Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 4, Episode 3 - Shock To The System - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[OMINOUS MUSIC] [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: An anonymous call leads police to the dead body
of a 60-year-old man lying in an empty field and surrounded by sinister clues. A straight razor, a syringe.
There was blood on his face. NARRATOR: All the signs point to murder. What's he doing in the middle of that field?
If Dr. G finds evidence of murder, it then launches into a much deeper investigation.
NARRATOR: And then a horrific highway crash leaves a semi in flames, with the driver trapped inside.
They have a completely charred body in the cab of the truck. NARRATOR: The cause of the crash is a mystery.
Could it have been alcohol? Could he have fallen asleep at the wheel? NARRATOR: And the evidence may have gone up in flames.
The more destroyed the body, the less I'm going to be able to say and do. NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
shocking revelations. These are the everyday cases of "Dr. G, Medical Examiner."
[GUITAR MUSIC] I'm cutting downstairs today. It's my day to be in the morgue, and we have about six bodies
down there. We're going to go over the cases that we did yesterday at our morning meeting with the other doctors.
So that one went he hit her left chin, hit her tongue, back of the neck, hit C1, C2,
and through the spinal cord and out the back of the neck. Through her chin? I have oodles of paperwork to hope to get out some old cases,
then I'm going to have to dictate the cases that I did. I don't think I'm going to be done downstairs
until about one or two. Then I've got to come back up and dictate. It's a crazy morning, but they all are.
[SOMBER MUSIC] Today, I have a 60-year-old man who was found face-down in an empty field.
The problem is it's in a bad part of town. NARRATOR: According to the investigator's report,
yesterday morning the Orange County Sheriff's Office received a disturbing tip. The caller refused to give his name,
but urged police to go to a wooded area near the city's edge, because someone needed their help right away.
Dispatch sends a nearby patrol car to check out the area. At first, the grassy field appears undisturbed.
But then in a secluded spot about 30 feet from the nearest roadway, they find a man lying face-down with his arms
folded underneath him. He is cold and has no pulse. Immediately, the officers call for homicide detectives, who
in turn request a medical investigator from the morgue to join them at the scene.
They're not quite sure here if it's foul play, if it's just collapse. They don't know what's going on.
NARRATOR: And the case grows stranger by the minute. In a neighborhood frequented by the homeless,
the man seems out of place. Just his overall appearance did not seem to be consistent with what you normally
see transients wearing. He's dressed in a short sleeve, you know, shirt with khaki colored
cotton slacks, some shoes and socks, and so he's nicely dressed. NARRATOR: As soon as they roll over his body,
they discover a startling array of clues. A straight razor that was open also. In his hand, he was clutching what looked like a syringe,
and there was blood on his face. [THUD] NARRATOR: Once all the evidence is cataloged,
and bagged the body is immediately transported to the District 9 Morgue. Now, it's up to Dr. G to piece together
the strange set of clues. He's definitely not your typical found dead in bed kind of guy.
NARRATOR: Fortunately, a driver's license identifies the man as 60-year-old Andrew Hopper,
and police are soon able to track down his daughter Marilyn in North Carolina. [PHONE RINGING]
MARILYN: Hello? NARRATOR: At first, she refuses to believe that the man found dead in a sketchy neighborhood could possibly be her father,
but she comes around when she hears about the syringe in his hand. She explains that her father used a syringe every day
for good reason. His daughter said he is diabetic. NARRATOR: Hospital records confirm her claim.
He takes insulin, and he also has no history of any illicit drug use, alcohol use.
Doesn't even smoke, according to his records and his family. NARRATOR: Confronted with her father's strange and sudden
death, Marilyn finds herself wracked with feelings of guilt and remorse. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
She'd been worried about his state of mind in the wake of a recent divorce and impending retirement.
But now, she desperately regrets not having approached him with her concerns. JAN GARAVAGLIA: He has had some problems.
