Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 2, Episode 19 - On The Run - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] JEFF COLT: A mentally disabled man dies mysteriously in a group home on Thanksgiving Day.
Did he succumb to a rare killer? We do know that he has a history of seizures, and that they're getting worse.
JEFF COLT: Or could he have fallen victim to some sort of foul play? We are always looking for abuse
in any type of care home or institution where somebody dies. [SIRENS] JEFF COLT: Then a car goes up in flames on the roadside,
incinerating the driver. Well, the body was burned beyond recognition. JEFF COLT: Will Dr. G be able to identify the body
and find the killer? And I said, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to help you here.
JEFF COLT: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations. These are the everyday cases of "Dr. G, Medical Examiner."
Thanksgiving, a day synonymous with bounty and family. Thank you, God, for the good food and our good friends here.
Thank you for all the wonderful things that have happened to us this year. Come and get as much as you want, and then pass it on.
There's a lot more here. JEFF COLT: But Dr. G has learned that for a medical examiner,
the holidays are also a time to expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, you know, you do
get a whole kind of different kind of deaths around the holidays. Families get together, special things occur.
I mean, there's always these little bizarre holiday kind of deaths. JEFF COLT: When Dr. G gets to the morgue
the morning after Thanksgiving, she encounters what just might be one of those strange deaths,
the case of Jimmy Sawyer, a developmentally disabled 32-year-old. According to the investigator's report,
Jimmy was a resident of Morningside House, a group home for developmentally challenged
adults in Orlando, Florida. He'd been living there for a little over a year since the death of his mother.
He's mentally challenged. He supposedly kind of has a little kid mentality, and kind of developmentally very slow.
JEFF COLT: But on the day of Jimmy's death, staff at Morningside don't notice much out of the ordinary.
It's Thanksgiving, and most folks are busy preparing for the holiday meal. According to one of the cooks, Jimmy
does enter the kitchen at one point, and begins acting strangely. She did say that he was kind of slinking around the kitchen.
JEFF COLT: But he doesn't stay long, and a few moments later, he returns to his room alone.
Then, as residents begin to gather for the big feast, one of the staff members notices that Jimmy is missing.
Figuring he is just taking an afternoon nap, she enters his room to wake him. But to her horror, he isn't sleeping.
Jimmy is dead. JAN GARAVAGLIA: He died at about 12:00, so he didn't get to celebrate.
He didn't get the Thanksgiving dinner. JEFF COLT: Investigators find nothing that hints at a cause of death, no medications near Jimmy's
body, no signs of a struggle. The initial scene suggested that nothing was disturbed.
But there's really not much in his room besides a chest of drawers and a bed. JEFF COLT: With nothing to go on,
Dr. G hopes that Jimmy's medical records will hold some clues. Now unfortunately, he does have
a long history of obviously mental developmental problems since birth. JEFF COLT: According to his file,
Jimmy had the mental capacity of a five-year-old. Through his adult life, he exhibited childlike behavior,
like throwing tantrums and putting inappropriate objects in his mouth. But he also had other serious health issues.
He also has a problem with seizures. JEFF COLT: Jimmy's medical records indicate that he suffered from epilepsy,
a disorder marked by shaking and confusion that often leaves victims unconscious for brief periods
of time. These seizures occur when nerve cells in the brain become overactive and fire off uncontrolled random signals
to the body. We do know that his seizures-- they're getting worse. That's usually a bad sign.
JEFF COLT: While most people with epilepsy live full, active lives, a small percentage-- less than 1%--
die each year directly as a result of seizures. Determining death by seizure is extremely
difficult for a medical examiner, because seizures rarely leave physical evidence.
But there is a second, more sinister possibility that would leave clear physical evidence.
Could Jimmy be the victim of abuse at the hands of his caretakers or housemates?
You know, we always worry when you're in a group home. Tensions kind of flare. We just make sure there's no abuse, there's no trauma.
You have a house full of mentally handicapped, so we'll see that nothing happened to him, no foul play.
