Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 2, Episode 8 - Truth of the Matter - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A man shoots his wife to death on a hunting trip and swears it's a freak accident.
I think it's her first time with her husband hunting and he ends up with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
It sounds a little bit weird to me. NARRATOR: To Uncover the truth, Dr. G will have to literally
piece the clues together. I'm taking super glue and bringing the edges of that wound together.
NARRATOR: Then a man trying to collect a debt gets the surprise of his life. Two others started beating him with a 2x4.
NARRATOR: But two weeks later on the road to recovery, he inexplicably dies. It doesn't matter if it's two weeks or two years earlier.
Forensically, that is a homicide. NARRATOR: And are men are inherently more susceptible
to accidents than women? It's a cliche but I've had them, where they're up sitting on a branch
that they're actually sawed off. NARRATOR: Accidents and the sometimes careless men who have them.
I can't wait for this episode. NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
shocking revelations. These are the everyday cases of Dr. G Medical Examiner. [MUSIC PLAYING]
It's hunting season in morgues across the state of Texas, a time of year that brings its share of firearm
accidents, some of them fatal. Accidents happen. They're loaded weapons. Be very careful.
NARRATOR: Such is the case of Carol Moleskie, a 35-year-old woman shot in the abdomen while stocking
wild turkey the day before. Dr. G begins the case by examining the Sheriff's report.
It consists mainly of testimony from the sole eyewitness to the killing, Carol's husband, Bob.
His heart-- looking at his heart. NARRATOR: According to Bob, he and his wife had recently reunited after a separation
and decided to spend the day together doing some hunting. This was the first time she'd ever been hunting,
and she was just going along with him to be with him. NARRATOR: They hiked several miles into the wilderness, bob
with his high powered rifle slung over his shoulder and Carol following close behind.
He claims that, as he sees a turkey, he's got the one gun that he's going to start firing.
NARRATOR: Then, according to Bob, a freak accident occurs. She's behind him, and he's crouched down.
All he knows is that it's slipping off his shoulder, he's trying to grab it, and it goes off.
[GUNSHOT] NARRATOR: Carol is hit in the midsection. The wound begins to hemorrhage uncontrollably.
Frantic, Bob cuts his way through the forest to a nearby road and flags down a passing truck.
The driver rushes Carol to the hospital, but it's too late. She dies on the operating table from massive blood loss.
They'll be here in an hour and a half. NARRATOR: Now, the Sheriff and medical examiner
are left with one question. Is Bob Moleskie telling the truth? You always have to have a healthy index of suspicion
to be a good medical examiner. A medical examiner takes nothing on face value. You have to be the paranoid one.
NARRATOR: And there's good reason to be skeptical. Fatal hunting accidents are extremely rare.
In 2004, there were over a million licensed hunters in Texas but only four deaths due to accidental shootings.
Most hunters are very responsible. NARRATOR: In addition, Bob's high powered deer rifle
appears to be the wrong weapon for turkey shooting. When you're using a rifle, the only hit shots
you can make on a turkey is a head shot because anything else would destroy all the meat.
And most people just use a shotgun. NARRATOR: Adding to the suspicion is the fact that Bob had told police that he and his wife
had been in marriage counseling. Could he have set something up? Could he have made it look weird?
The central question in this is, is this man's story holding any water? I have to confirm or deny that that makes any sense.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: As a first step, more technicians X-ray the body. One of the transparencies clearly
shows the rifle bullet embedded in the woman's left buttock. Now Dr. G steps in.
Her immediate goal will be to look for any signs of foul play on the outside of the victim.
Externally, I look for any signs. Maybe she struggled with him. Maybe she had a fight with him, any other signs of bruising.
NARRATOR: Carol is heavyset and has an overhanging belly. Below it, on the thigh, she spots the first evidence
that could suggest Carol fought for her life before she was shot. There's a little abrasion on the lower aspect of the abdomen
and a mirror image abrasion on the front of the upper thigh. So basically, the blood vessels are breaking in the skin,
and that's causing the bruising. Arden, are your hands clean? Could you take a quick photo?