NARRATOR: Given this new information, Dr. G wonders if Andrew had simply searched out a desolate spot in order to commit suicide.
You know, the hair on your back, your neck starts to rise up a little bit when you see a razor
and you see blood. Maybe he is trying to kill himself somehow. NARRATOR: But what concerns detectives is the specter
of violence, and there are no witnesses to Andrew's death except possibly the anonymous caller.
The area where the victim was found is a high-crime area. The important thing is to first treat this
as though it is a homicide. He could have been really taken by surprise from behind, possibly.
NARRATOR: If Andrew had been attacked, police have a killer on the loose. But they can only launch a full-scale investigation
after Dr. G determines his cause and manner of death. Homicide, suicide, natural, or accident?
Everything's up for grabs here. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] Tom, could you hand me a male chart please and an internal?
Yeah. NARRATOR: The first thing that Dr. G notices on Andrew Hopper's body is the object
clutched in his palm. It's interesting he still has an insulin syringe in his hand.
The needle's a little bent. NARRATOR: She immediately removes the syringe and then inspects his hands and wrist for any signs
of a suicide attempt. He had a razor blade underneath the body. I'm looking, maybe there's hesitation marks.
I've had that many, many times, those kind of deaths where they start out with a razor
and decide that's not the way to go. NARRATOR: But Andrew's arms are devoid of both cuts and scars.
I don't see anything. SANDY: No? NARRATOR: She turns her attention to the bloody wounds
Andrew does have-- Oh, poor guy. NARRATOR: --on his face. One of his eyes, both the upper lower
lids are very swollen. It has the appearance of somebody hitting him in the eye.
It could be just from him falling face down, but I'm not sure at this point. NARRATOR: She leans in for a closer look at the injuries.
Tiny details catch her eye, and they're moving. Definitely some ants over all his body,
which is very typical dying in an open field. NARRATOR: This finding confirms that the attack
on Andrew's face was not inflicted by human hands. The aunts here in the South, we have fire ants.
And so they will actually start eating away and cause these little kind of excoriations
that really can look like you've been beaten up. [ROCK MUSIC] NARRATOR: But then, just as a possibility
of a homicidal attack seems to be fading, Dr. G makes an alarming new discovery.
Oh, what's going on here? I just saw that. This isn't looking good. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Dr. G spreads open the lids of Andrew Hopper's right eye. The normally white parts are bloody red.
He's got little burst capillaries from an increased pressure in those tissues. NARRATOR: This bleeding, known as a subconjuctival hemorrhage,
can occur spontaneously when a person coughs or sneezes. But in forensic pathology, seen in decedents,
it often indicates something much more ominous-- strangulation. We're going to hold this.
Because you have stopped the blood, pressures build up to the point where those capillaries can burst.
NARRATOR: Dr. G can see no contusions, cuts, or other signs of trauma on Andrew's body.
But decomposition could be camouflaging the more subtle hints. The skin is starting to slip, a little bit of discoloration,
so I'm going to have to interpret that more on the inside. If Dr. G finds evidence of murder,
it then launches into a much deeper in-depth investigation. NARRATOR: Justice for Andrew and his daughter
could be in the hands of Dr. G. [SINISTER MUSIC] OK, Sandy. All righty. I'm going.
NARRATOR: Slicing from shoulder to sternum, she makes the Y incision. JAN GARAVAGLIA: So the first thing I need to do
is rule out trauma. I open up the chest cavity. I open up the abdominal cavity. NARRATOR: The internal organs come into view,
and on first glance, they look undamaged. I take the chest plate off. I don't see any broken ribs.
I don't see any free blood anywhere. So if there's trauma, it's going to be in the head or the neck.
NARRATOR: Her first stop is the neck. I'm looking for trauma. That's why I'm doing the neck.
But you have to be really careful underneath that furrow, because you're more apt to cut the skin.
NARRATOR: If Andrew was asphyxiated, this is where the killer would leave the evidence.