JEFF COLT: Ruling out foul play is the investigation's top priority. Because if Jimmy is being criminally
abused at Morningside, other developmentally disabled men and women could be at risk.
SUE SWENSON: Abuse happens for a lot of reasons. And the point is to try to get to the bottom of that as much
as possible, and make sure that nobody is living in a situation where they have to live with a threat of abuse in their life.
JEFF COLT: If residents in Jimmy's home are being abused, Dr. G may be their only chance to stop it.
[SIDE CONVERSATION] JEFF COLT: As is often the case, Dr. G learns much from first impressions.
Bottom of his feet are dirty. Looks like he walks around barefoot. And just a kind of unkept appearance,
dirt under his nails. He didn't have any front teeth. He is probably in control of his own hygiene, at least,
at that group home, and it wasn't that good. JEFF COLT: But was he possibly the victim
of outright physical abuse? Dr. G looks for the telltale signs. He's got a lot of chronic scars on him,
scars on his chest, some scars on his arm. I don't know if he's into self-mutilation,
or if it was just a rough life. Got a little abrasion on his back too, right on his shoulder.
JEFF COLT: But she quickly determines that whatever caused these scars didn't contribute to Jimmy's death.
They're all healed, nothing acute, and nothing that stands out he's chronically abused.
JEFF COLT: So far, Dr. G has found no signs of foul play on Jimmy's body. However, the internal exam could change everything.
We'll have to wait till we get inside to see if there's any acute trauma. JEFF COLT: Coming up next, while looking for signs
of internal trauma, Dr. G discovers what may be a rare and deadly condition. The condition called status epilepticus
lasts for 30 minutes, and that itself can kill you. JEFF COLT: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] We can see-- did you see this wrist scar? JEFF COLT: Dr. G is hunting for signs of physical abuse
on the body of 32-year-old Jimmy Sawyer, a developmentally disabled man found dead in a group home
on Thanksgiving Day. You know, we are always looking for abuse in any type of care home or institution
where somebody dies. Is it something we typically see? No, usually they're not from abuse
or from murder from the other people living there. But is it something we could occasionally see?
Yes. Have I seen it before? Yes. JEFF COLT: It's also possible that Jimmy may have died as a result of a lifelong problem with seizures.
The only way to find answers will be in the internal exam. OK. JEFF COLT: With a Y-incision, Dr. G
opens the chest of Jimmy Sawyer and begins the internal exam. Everything looks normal so far.
And we're always looking for hemorrhages. Is he punched in the chest? You know, it could give us a telltale indication.
[INAUDIBLE] but it looks OK. JEFF COLT: As she examines the chest cavity, she searches for bleeding in the layers of muscle and fat,
bleeding that may indicate an injury. No evidence of hemorrhage as we pull the skin and muscles
and fat away from his chest cavity. JEFF COLT: At this stage of the autopsy, Dr. G still has no answer about what killed Jimmy Sawyer.
But foul play is looking less likely. There's no evidence of trauma. It's looking to be natural.
JEFF COLT: This conclusion also leads Dr. G back to her initial theory, that Jimmy's
death may have been caused by one of his past medical conditions. We do know that he has a history of seizures.
We do know that they're getting worse. That's usually a bad sign. JEFF COLT: A seizure disorder, more commonly known
as epilepsy, can be dangerous, and on rare occasions prove fatal. One danger has to do with when a seizure strikes.
The seizure itself is not usually as dangerous as what the person is doing when the seizure occurs,
for example, standing on a ladder, putting a roof on a building. Driving a car, especially, is a very dangerous activity.
JEFF COLT: But certain type of seizures can kill outright. Seizures that go on for a very long period of time themselves
can be quite dangerous. And a condition called status epilepticus is a seizure that
lasts for 30 minutes or longer, or multiple seizures within 30 minutes, not waking up in between.
And that itself can kill you. JEFF COLT: If Jimmy suffered one of these prolonged
seizures on Thanksgiving Day, it could have caused his death. But trying to determine whether someone died
from any type of seizure is one of the most difficult tasks for a medical examiner.