I got your camera right here. NARRATOR: Could this be evidence of a second injury?
Yeah, tilt her a little. NARRATOR: Had Carol been beaten first, then shot? Maybe over here.
NARRATOR: Next, Dr. G gets her first close look at the gunshot wound itself. But immediately there's a problem.
While trying in vain to save Carol's life during emergency surgery, doctors made large incisions in her midsection
and greatly altered the bullet wound. So when you first look at her, her belly is, like, all open.
They didn't even sew it back up. She died during surgery. And you don't even see the wound.
Yeah, we have to work through what the hospital's done. NARRATOR: For Dr. G to get any information from the wound,
she must carefully reconstruct it. DR. G: Once you bring it together and meticulously
brought the wound edges together, you can see a nice 1 and 1/2 inch diameter defect from the gunshot.
NARRATOR: The area around the wound is peppered with small marks known as powder tattooing.
The powder tattooing is the gunpowder that's not quite burnt. It's actually the gunpowder hitting your skin, causing
little abrasions to the skin. So that tells me the end of that barrel was fairly close to her.
NARRATOR: Her finding is consistent with Bob's claim that his wife was close behind him.
But it doesn't rule out another ominous scenario. Now, it also could go along where she's just walking around
and he turns around and shoots her. So what's that trajectory? NARRATOR: For the medical examiner,
mapping the trajectory or path of a bullet is the next best thing to finding an eyewitness.
In this case, it may show whether Bob Moleskie is telling the truth or concealing a crime.
According to Bob, the rifle hit the ground causing it to accidentally discharge.
If this is true, the autopsy should reveal that the bullet entered very low on Carol's body.
OK. NARRATOR: To determine trajectory, Dr. G draws a straight line between the entrance wound
to where the bullet lodged inside Carol's left buttock. What she finds at first is disturbing.
It looks like the gunshot wound'S much higher. It looked almost as if the bullet
was going on a downward path. Because I knew where the bullet ended up. I could see that on her buttocks,
and I could see the X-ray where the bullet ended up. NARRATOR: If the bullet entered from this high an angle then
traveled downward to Carol's abdomen and into her left buttock, it would mean that the rifle could have only been
fired from a standing position. And it would suggest one thing, Bob is lying. Outside the morgue, the police arrived independently
at a similar conclusion. Bob Moleskie has insisted that his rifle went off accidentally.
But when deputies try to duplicate the misfire, they fail. We tested a gun and we bumped it and we could not
set off the trigger that way. After I told him that we had already tested it for that
and we could not set trigger off, he said, oh my god, you think I pulled the trigger.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G finally unravels the surprising cause of Carol's mysterious bruising.
As the abdomen expanded, it slapped against the thigh. NARRATOR: When Dr. G Medical Examiner continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] The body of gunshot victim Carol Moleskie is at the Bexar County Morgue awaiting internal exam.
The day before, she was killed during a hunting trip with her husband Bob. He claims that his gun fell to the ground
and misfired, sending a bullet into her gut. But so far, Dr. G's external exam and the police investigation suggests that he
may have killed his wife. Does it makes sense for an accident, or is it clearly that he just couldn't stand her nagging,
or for some whatever reason, lures her out there on her only hunting trip to kill her out in the woods?
NARRATOR: Now, determining the guilt or innocence of the husband will come down to one thing,
discovering the exact trajectory of the bullet. [MUSIC PLAYING] The external exam previously suggested that the bullet
traveled downward. To determine if this is true, Dr. G will need to open up Carol's body.
After making the usual Y incision and removing most of the internal organs, Dr. G makes a surprising discovery.
There is massive damage to Carol's lower pelvic region. The projectile destroys a lot of the pelvic vessels.
There's a huge tear to the iliac vein. NARRATOR: Iliac veins are major vessels responsible for returning blood from the lower half of the body
to the heart. It's clear that the laceration to this critical blood vessel is what caused Carol to bleed to death.