Yeah, so you want to make sure you don't cut the carotids to far out, and so they
can still embalm the face. [ROCK MUSIC] NARRATOR: But after a thorough search of the area,
Dr. G is left with a surprising conclusion. And I do a layerwise neck dissection,
and I don't find any hemorrhage. He has absolutely no trauma to his neck, no evidence
of fracture, no hemorrhage. And I don't see any broken hyoid bone, which is where your tongue's attached.
That often breaks with strangulation, or other trauma to the neck structure. NARRATOR: It appears that Andrew's eye
hemorrhage was unrelated to any foul play after all. That could be from him falling and then lying there.
NARRATOR: She needs to examine the head before completely ruling out a homicide.
But with that likelihood fading, Dr. G must now consider the possibility of death
by natural disease. And she knows exactly where to start looking. People with diabetes have a much higher risk
of dying from heart disease, and it has to do with the effects of the diabetes on their cardiovascular system.
NARRATOR: In some diabetics, the excess glucose or blood sugar can attach to proteins in the walls of blood vessels,
making them thicker and stiffer. This, in turn, constricts the blood flow. When that blood sugar has been high for that long,
it affects your large vessels and your small vessels. NARRATOR: If Andrew had developed this condition,
his heart muscles could have died from a lack of blood and oxygen, resulting in a fatal heart attack.
Usually diabetics, when we see them dying suddenly, it's usually from heart disease.
NARRATOR: To explore this theory further, she first removes the heart from the chest cavity.
I weigh it. It's very enlarged, at least twice what it should be. NARRATOR: Next, she dissects the organ,
cutting all the way through to his arteries. And here, the case takes another curious turn.
As expected, he has narrowing to the blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen in the heart.
NARRATOR: But the narrowing is barely at 60%. It looks relatively mild. We really often see it when they die suddenly closer to 70%, 75%
or beyond. NARRATOR: And there's another problem. Dr. G can find no signs of a major heart attack,
like areas of pale, dead muscle. You know, like, there's no little sign that says,
this trumps everything else. NARRATOR: Nearly halfway through the autopsy and with no hard evidence to speak of, Dr. G finds
herself back at square one. I've really got to, again, put the pieces together and see how everything fits.
NARRATOR: Now, she reconsiders two clues that could add up to a cause of death--
Andrew's diabetes and the empty syringe. And it looks like he died maybe right after he
gave himself the insulin shot. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Insulin is a hormone that allows the body to control
glucose or blood sugar levels. Without insulin, glucose levels can get too high and lead to complications.
Many diabetics need insulin shots because their bodies don't produce enough insulin, or their bodies have
become resistant to insulin. But too much insulin can also have a catastrophic and sudden
effect. You worry about hypoglycemia or insulin shock. Your blood sugar is really low to the point
where your brain can't function. Your brain needs sugar. And if you don't have it, you can go into a coma.
NARRATOR: To help determine whether this scenario is likely, she will examine one organ in particular.
The stomach contents are interesting to me, because people who get in trouble with hypoglycemia
means that maybe they haven't eaten. NARRATOR: If Andrew hadn't eaten, his blood sugar was probably already low,
and an insulin injection on top of that could easily have been fatal. She cuts open the stomach and peers inside.
And it's completely empty. Most likely, Andrew had not eaten for three or four hours before his death.
So the fact that I find in his stomach no food really makes me worry that maybe this is a hypoglycemic attack.
Blood sugar is getting lower and lower. He's starting to feel it. He misreads his symptoms, and he ends
up giving himself some insulin. The insulin actually causes the blood sugar to go even further,
and he collapses and dies from the low blood sugar. NARRATOR: Unfortunately, this scenario is nearly impossible
to prove, because post-mortem changes in the blood can throw off toxicology analysis.
Hypoglycemia is very difficult to diagnose post-mortem, because as you die, your glucose goes down anyway.
So oftentimes, people have a glucose of zero, but when they died, it was perfectly fine.