Most of the time, you see no physical signs of a seizure. All we see is a dead body with normal organs.
JEFF COLT: Now the only way to prove that Jimmy died from a seizure is to rule out every other possible cause
of death. Can I close him up? JEFF COLT: The diagnosis is now a process of elimination.
Dr. G begins to go through Jimmy's organs one by one. The heart is [INAUDIBLE] TECH: 340.
340, great. He has one kind of slight narrowing to his coronary arteries. It probably wouldn't caused him any trouble.
So far, I don't really see much. JEFF COLT: So far, all of Jimmy's organs appear normal.
For a seizure-related death, this is exactly what she expects to find. This is the right.
JEFF COLT: But when she removes and weighs Jimmy's lungs, she is surprised, because they don't
fit the profile of a slower death associated with seizures. His lungs were very light, indicating he
probably died fairly quickly. Sometimes with the seizures, they get very heavy lungs.
A lot of fluid builds up in their lungs as they slowly stop breathing. JEFF COLT: Suddenly, the evidence
is suggesting that an epileptic seizure may not have killed Jimmy after all. Well into the internal exam, Jimmy Sawyer's death
is becoming more mysterious by the minute. Coming up next, Dr. G makes a disturbing discovery
that may finally explain Jimmy's strange and untimely demise. There is something huge and meaty that has plunged
down on top of his vocal cords. JEFF COLT: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] [SIDE CONVERSATION] JEFF COLT: Dr. G examines Jimmy Sawyer's stomach, one of the last remaining organs
to dissect in the autopsy. If Jimmy ingested any drugs or toxins just before he died,
evidence may appear there. His stomach contained about 330 cc's of partially digested food, nothing--
you know, no capsules, no pills. You know, maybe he went and got into some medication.
I didn't see that in there. JEFF COLT: The finding is yet another dead end in what
has become a perplexing case. When Jimmy, a 32-year-old developmentally disabled man,
arrived at the morgue on the day after Thanksgiving, Dr. G suspected that he died either as a result
of his longstanding seizure disorder or at the hands of an assailant. So far, the autopsy has revealed evidence of neither.
So let's see. Let me finish that neck to get that over with. JEFF COLT: Knowing that the answer to his death
may be anywhere, Dr. G moves on to the dissection of Jimmy's throat. The throat is divided into two passageways,
the trachea and the esophagus. The trachea transports air to the lungs, and the esophagus carries food to the stomach.
When a person swallows food, a flat piece of cartilage called the epiglottis folds over the trachea to prevent the food
from entering the wrong tube and blocking off the air supply to the lungs. With her scalpel, Dr. G slices open Jimmy's throat,
and immediately she finds what may be the key to Jimmy's death. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Quite to my surprise
is that as I'm taking the neck out, there was something obstructing his airway. There was something huge and meaty
that has plunged down on top of his vocal cords, totally obstructing him getting any air at all
into his trachea and lungs. JEFF COLT: Having just prepared her own Thanksgiving
dinner yesterday, Dr. G instantly recognizes the obstruction. It's a turkey gizzard.
So he had a raw turkey gizzard plunged up against his vocal cords, which is the only way
for his trachea to get air. And your vocal cords are like this-- it just plunged right in there, totally obstruct--
it was like a plunger. I mean, it just-- no way any air could get through that. So he choked to death by an obstruction of his airway
with a raw turkey gizzard. JEFF COLT: With this definitive piece of evidence in hand,
Dr. G can now replay the final moments in Jimmy's It's just before noon on Thanksgiving
Day at Morningside House. Caregivers are preparing the day's feast, including two large fresh turkeys.
Jimmy Sawyer is excited, too excited. According to the staff members cooking that day,
Jimmy was hanging around the kitchen, behaving strangely. When we re-questioned the caregiver,
she did say that he was kind of slinking around the kitchen. JEFF COLT: Jimmy, who has a history of putting
inappropriate objects in his mouth, spots something that suddenly captivates his five-year-old mind.