Total unsurvivable injury. The path of the projectile went through that abdomen,
breaking the pelvic bone, shattering the inferior ramus, this lower portion of the pelvis, going up,
and then it goes into the buttocks. NARRATOR: But when Dr. G factors in this new finding
with her previous calculations, something doesn't add up. A high velocity bullet, which typically travels
in a straight line, could not enter the abdomen, travel downwards to the pubic bone,
then turn upwards to lodge in the left buttock. To solve the riddle, Dr. G turns away from the bullet wound
and returns to Carol's second injury, her strange thigh bruises. She has not only this gunshot wound
but a tremendous amount of hemorrhage in the skin on the front of the upper thigh.
NARRATOR: It is now clear to Dr. G that the contusions were not caused by a beating from the husband.
They are a direct result of the gunshot. But how could a bullet cause severe bruising
to the outside of the body, so far from the actual wound? She's got a very large abdomen, what would I
call a pendulous abdomen. As the bullet was passing through, that bullet will have a lot of kinetic energy
that it will disperse into the body, and you have a real temporary cavity where the tissues
actually expand out. Arden, you know, it was the kiss of death. NARRATOR: This virtual explosion in Carol's abdomen
provides an important clue. As your belly is expanding with that kinetic energy,
the two surfaces come together, probably, you know, through clothing. But you have an abrasion on the thigh
and abrasion of the abdomen, so they kind of slap together. Because as it expanded out, it slapped
enough to cause an abrasion. NARRATOR: The bruising proves that Carol's thighs had
to be touching her abdomen when she was shot, a finding that provides Dr. G with the cases
most significant revelation. She had to have been bent over for her pendulous abdomen
to get over her pubic symphysis, all indicated that she was crouched down, bent over.
NARRATOR: This means that Carol had to be in a crouching position when the bullet entered her body.
But does this help explain the bullet's strange trajectory? The only way you can get that into a straight line
is if she is bent over with that pendulous abdomen hanging over her lower pelvic region.
NARRATOR: With the body in a bent over position and the abdomen hanging over and below the pelvis,
the entrance wound, the bullet's internal path, and its resting place lined up perfectly.
And what that tells me, it's an upward shot from very low. Now, she's crouched over, we've got evidence of that,
and it's an upward shot. That's a very hard shot to just turn around and shoot somebody.
But it does make sense for the gun to be hitting the ground. As it hits, the gun goes off.
The gun is very low, and it goes into her abdomen and goes upward. So that does make sense.
NARRATOR: Circumstantial evidence initially seemed to implicate Bob in his wife's death.
But suddenly, it appears the bullet's trajectory supports his claim that the weapon discharged
after it hit the ground. [GUNSHOT] In the course of the autopsy, the case has done a 180.
Dr. G's findings now favor the husband's story. This is one where you just have to take what you can find
from the autopsy and piece it together what they can find from their investigation.
NARRATOR: But the police still have their doubts. After testing the rifle several times,
they could not get it to discharge in the manner that Bob described. To verify their findings, they bring in an expert gunsmith
for a thorough going over. This time, the outcome is different. We were able to determine on his rifle,
if he took it up and took the safety off, it worked properly. If you took it and held it this way, and turned it that much,
and took the safety off, the gun would fire. So if he was taking it off his shoulder like this,
and he did accidentally trip that safety, that gun was fired. That would also line up the shot that went into the wife.
NARRATOR: This new finding gives Dr. G the ammunition she needs for an official ruling.
Based on the trajectory of the bullet, based on the story that he told that matches the trajectory of the bullet,
and based on the fact that the gun was tested and found to repeatedly fire when it's upside down
and hits the ground, everything fits together. This is an accidental death. NARRATOR: The case has been full of revelations and reversals,
but Dr. G now knows exactly what happened to Carol Moleskie on her first and last hunting trip.
[MUSIC PLAYING] It's a Texas rite of spring, a long trek through the brush in search of wild turkey.
