are out enjoying the theme parks
under the Florida Sun, unaware that their lives will never be the same. That evening, it is up to his sister
to deliver the terrible news. Michael is dead. I had to wait for five hours for them to come home,
and it was five hours of agony. It was just awful. It was so-- it was just, you couldn't believe it.
It was unbelievable. It was like a complete nightmare that this had happened to--
to my dad. And he was only 53. We blamed ourselves. We completely blamed ourselves for the first few days.
We thought we basically killed him. We left him to walk home. NARRATOR: They spend the night agonizing over one question,
could the aggravation from their argument, coupled with the heat and stress of the long walk home,
have done Michael into? I feel I'm gonna wake up for two days. I kept saying, pinch me, I'm dreaming.
This is a nightmare. It's not really happening. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, Michael's death isn't about blame
or guilt. His story can only be told through science. The only hope for an answer to the family's question
is a full autopsy. We have yet another one of our tourists here in Orlando. For whatever reason, he's walking
along the side of the road, and he's found dead. NARRATOR: Dr. G examines Michael's body,
looking for evidence of external trauma. Did you get a picture? NARRATOR: An undetected injury, perhaps caused
by a large object, is one possible explanation for an abrupt death. I've done that external exam.
I don't see any trauma on him, anterior, posterior, anything about his head. But of course, we can't tell until for sure we
get into the body and do the autopsy. NARRATOR: Ruling out trauma, Dr. G knows what to look for next.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: Usually, the big three when we're looking at somebody walking, talking with no symptoms and just collapsing is the heart,
blood clots to the lungs, and then some catastrophic thing in your brain, like a bleed, a large bleed in your brain.
And those are the three things we look at. NARRATOR: Dr. G begins the autopsy with a Y incision
opening Michael's chest cavity. So far, everything looks good. As we suspected, there's no evidence of trauma, at least
in his body cavities, chest abdominal cavities. OK, I'll go ahead and take the heart and lungs out,
then I'll let you in. Of course, he is from England here on vacation, so possibly a pulmonary embolisc is another reason.
NARRATOR: Pulmonary embolism can often be deadly. They sometimes strike airline passengers after long flights.
Sitting in one position for many hours, blood clots can form in the leg, break loose,
and travel through the circulatory system, often with fatal consequences. Those blood clots get clogged up in the lungs,
so then you can go down really fast. We don't have the brain yet. NARRATOR: Michael's lungs reveal he's a smoker,
but there is no evidence of clots. 700. NARRATOR: He did not succumb to a pulmonary embolism.
Let's see, a rib fracture from CPR. NARRATOR: Ruling out the first of three likely culprits,
Dr. G considers the concerns of Michael's family. They want to know, could his agitated state
from the argument or the long walk home have contributed to his demise? She continues the autopsy with this in mind.
You know, that's a big global question on how stress affects your body. And there's all sorts of research
on how stress is a negative influence on your body. NARRATOR: Dr. G removes and weighs the heart.
It's heavier than it should be. JAN GARAVAGLIA: 475. OK. NARRATOR: A sign of high blood pressure.
She begins the dissection. JAN GARAVAGLIA: So far, the left anterior descending has
just minimal atherosclerosis. Nothing that should cause him problems. Looking at the right coronary artery, this is the aorta.
This is the coronary artery coming off the aorta. And so far, that looks good too.
That's good and crunchy. That's not looking good. NARRATOR: Slicing carefully through Michael's
coronary artery, Dr. G discovers a deadly amount of the plaque buildup. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Here's the coronary artery starting out.
You can see it's very nice. And then we can see a little bit here. Not looking good there.
It's really not looking good there. Appears to be that's probably his cause of death right there.
NARRATOR: Dr. G holds in her hands the number one killer in the country, a diseased heart.
Michael's coronary artery is 95% blocked, leaving only a narrow hole for the blood to get through.
In that tiny opening, a small particle of plaque is lodged, blocking blood flow almost completely.
It's a deadly scenario that allows Dr. G to understand what happened during Michael's final walk.
[MUSIC PLAYING] At 8:00 AM, the family sits down to breakfast at a restaurant buffet.
The argument begins. Yes, it is a big deal. NARRATOR: Michael's anger gets the best of him,
and he marches off in a rage. Well, I'm going. NARRATOR: Walking down the street, his heart needs oxygen,
and it's having a hard time getting it. The right coronary artery was supplying a large part of his heart.
That was narrowed down 95 percent. Only 5% opening left. And it appeared that there was an acute little clot
filling that. NARRATOR: Michael's heart is entering the danger zone. The buildup, which has taken years to accumulate,
is finally blocking the flow of blood. Starved for oxygen, the heart muscle enters into arrhythmia.
It begins to spasm erratically. It was irritated from the lack of oxygen. It can't beat the normal beat, and it just starts quivering.
And that's what he had. And then if you're quivering, you're not pumping, and that means no blood going to your organs, particularly
your brain, and then you collapse. NARRATOR: As witnesses report, Michael simply falls to the ground.
His heart has stopped dead. He could have died anywhere. He had some severe heart disease.
NARRATOR: Michael's family is relieved to hear Dr. G say it. His heart attack was not the result of the fight
they had earlier that day. After 52 years of cholesterol buildup, a heart attack was inevitable.
We loved him. We loved him so much. But at the end of the day, he was the only one who could stop the cigarettes, stop the bad food.
We couldn't force him to eat healthy meals. We couldn't force him to stop smoking.
I wish we could have done. JAN GARAVAGLIA: I think a little preventive care on this man
would have gone a long way. NARRATOR: As is often the case, Dr. G's findings bring new perspective to a dead man's family.
[INAUDIBLE] in case you want to look at it someday. This could've happened any time.
This could've happened in England. I mean, he only had 5% narrowing. I mean, he only had 5% of that lumen left.
There was very little blood getting through that. And so it could have happened at any time.
NARRATOR: Her words bring the women sobering comfort. Dr. G, she was the most amazing woman.
I've never, ever in my whole lifetime met anyone as amazing as her, that sat down and explained everything to us,
drew diagrams for us, explained the meaning of the words. And she was so kind. ELIZABETH BANKS: She had time.
She had time. MARION: And if more people gave time to other people, then there'd be a lot more understanding
and healing in this world. I think we got healed because of the words we heard. [MUSIC PLAYING]

A decomposing body is found in a pond and a tent is found nearby. Dr. G performs the autopsy in the morgue but finds few clues other than fingerprints and mouthwash in the stomach.

A Florida medical examiner takes viewers through puzzling cases while explaining procedures and conclusions.

Brief Summary

Dr. G investigates a drowning, a child's death, and a tourist's heart attack, revealing accidental causes in all three cases.

Key points

A Mystery Man Found. A mystery man is discovered dead in a retention pond, raising questions about his identity.
The Tragic Death of a Child. A mother's worst nightmare unfolds as her son dies in daycare, leading to a murder investigation.
Mouthwash Clue. Dr. G discovers an unusual clue in the stomach contents of the deceased, hinting at a deeper story.
Mark Thompson's Identity Revealed. The man found in the retention pond is identified as Mark Thompson, a once-promising artist.
Accidental Drowning Conclusion. Dr. G concludes that Mark Thompson's death was an accidental drowning, with no foul play involved.
The Investigation Begins. Police find the babysitter's story hard to swallow after a child's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We blamed ourselves. We completely blamed ourselves.

Family guilt after a tourist's sudden death.

1:00WatchMay 18, 2021

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.