Moments later, he is nowhere to be seen. I don't know what he thought that turkey gizzard was,
but it looks like a piece of meat. JEFF COLT: Knowing that he is doing something
he shouldn't, Jimmy heads for his room to enjoy his guilty pleasure. And in this fellow, he didn't have any front teeth,
the upper teeth. His incisors were all gone. He's trying to swallow this quickly
so nobody knows he took it. I mean, he knows he probably did something wrong. He snuck and got that little special turkey gizzard.
And he's probably going on the run while he's walking away as he's trying to eat it.
And he's mentally disabled. He probably doesn't have that coordination. JEFF COLT: Inside Jimmy's throat,
the gizzard instantly interrupts one of the body's most vital and delicate physical processes,
the movement of the epiglottis. Your esophagus and your trachea basically start out as the same tube, and then they split.
The air goes down one way, and the food goes the other. And there's a little valve there, the epiglottis,
that kind of closes off your airway when you swallow so the food goes down into your esophagus.
JEFF COLT: Perhaps Jimmy inhales at just the wrong moment. Perhaps he gasps. But the epiglottis fails to cover
the entrance to his trachea. In a split second, the wet and slick gizzard slides down the wrong pipe, blocking off the air
supply to Jimmy's lungs. Tragically, the same developmental disability that inspired him to eat the gizzard
may have contributed to the slow response of his epiglottis. We see it certainly with any kind of neurologic disease,
people have Alzheimer's or dementia, Parkinson's disease, or even sometimes mental retardation.
That coordination of swallowing and breathing air isn't probably as good as in a normal adult.
JEFF COLT: With Jimmy's windpipe blocked, air no longer reaches his lungs and he begins to suffocate.
Within a minute, he falls unconscious. In less than three, he is dead. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Sometimes what Dr. G discovers in an autopsy reinforces life's most elementary lessons.
In the case of Jimmy Sawyer, we're all reminded, however tragically, to be very careful how we chew our food.
Certainly, 3,000 to 4,000 people across the United States die from obstruction of their airway because they choke.
[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Say you'll miss me when I'm gone. JAN GARAVAGLIA: We usually see it at like, banquets
and weddings, because you're eating and talking and drinking all at the same time.
And something they've put in their mouth obstructs their airway, and they get a lack of oxygen,
and you die. JEFF COLT: A sobering warning that everyone should take to heart every holiday.
You know, we do see the darker side of the holidays that some of you don't see. And certainly-- and may I say the pun--
death doesn't take a holiday. (SINGING) Will you miss me when I'm gone? JEFF COLT: Coming up next, a car bursts
into flames on a deserted road, incinerating the driver. I knew my very first question is make sure who he is.
JEFF COLT: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. It's a Saturday morning in rural Florida,
and 40-year-old James Murphy is buying guns. He is an immigrant from Ireland in danger of losing his visa,
and he's heavily in debt. His next stop is a used car dealership where he buys a pickup truck and pays in cash, wired earlier
that morning from a friend. These are the final touches on a plan that James hopes will
solve all of his problems, a plan that will make finding him next to impossible.
Two days later, not far from the used car dealership where James Murphy just bought a car,
two teenagers happened upon a horrific sight. So some young adults were in this area on this kind
of deserted road, and they did see this car burning on the side of the road. JEFF COLT: Frantic, they dialed 9-1-1.
[SIRENS] Police and firefighters respond immediately, extinguishing the raging fire.
But when the smoke clears, investigator Daniel Ortiz makes a grim discovery, a human torso.
The body was burned beyond recognition. JEFF COLT: And he finds more than just charred human remains.
What I found was, again, a 12-gauge shotgun on a vertical position. I also found a handgun on the floor of the driver's side.
JEFF COLT: Investigator Ortiz officially declares this a crime scene. To solve the case, investigators must first determine who
this person is and how he died. For that they turn to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia.