A sudden rush of excitement as Bob and his wife Carol spot their prey. As he crouches down to shoot that turkey,
the gun's falling off his shoulder. NARRATOR: The defective rifle hits the ground, tripping the safety and triggering
the firing mechanism. Carroll is hit in the abdomen, leaving a gunpowder tattoo around the entrance wound.
That tells me the end of that barrel was fairly close to her. NARRATOR: Because she is crouched down
and with her belly hanging over her pubic bone, the bullet enters through the abdomen
and travels upward into her pelvic region. As it tears through her body, the bullet
releases its kinetic energy. The stomach violently expands, leaving a mirror image abrasion on her thigh.
Which made me think that her-- she was bent over. NARRATOR: The bullet strikes her pubic bone,
then continues upward and destroys the iliac vein. Doctors are unable to stop the bleeding,
and Carol dies on the operating table. The autopsy findings have made Bob and Carol's recent marital problems irrelevant.
There is no longer any question that this was a tragic accidental shooting. There were no charges filed.
The case was closed as an accidental shooting. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In 2004, the state of Texas
saw only 33 hunting accidents, with just a fraction of them fatal. I'm not sure you should be carrying
a loaded gun already cocked on your shoulder with your wife behind you. Now, that's a whole 'nother ballgame.
But, you know, safety, safety, safety. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Coming up next, are men inherently more susceptible
to accidents than women? I thought about this for a long time. Why we just don't see women down here with those kind of accs.
NARRATOR: The debate is on when Dr. G Medical Examiner continues. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Pelvic fractures, subdural, parietal-- NARRATOR: Dr. G sees them every day in the morgue.
His face is horrendous, very bad. NARRATOR: Victims of accidents, deaths caused by unintended consequences.
Oh yeah. He's got a-- kind of a step down from the skull fracture. NARRATOR: But nationwide death statistics in the US
reveal a disturbing yet little known fact. Most victims of accidental fatalities are men.
Large amount of damage here. His face is so distorted from the accident, we need a better identification.
NARRATOR: This is the phenomena of Men and Accidents. In the United States, accidental deaths kill
over 35,000 males every year. Astoundingly, for males between the ages of 1 and 44,
accidents are the number one cause of death. We got three stories, hm. I think that accidents are a public health issue,
and I think and you can almost say it's a crisis. The biggest killer of men between 1 and 44
is preventable. Doesn't really say what happened. NARRATOR: But for Dr. G, it isn't just the numbers
that she finds troubling. It's the kind of accidents men tend to fall victim to.
Before I start, I should say I really do like men. They're some of my best friends.
I mean, Steve is probably my best friend. He's a guy. I don't have a problem with him.
But I have been doing this for 18 years, and I personally-- I personally see a pattern that I think even my male colleagues
would agree, that we see really stupid things done by men in this office. I'm talking about just things that men don't think of.
And I don't think they think through. NARRATOR: A case in point, Dr. G once investigated
the accidental death of a man who was attempting to fix the undercarriage of his truck
without using a jack. Instead of doing a jack, he drives his car up on a spare tire.
And it rolls off. And unfortunately, it rolls off onto him. I've thought about this for a long time,
why we just don't see women down here with those kind of accs. I have nothing against men.
There's something about them. Maybe it's, you know, the chance taking, and maybe that's why I like men so much.
Maybe women are a bit more conservative. But we're just not going to see them down
here with the stupid accidents. NARRATOR: Statistics indicate that men are more than twice as likely to die in an accident than women.
But less clear is, why? One possibility-- [MUSIC PLAYING] Throwing back a few drinks with the guys
may seem harmless enough, but the statistics linking men and alcohol reveal a disturbing relationship.
Alcohol takes away good judgment. It impairs the processing of information. NARRATOR: Dr. Nancy Slicner is a forensic psychologist
who studies how social influences affect our behavior. Especially in younger guys, what you're going to see
is that alcohol makes them feel invincible. Alcohol, unfortunately, is a big factor
with accidental deaths. NARRATOR: Drinking was a central cause in a case Dr. G worked
on several years ago involving two men, a cliff, and a case of beer. There's a nice sign that says, do not camp within I
think it was 50 feet of the edge of the cliff. Well, these guys like the view. Why not camp right on the edge of a cliff?