NARRATOR: With no way to know for sure, Dr. G must press on. JAN GARAVAGLIA: So then I do the rest of the exam,
just looking to see what I can find. NARRATOR: As she dissects the other organs,
she does detect hints of illness. Some, she expected from his diabetes. Kidneys definitely show some signs of chronic disease,
most likely the combination of the diabetes and high blood pressure. NARRATOR: Some come as a surprise.
His lungs show signs of emphysema. Usually we definitely see it with somebody who smokes, although his family says he doesn't
have a history of smoking. I bet at some time in his life, he probably did. NARRATOR: But none of the remaining organs
reveal anything definitive about Andrew's sudden death, not even the brain. I reflect the scalp.
I remove the brain. A stroke is another possibility, and I don't see any evidence of a stroke.
I don't see any evidence of trauma. [TENSE MUSIC] NARRATOR: At the end of the autopsy,
she can finally eliminate trauma and homicide as the cause and manner of death. But the remaining clues still point in different directions.
He still could be hypoglycemic, or if he died from his heart, it would be a cardiac arrhythmia.
NARRATOR: And Dr. G isn't convinced either is the answer. What's he doing in the middle of that field?
It just doesn't make any sense. NARRATOR: For now, she gives police a brief update.
Andrew was not murdered. I'm going to say the cause of death is pending, because I just don't have one.
Typically, it's at that point that we'll close our investigation. NARRATOR: But for his daughter, closure is yet to come.
What I'm going to do is pend the case until I can tell what really is going on. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC] JAN GARAVAGLIA: Okie-dokie, Ashley. We're ready, right? NARRATOR: Dr. G draws blood from Andrew Hopper's
body for toxicology testing. But there's something that blood drawn from a dead body
can't be tested for-- glucose levels. So Dr. G next inserts a two-inch needle into Andrew Hopper's eye
and draws clear fluid to send off to the lab. After completing the autopsy, she still
doesn't know what killed him. ASHLEY: We are good on tox. OK. NARRATOR: Toxicology is her last hope.
Hopefully, he's got a clear cut cause of death and we lay all these suspicions to rest.
If he doesn't, this may be an albatross around my neck for months to come. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Six weeks later, the results arrive. So his first thing I look at is his eye fluid for glucose.
If I have a very high glucose level, at least I'll know for sure he didn't die from hypoglycemia,
the low blood sugar. NARRATOR: She finds the number right away, but it is not good news.
And his glucose is zero. So now, I don't know if he's hypoglycemic. He may have been normal, or he may have been low.
NARRATOR: A glucose level of zero doesn't reveal anything, because glucose levels continue to decrease after a person dies.
Fearing that she may never be able to pinpoint a cause of death, Dr. G scans through the rest of the report,
and suddenly in the blood test result, she sees something incredible. A 60-year-old man, I'm expecting
them to inject insulin, because he's diabetic and he's on insulin. But lo and behold, the 60-year-old fella has
a super high level of morphine. It's certainly in the lethal level. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
NARRATOR: A powerful opiate, morphine is medically used for pain control. But as far as Dr. G knows, Andrew
has no reason to be on it. The family tells me he doesn't use any illicit drugs.
The guy himself told the hospital on his last admission he doesn't use illicit drugs.
Does he have a tumor? Does he have chronic pain? I don't have any history of that.
I certainly didn't find a tumor. Why is he taking morphine? What's he up to? NARRATOR: The answer, she discovers,
is on the last page of the toxicology report, trace evidence on the syringe. That syringe came back as diacetyl morphine,
which is heroin. [OMINOUS MUSIC] So he is injecting heroin. In your body, heroin breaks down the morphine,
and it's the morphine that you're getting the high from with heroin. You know, I'm shocked by this.
Now, why I should be shocked after these years in forensic pathology, I don't know.
But a 60-year-old man, you know, I'm a little bit surprised. So although he has a bad heart, although he has diabetes,
none of that is what killed him. He died from a high level of morphine from injecting heroin.