The next morning, Investigator Ortiz personally delivers the human remains to Dr. G.
He brings the body in a body bag and says, you know, this is what we've got. JEFF COLT: But before Dr. G begins her examination
of the remains, Investigator Ortiz provides some important background on the case.
Here's the pictures we got from the scene. JEFF COLT: So far, investigators have learned that the vehicle
is registered to a man named James Murphy, a man with a troubled past. Turns out he is having a lot of problems.
He's having problems with his visa. He came in with a visa to Canada. Now he's in the United States.
Think he's afraid he's going to lose his visa. Things were not going well for him.
He started a job, started a business that went sour. His wife has left him. His kids have left him.
He was having problems back home. JEFF COLT: Now investigators want to know, is the charred torso found in the truck
the body of James Murphy? I knew my very first question is make sure who he is. JEFF COLT: Since the car is registered to him,
it would appear that the burned body is Murphy's. But a medical examiner cannot ID a body using
circumstantial evidence alone. Police are counting on Dr. G to find ironclad forensic proof.
But we still had to make sure that this is the same fellow that the car was registered to.
JEFF COLT: This is all the more important given Murphy's troubled past. JAN GARAVAGLIA: This could all be staged.
Could it be that he wanted a new start, and he's going to just state that he's no longer living?
JEFF COLT: On average, more than 800,000 Americans are reported missing each year.
Over 80% disappear on purpose, and a small number of those attempt to stage their own deaths.
If Murphy did try to pull off such a plan, one thing is clear. To succeed, he would have needed a substitute
for his own body, which would mean one of two things. Either he secured a cadaver and put it in the truck,
or he killed someone else to fake his own death. You know, that's one possibility.
That's what makes the identification so vital. JEFF COLT: To solve this first mystery,
Dr. G turns to what's left of the body. [INTERPOSING VOICES] JEFF COLT: But when she unzips the body bag,
she discovers a gruesome sight. Oh, boy, he is really burnt! I look at the body, and it's, you know, 32 inches in length,
and completely charred. No extremities, a lot of you know, just charred down into the internal organs,
which are all charred. JEFF COLT: The horrendous state of the body will make the identification process
anything but straightforward. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Our routine methods aren't going to work.
Because, you know, the first thing we do is a visual ID by somebody who knows him.
Nobody's going to be able to visually ID him. JEFF COLT: And since the corpse has no hands, Dr. G cannot rely
on another basic forensic tool. Fingerprints-- he doesn't even have any extremities anymore,
they're burnt away. You can tell that it's a male, though. JEFF COLT: The body is also missing
another part, one that only the most intense fire could destroy, its head. It's pretty bizarre that he's burnt so badly
that he doesn't have a head. I mean, some of the teeth and the jaw-- I mean, they're very resilient to burning.
So this must have been a really intense fire for a long period of time. JEFF COLT: The lack of a head and mouth
create another challenge. Now usually, with our charred bodies, we can identify them by dental, comparing the fillings
and your teeth on the dead body to your pre-mortem dental charting from your dentist.
We couldn't do that with this fellow, because he didn't have a head. We just didn't have anything.
Such a big conflagration, such a fast fire, that they may-- JEFF COLT: During the course of her career,
Dr. G has encountered very few unsolvable cases. Could this be one of them? So can't-- I feel like I'm not going
to be able to tell you much. And I said, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to help you here.
JEFF COLT: Coming up next, Dr. G struggles to ID the burned remains. This guy had to have burned at least an hour or two.
We're going to have to do some more unorthodox methods of identification. JEFF COLT: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] This guy had to have burned at least an hour or two. JEFF COLT: Dr. G begins her day with a challenging and bizarre
task, identifying a completely charred human torso. 24 hours ago, a burning pickup truck belonging to James Murphy
was found in flames on the side of the road. Inside, investigators found only a charred human torso.
And Dr. G must rule out the possibility that Murphy put someone else's body in his place
in order to fake his own death. When we have a burnt torso, there's a couple things we're going to have to do, one of which
is identify who he was. I hope we're going to be able to tell anything from this.