And then why not have a few beers? Well, there is a little problem with that. After you have a few beers, you feel like you
have to relieve yourself. So you get out of your tent and take a walk to relieve yourself.
And over the cliff he goes. That's probably why they didn't want people putting their tents
up next to the cliffs. But obviously, they didn't think about that. They didn't think about the next step.
Oh, I do believe I have they reek of alcohol here. NARRATOR: But alcohol is not the sole culprit in thousands
of accidental deaths. Something else that might account for the higher death rates in males, their hormones.
The most vulnerable population is your, say, 13 to 30-year-old male population. They have the highest testosterone levels,
and they're going to engage in the most risk-taking behaviors. NARRATOR: But for Dr. G and other experts,
testosterone, like alcohol, tells only part of the story. I think, in some aspects, some of our accidents
are clearly testosterone driven. Risk-taking, the driving fast, the "thinking I don't need a helmet", I think there is a macho aspect to it.
Whatever caused this defect to his head, it went all the way into his brain. NARRATOR: Coming up next, new research in the field of men's
health might finally answer the question of why more men die in accidents than women.
I think a lot of it is how men are raised. NARRATOR: And later, Dr. G receives a case of a man whose cause of death
seems written all over his body. This is a guy who was beaten, and I've got to answer the question, can we relate
that beating to his death? NARRATOR: When Dr. G Medical Examiner continues. [MUSIC PLAYING]
The phenomenon of male death rates and accidents is puzzling. But new research in men's health is
taking a closer look at why men die much more frequently than women. The theory, perhaps males engage in riskier behavior largely
because of widely accepted and continually reinforced social norms. But I think it goes back to early conditioning,
where your parents are forever telling the little girl, don't do that. You're going to get hurt.
But it's OK for boys to try it. I have two boys, and I'm very cognizant of the culturalization of men just being kind of macho
and the taking control. But I do try to teach them to think about the consequences
of your actions. Because I think, most of these accidents, they could have been avoided if there
was a little thought process. Thank you, Dr. Hoban. Thank you, Steve. I can't wait for this episode.
You can really point to some of these stories and really laugh. The sad part of it is is that somebody has died,
and somebody's loved one has died, and it is sad. But when you take it out of the personal realm
and just look at some of the stupid actions that have occurred, you're not laughing at the person dying,
but you're just laughing at the totality of these stupid acts that occurr in life.
[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: While men die from accidents at twice the rate
of women, shockingly, they are about three times more likely to be victims of yet another manner of death--
homicide. His brain stem is torn. He died very quickly. NARRATOR: Many such men enter the nation's morgues every day
as seemingly clear cut homicides. And with confirmation from the medical examiner,
a criminal investigation may proceed. I'm sketching all the wounds on his face. NARRATOR: Kyle Gilbert, a 38-year-old car mechanic
is one of these possible homicide victims. At the time of his death, he lived with his mother.
And according to the investigator's report, he had a long history of alcohol abuse.
But his older medical history said he does have cirrhosis of the liver, where your liver
scars down and damaged. It looks like-- now, this is just-- looks like this is probably due to alcoholism.
NARRATOR: But it's not his past medical history which catches her attention. As she continues to read the report,
she learns that, 14 days earlier, Kyle paid a visit to a client who was late paying his repair bill.
He went over there to get some money that was owed him. NARRATOR: But instead of cash, Kyle
receives an unexpected payment. Somebody calls his name, he turns, and he starts getting beaten by a 2x4.
NARRATOR: Kyle eventually makes it home where his mother is shocked by the injuries.
She wants to call an ambulance, but he prefers to nurse his own wounds with a stiff drink.
So what happens is he's home. Now, he didn't get any treatment for this beating.
NARRATOR: Kyle's wounds heal slowly, but he seems to be on the road to recovery,
until two weeks later. He is home, sitting on his bed, talking with his mother, and he just collapses and stops breathing.
NARRATOR: It's a mother's worst nightmare. She immediately calls 911. He did make it to the hospital,
and they said he had some kind of internal hemorrhaging. NARRATOR: But less than two hours
after collapsing, Kyle is pronounced dead in the emergency room. He had some blood coming from his mouth, the throat.
It appeared to the family that this was just very consistent with the beating that he'd received.
NARRATOR: Despite the two week gap, police and the medical examiner's office see a clear connection between the beating and Kyle's death.
And Dr. G decides to order a complete autopsy. The information received from an autopsy is always critical
when somebody later dies, especially after a beating or receiving some sort of injuries.
If he was beaten with a 2x4, and that set up a chain of events that eventually caused him to die,
it doesn't matter if it's two weeks or two years earlier. Doesn't matter if it's 10 years earlier.
Forensically, that is a homicide. NARRATOR: For police, autopsies of potential homicide victims
have a special urgency because they can lead to arrest and successful prosecutions.
But for Dr. G, they come with a unique burden. If her findings are inconclusive,
the guilty could go free. [MUSIC PLAYING] I would expect a lot of blood in there.
NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G is shocked by what she doesn't find inside Kyle's body.
We don't see any free blood in his abdominal cavity. We don't see any free blood in this pleural cavity.
NARRATOR: When Dr. G Medical Examiner continues. [MUSIC PLAYING] Morgue technicians weigh and X-ray the body of Kyle Gilbert.
Two weeks after a ruthless beating, he suddenly collapses and dies, showing signs of internal bleeding.
The assumption everyone has, including the police and my investigator, is that the time frame is so quick that he
probably died from the beating. NARRATOR: If Dr. G finds forensic evidence that the beating is responsible for Kyle's death,
police will make arrests. If she can't, his killers could go free. [MUSIC PLAYING]
You've got to find-- NARRATOR: Meanwhile, with the investigation of a possible murder brewing, police gather in the morgue,
awaiting answers from the autopsy. All we're getting is what the EMS told the hospital.
[INAUDIBLE] a cardboard [INAUDIBLE].. NARRATOR: When Dr. G begins the external exam,
she notices that Kyle's skin is jaundiced. --yellow. His body skin tone is a little yellow.
NARRATOR: But what really attracts her attention is the incredible bruising on his body.
Oh yeah, we see a lot of bruising on him. NARRATOR: Kyle's body is covered in more
than a dozen bruises, still painfully visible after two weeks. We see bruising on this right hip region.
A little bit of abrasion and a bruising contusion on his knee. And then he's got a lot of bruises on his back, also.
He's got them on the lower sacrum, the mid back, posterior shoulder, and also some blows to his arm's, possibly
trying to defend himself. NARRATOR: Dr. G finds one wound particularly alarming.
It's just above the costal margin, the bottom of the rib cage, and measures seven by three inches.
A haunting imprint of a 2x4. He has a nice big bruise right around here in the epigastric region.
So you wonder how bad the blow is. Did he injur his aorta? Did he injure his liver?
Did he injure his duodenum or small bowel? What's going on? NARRATOR: But other external clues on Kyle's body
also point to heavy internal bleeding. He's bleeding out of his nose. He's bleeding out of his mouth.
NARRATOR: From the external exam, all signs still point to murder. But to unravel the mystery of the internal bleeding,
Dr. G will have to delve inside Kyle's body. She makes the classic Y incision. Once she removes the chest plate,
Dr. G carefully inspects the flesh beneath the most vicious bruise on Kyle's abdomen.
And it's a deep bruise. As soon as I do the Y incision, I see that he's got a lot of hemorrhage in the muscle
from the beating. NARRATOR: As feared, this single devastating blow had caused damage deep into the abdominal wall.
If Dr. G finds pooling of blood inside the abdominal cavity, she could have her smoking gun.
It's a lot of trauma. We'd expect a lot of blood in there. And what are we seeing?