And I've got no abdominal muscle, but I do have an exposed liver. JEFF COLT: While Dr. G works to identify the charred remains,
police discover additional information about Murphy from the friend who wired him money to buy the truck.
He informs Investigator Ortiz that Murphy possesses one unique physical characteristic
that could help determine whether the burned remains are his. He walked with a limp.
And I said, which leg was it? He said he had a leg brace on his right leg. JEFF COLT: The information immediately draws attention
to an item that Investigator Ortiz found in Murphy's burned car. While recovering the weapons, we found what appeared
to be at a time a leg brace. JEFF COLT: However, the presence of a leg brace next to the body
is not enough for Dr. G. If you were going to try to hide your death, the first thing I'd do is make sure my leg
brace is in there with him. So we have to make sure that that leg brace somehow relates to him.
But without legs, that will be nearly impossible. So you start looking and searching for things
that we can identify him with. Fortunately, one small portion of Murphy's body appears to have escaped the worst of the flames.
And I was actually very lucky in this case. Because he's seated in the chair when it's burning,
the back of him gets the least amount of oxygen. So he's not going to burn as much on the back as the front.
But he still had tissue remaining, and particularly in the buttocks region. JEFF COLT: Dr. G carefully dissects
the back portion of the torso, and there she finds a potential clue. Oh my, yeah!
He definitely had something wrong with his right leg. And it just so happens that they were
asymmetric, the right buttocks and the left buttocks. And when I looked into it, and cut them and looked
at the muscle, he had a lot of atrophy, meaning a shrunken muscle that hadn't been used,
and fat infiltration. And that goes along with having a problem neurologically with his muscles of his leg.
JEFF COLT: Since the leg brace and atrophied muscle match, Dr. G concludes that the body is indeed James Murphy's.
He didn't use that leg as much, which goes along with the leg brace on the right.
It was a stroke of luck that his buttocks wasn't burned. But I guess if you're not looking for it,
you're not going to find it, either. JEFF COLT: Against all odds, Dr. G has answered the first question, the identity of the deceased.
Now investigators are counting on her to figure out how James Murphy died. But with so little to work with, she
isn't sure she'll be able to determine Murphy's cause of death. We'll have to see, but you know, things look bleak.
JEFF COLT: By scrutinizing the crime scene photos, Dr. G confirms right away that this is
not a case of accidental death. There appears to be no trauma to the car, and it's on a flat surface.
It's not like we're seeing it flipped over on the side of the road. We're not seeing it in the ditch.
JEFF COLT: The fire appears to have been set deliberately. Now two possibilities remain.
Did some foul play come to him, or did he commit suicide? JEFF COLT: Determined to solve this mystery,
Dr. G first X-rays the charred torso, looking for clues that point either to murder or suicide.
We're looking for bullets. We've X-rayed the whole body. I'm looking for a wound track.
[INTERPOSING VOICES] There is nothing on the X-ray that helps. As a next step, she carefully inspects what's left of James
Murphy's remains inch by inch. But without a head, arms, or legs, identifying signs of trauma is no easy task.
Now if I'd have had the whole body-- if he was completely charred, but I'd had the whole body,
I'd probably have been able to tell. But I didn't have that. He was charred down to 32 inches with no head and no neck
structures. JEFF COLT: By the end of the external exam, Dr. G still has no solid leads, and she
must now look inside James Murphy's blackened body for answers. Even though Dr. G has only scant remains to work with,
she performs the standard Y incision, cutting the charred torso from the shoulder blades
to the sternum. She then removes the burnt organs, looking for any signs of trauma, such as stab
wounds or bullet defects. --find out more than we thought. Lo and behold, I actually found some heart disease.
JEFF COLT: Although this is typically a vital finding in an autopsy, in this case,
it proves nothing. It surely doesn't explain why a gun is there. It surely doesn't explain why there was a fire there.