A lot of just-- NARRATOR: But here, she gets her first big surprise at the autopsy.
I don't even see hardly any blood. We don't see any free blood in his abdominal cavity.
We don't see any free blood in his pleural cavity. NARRATOR: With the exception of the deep bruising,
Dr. G can't find any internal damage from the 2x4s at all. Then it would be easy.
If I found something definitive like a rib that broken the-- pierced the lung. No evidence of any type of assault type trauma.
NARRATOR: A case that seemed like homicide only minutes earlier has suddenly become less clear cut.
Without concrete forensic evidence, police can't arrest the men who beat Kyle. We were waiting for the results of the autopsy
to determine how we were going to proceed with the investigation. Ultimately, I can't connect any dot
until I figure out why he died. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Coming up next, does Kyle Gilbert's body
contain an explosive secret? There was a time bomb waiting to happen. NARRATOR: When Dr. G Medical Examiner continues.
[MUSIC PLAYING] With the help of morgue technicians, Dr. G prepares to weigh and examine
Kyle Gilbert's internal organs. I still have to take my organs out in my usual fashion.
I don't jump anything. NARRATOR: Only minutes ago, the case of the man beaten by 2x4s
seemed to be an open and shut homicide. But so far, Dr. G has been unable to find
the internal evidence to prove it. Some of the obvious reasons for him to die from a beating
are kind of being ruled out here. NARRATOR: If Kyle did not die from the intense beating,
then what killed him? And what caused him to cough up blood? Dr. G must look internally for other reasons which might
have contributed to his demise. [MUSIC PLAYING] Having read Kyle's medical history,
Dr. G already knows that he suffered from cirrhosis of the liver. The liver, look at that.
It's not looking good. NARRATOR: Upon closer inspection, she can see that the damage to his liver
is worse than his record suggested. Normally, a liver has a beautiful, smooth capsule,
and is brown, and has a very sharp edge. His liver was gnarly. It was yellow. NARRATOR: Cirrhosis is a liver disease most often
associated with hepatitis B or C, or in Kyle's case, alcoholism. But liver problems don't typically lead
to sudden death like Kyle's. His history of just talking one minute lucidly and then just going down, like, that's not
consistent with liver failure. NARRATOR: Liver cirrhosis typically develops over the course of a decade.
As liver cells die and are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, the organ begins to lose its ability to process blood.
Toxins accumulate in the unfiltered blood, resulting in symptoms that range from nausea,
to weight loss, to coma. Without treatment, the scar tissue overtakes the liver, turning it into a mass of fibrous nodules.
His liver was all lumpy, bumpy. He had probably what we call end-stage cirrhosis.
NARRATOR: But for Dr. G, the advanced cirrhosis still doesn't quite explain Kyle's death.
Dr. G sees nothing out of the ordinary. Then she opens his stomach where she makes a startling discovery.
Oh, wow. He's got a liter of blood. Inside the stomach, where food should be, has a liter of blood.
If you get that much blood, I suspect that he tore something major. If you take a Coke liter-- you know, you've all
seen the Coke liter-- that's filled up with blood, and that's distended his stomach.
NARRATOR: The average adult needs about five liters of blood to live. And Kyle lost at least a full liter of blood
to internal bleeding. Still, the question remains. What is the source and cause of the bleeding?
And could it have somehow stemmed from his earlier beating? After completing her examination of the stomach,
Dr. G quickly searches the gastrointestinal tract. The intestines contain more blood but no indication
of its source. She then moves upwards to where the esophagus enters the stomach.
His is gone. Now, this could be interesting because-- NARRATOR: There, she finally finds what she's looking for,
an enlarged worn blood vessel that has recently burst. I think I know where the blood's coming from.
He's got a big-- you can actually see where the esophagus was a little bit eroded.
So all this blood is going right out that tear. Basically, he ruptured one of his varices.
NARRATOR: As it turns out, Kyle had developed a form of varicose veins on his esophagus.
Varicose veins are abnormally dilated and twisted blood vessels. The walls of esophageal varicose veins
are very thin and prone to rupturing. When people have varices in the legs, have you ever seen what they look like?
They kind of go like-- they're wiggly. NARRATOR: There was only one type of organ
that could cause varicose veins to form on the wall of the esophagus, a liver with cirrhosis.
Blood is having such a difficult time getting through that liver that it tries to find another path.
NARRATOR: To compensate for this slow moving weak circulation in the liver, veins around the esophagus
take on the extra blood flow. They expand beyond their normal capacity, turning into varices with dangerously thin walls.
This is a home run for a medical examiner. You think you got a real clear cut cause of death.
NARRATOR: Only one question remains. Did the beating contribute to the rupture of the blood vessels, or was the timing sheer coincidence?
Now, can I connect that dot to the beating? And I can't. I can't connect that dot.
I can't think of any way where the beating exacerbated anything to cause him to get varices.
NARRATOR: Dr. G can now retrace the chain of events that led to Kyle Gilbert's untimely death.
Initiating event in this case is drinking. Chronic alcoholism. The liver has taken a beating from the alcohol.
There's liver necrosis going on from that alcohol. Then it tries to regenerate, and then the scar tissue farms.
NARRATOR: Blocked by the cirrhosis, Kyle's blood backs up and forms varices around his esophagus.
The enlarged veins struggle to contain the rising pressure. Unaware of his condition, Kyle carries on as usual until one
day a client visit goes awry. You need to pay [INAUDIBLE] They greet him with a 2x4, and they beat him.
NARRATOR: The attack leaves Kyle heavily bruised. But meanwhile, Kyle's blood pressure in the thin walls
of his varices begins to rise. It was a time bomb waiting to happen. NARRATOR: Finally, two weeks after the beating
and in front of his mother, the time bomb goes off. Now it ruptures. The blood is coming out of that esophageal varice.
NARRATOR: More than a liter of Kyle's blood flows down and chills his stomach. He then gets to a point where he
can't maintain his blood pressure because he's bleeding out too much. He's lost too much blood.
NARRATOR: Kyle's heart rate increases in a futile attempt to deliver more blood through the body.
Ultimately, he goes into shock. So this guy [INAUDIBLE] then goes down very quickly.
NARRATOR: By the time EMS reached him, it's too late, and Kyle dies from internal bleeding.
[MUSIC PLAYING] With Kyle's chain reaction fully traced, Dr. G has only one thing left to do.
SGT. JOE MYERS: I finally received a call from the ME's office. Hello? After her-- the results of her autopsy showed that--
that the cause of death wasn't related to a criminal offense, of course, it's not going to be murder.
It can't be murder. NARRATOR: Dr. G closes the case, confident that Kyle's body has given them the full story.
You like it when you have a clear cut diagnosis. The pieces fit together. The pieces fit together great.
And I'm the one that put them together. And that's very satisfying MALE SPEAKER: Atlas.

Carol Moleskie agrees to go on a hunting excursion with her husband, Bob. A few hours after they enter the woods, they emerge again, Bob frantically waving down traffic as he carries his bloody wife.

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

Brief Summary

Dr. G investigates a hunting accident and a beating death, revealing complex truths behind each case.

Key points

A Fatal Hunting Trip. A man shoots his wife during a hunting trip, claiming it was an accident.
The Medical Investigation. Dr. G investigates the circumstances surrounding Carol's death, uncovering inconsistencies in Bob's story.
The Trajectory Revelation. Dr. G discovers the bullet's trajectory suggests Bob's account may be true.
Accidental Death Confirmed. Dr. G concludes the case as an accidental death after analyzing the bullet's path.
Men and Accidents. Dr. G discusses the higher rates of accidental deaths among men and potential causes.
Kyle Gilbert's Tragic Case. A man beaten with a 2x4 collapses and dies, leading to a complex investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I have to confirm or deny that that makes any sense.

NARRATOR questioning Bob's story

4:38WatchMay 25, 2021

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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