JEFF COLT: Dr. G is not keen to admit defeat. But with nothing left to examine, she has no choice but to rule Murphy's cause of death
undetermined. I wasn't going to be able to tell with that 32 inches of burnt torso.
I just didn't have enough. JEFF COLT: But just as Dr. G is about to close the case,
Investigator Ortiz offers up a piece of information that could turn the case around.
He said, by the way, I have a bag of debris that I picked up in the car. Do you want it?
And I said, of course! Got that bag of debris for you. JAN GARAVAGLIA: Ah, good!
Well, when I opened up the bag, it was a bag of ash. It had a lot of debris in it.
It had pieces of glass. It had pieces of just ash, pieces of burnt metal, some shotgun shells that were un-shot.
JEFF COLT: But something hidden among the debris catches Dr. G's eye. JAN GARAVAGLIA: But it also, lo and behold,
had three fragments of bone. Each one was probably about three or four inches apiece.
And they had a curvature to the bones that told me where they came from. And I can tell from this bone-- where the suture is
and the curve-- that's the top of his head. JEFF COLT: To Dr. G's trained eye, these small and charred bone fragments provide the evidence
she's been hoping for. As soon as I looked at these bones, I could find the cause of death.
Each one of them had a gunshot wound defect. JEFF COLT: Three skull fragments, three bullet hole defects.
It looks like possibly this is a murder, with three gunshot wounds to the head. That certainly wouldn't be odd from where that body was found.
It's a rough county down there. JEFF COLT: Coming up next, the murder investigation begins.
I am there to find the truth. And that's why we're there, to find out what really happened.
JEFF COLT: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues. Dr. G is carefully examining fragments
from James Murphy's skull, searching for clues that might explain how he died. Each one of them had a gunshot wound defect.
JEFF COLT: Murphy, a debt-ridden immigrant, went up in flames in his car the day before.
And because Dr. G has found several bullet hole wounds in his head, she has reason
to believe he was murdered. That certainly wouldn't be odd from where that body was found.
JEFF COLT: But as Dr. G inspects the contours of the skull fragments more closely,
murder begins to look less likely. From the way they were curved, you could see that they were from the top
of the skull, the calvariam. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. JEFF COLT: At first glance, it appears that Murphy was shot
at least three times through the top of his skull, an uncommon but not impossible angle for a killer
to execute his victim. However, upon closer examination, Dr. G notices something telling about the shape
of the bullet holes. The pieces of bone are kind of chipped off around the central hole.
JEFF COLT: This chipping is referred to as beveling. It can indicate the direction in which the bullet is traveling.
If someone had fired a bullet at James's skull, it would have left a round hole on the outer surface,
and a chipped out defect on the inside of the skull next to the brain. The opposite is true when the bullet exits the skull.
When a bullet is exiting the skull, it would make a clean hole on the inner aspect of the bone,
and a chipped out defect on the outer table of the bone. JEFF COLT: And it is this type of exit wound
that Dr. G recognizes on Murphy's skull fragments. On this case, we can see that the beveling
was on the outside. So those indicated they were clearly exit wounds, exit wounds from the top of the head.
And I can tell from this bone-- where the suture is and the curve-- that's the top of his head.
JEFF COLT: These exit wounds can mean only one thing. Somebody didn't shoot him on the top of the head.
JEFF COLT: Instead, Murphy was shot from below. The bullets are traveling up and out the top of the head.
They entered either in the mouth, or under the chin and going straight up. JEFF COLT: This is a method of execution
consistent with suicide. To Dr. G, the trajectory of the bullets indicates that James Murphy took his own life.
But if Murphy committed suicide, what explains the three separate bullet holes in his skull?
How could Murphy have kept firing rounds into his own head after the first shot?
The explanation lies in the type of gun he used, a shotgun. Unlike handguns, which fire one bullet at a time,
shotguns discharge a cluster of metal pellets known as buckshot. Those are pretty big holes.
They're about a centimeter in length. JEFF COLT: This explains the multiple holes
in Murphy's skull fragments. It's a shotgun defect with buckshot that's going upward
and out the top of his head. JEFF COLT: Buckshot is designed to inflict maximum damage
on its target at close range, which answers one of the case's most grisly mysteries.
This is why he didn't have a head. This is why I didn't see that. Because that was shattered with that shotgun wound.
I'm going to go ahead and just keep this. Because you brought it, we'll consider that part of the body
but-- JEFF COLT: Dr. G has seemingly proven that Murphy was not killed by an assailant, but rather
took his own life with a single shotgun blast to the head. Still, one mystery remains.
Now the question is how the fire started. JEFF COLT: If Murphy did shoot himself,
he couldn't have started the fire afterwards. There is, however, one possible explanation.
I don't think we'll ever have the answer. But it appears he started that fire prior to shooting himself.
He may have started the fire to try to cover up what he did, possibly for insurance purposes, possibly
because he didn't want anybody to know that he committed suicide. JEFF COLT: Based on the forensic evidence and Murphy's
troubled personal history, Dr. G can now piece together the events that led to his death
on that lonely Florida road. James Murphy is down on his luck. He's having financial problems.
His business has failed. He's having personal problems, relationship problems. So it must seem his whole world is caving in on him.
JEFF COLT: But he has a plan to change all that by disappearing for good. He convinces a friend to wire him
money, which he uses to buy a pistol, a shotgun, and a used pickup truck. He places the guns in the car, and drives
to a desolate roadway. It's not a high traffic area. There's mostly ranch heads and what have you.
JEFF COLT: With no witnesses in sight, Murphy takes the next step in his plan. He lights a fire, most likely in the front seat of the car.
As the fire begins to engulf his body, Murphy takes out his new shotgun and carries
out the final step of his plan. Loads it with buckshot, and puts it right in the place that we typically see suicidal shotgun
wounds, under the chance. JEFF COLT: Then he pulls the trigger. This single shot forces a dozen pellets into Murphy's head,
blowing his skull apart and killing him instantly. I mean, a shotgun wound to the head is devastating.
JEFF COLT: The fire consumes the car and most of Murphy's lifeless body. James Murphy executed a complex plan with one goal,
to vanish without a trace. If not for the expertise of a medical examiner, he might have succeeded.
JAN GARAVAGLIA: If you do try to cover up your death, we'll do everything we can do in our power to uncover it.
JEFF COLT: Unfortunately for Murphy, his plan to disappear had one critical flaw.
He chose to die in Dr. G's jurisdiction. I am there to find the truth. I mean, you know, you might say why don't
you just leave the guy alone? But other people would like to know what happened.
Are we supposed to look for a murderer? Or maybe the people who owed him money would
like to know where he went. Or maybe the people who pay his insurance would like
to know what really happened. So there's always-- you know, we don't live in this world alone.
We always have connections to other people. And just because you leave, doesn't mean that nobody
else has a question about it. And that's why we're there, to find out what really happened
[MUSIC PLAYING] ANNOUNCER: (WHISPERING) Atlas.

Teenagers stumble across a horrifying car fire on the side of a desolate stretch of roadway. When the police arrive, they pull severely burned human remains from the driver’s seat.

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

Brief Summary

Jimmy Sawyer choked on a turkey gizzard; James Murphy died by suicide after staging his death.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Jimmy Sawyer. A developmentally disabled man dies unexpectedly on Thanksgiving, raising questions of foul play.
A Shocking Discovery. Dr. G finds a turkey gizzard obstructing Jimmy's airway, revealing the cause of death.
The Gruesome Discovery. Dr. G uncovers a charred torso with no head, complicating identification.
The Shocking Truth. Dr. G finds bullet holes in skull fragments, indicating a possible suicide.
Murphy's Final Plan. James Murphy executes a complex plan to vanish, ending in tragedy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He choked to death by an obstruction of his airway with a raw turkey gizzard.

Dr. G discovers the cause of Jimmy's death.

16:14WatchJun 1, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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