NARRATOR: The anonymous call, the bad neighborhood, even the razor blade all suddenly makes sense.
Now, Dr. G can finally, explain how it all fit together in Andrew's mysterious death.
[TENSE MUSIC] Tuesday, 6:30 PM, Andrew Hopper steps into a rundown neighborhood 30 miles outside of Orlando.
Most likely what's happening is that day, what forever reason, he probably goes ahead and buys some heroin.
NARRATOR: Dr. G believes Andrew next found a secluded spot, though possibly not alone.
He's with some people most likely shooting up in this field, and they're probably using that razor to divide the drugs up.
NARRATOR: As for Andrew, he brings a tool that he normally uses to treat his diabetes--
the syringe. He's got the insulin syringes anyway, and he went ahead, and mixed the heroin,
and injected it into the syringe. [WHOOSH] NARRATOR: The heroin courses through his veins,
quickly transforming into morphine. In a matter of seconds, the morphine attaches to receptor sites in his brainstem,
causing his central nervous system to immediately shut down both respiratory and cardiac functions.
He has a sudden cardiac arrhythmia, sudden respiratory depression, and he goes down very quickly, probably
with the syringe in his hand, and he's probably dead by the time he hits. NARRATOR: Maybe the others shake him, check his pulse,
but they quickly realize he's gone. And, of course, the other people scatter. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
You know, they know why he died. If they're around and if they call the police, they're implicated, and they're implicated for drug use.
NARRATOR: Alone in the field, Andrew's body begins to attract ants. Only the anonymous caller saves him from more indignity.
With all the information now in hand, Dr. G can officially rule Andrew Hopper's death an accident.
Most people don't commit suicide in the middle of an empty lot with drug paraphernalia.
Could it be? I doubt it. NARRATOR: Her only remaining question is how the family will reconcile Andrew's
tragic and shocking death. If they didn't know about it, I am sure this was a complete shock to them.
But believe it or not, they could have just lied to us. NARRATOR: All she can do is communicate her findings
and be there to support them, whatever their reaction to the truth. I let the death certificate speak for itself.
I wait until they get it and see if they have any questions for me. [INAUDIBLE] or her body, which is concentrated--
I never got a call. [ROCK MUSIC] NARRATOR: A series of strange clues helped lead Dr. G to the truth behind Andrew
Hopper's tragic death. But after a fiery crash, all the clues to a truck drivers death
may have gone up in flames. [SIRENS] At this point, they don't even know who the truck belongs to,
it was so badly burned. [OMINOUS MUSIC] [BLUES MUSIC] NARRATOR: 7:30 AM, every morning,
like more than 140 million Americans, Dr. Jan Garavaglia drives to the office. As a veteran medical examiner, however, she's
developed a particular habit. A lot of times, I don't necessarily want to listen to the news, because that really will
tell me what my workload is. NARRATOR: But sometimes, there's no avoiding it. One memorable morning back when she was working at the Bear
County Morgue in San Antonio, Texas, every radio station was abuzz with breaking
news of a local death. And it was a huge fire on the side of the freeway. It made all the news.
They had the helicopter, so it's-- it was a much more horrific sounding accident than our typical bread and butter accidents.
[THUD] NARRATOR: As expected, the crash victim's remains arrive at Doctor G's morgue.
Her investigator's report gives her the real scoop on the story. Huh. At least he had his seat belt on.
NARRATOR: According to the first trooper on the scene, the emergency call came from the southbound interstate
shortly before dawn. The crash occurred at approximately 3:45 AM. You can see that there was an obvious fire, vehicle fire,
as a result of the crash. NARRATOR: The full impact of the devastation is staggering.
An 18-wheel big rig has run off the freeway, and the flames have simply devoured it.
It was a huge tractor trailer full of cotton, and so it just burned, and burned, and burned.
NARRATOR: Just 3 and 1/2 months on the road, Trooper Evans has never seen anything like this.
This was the first 18-wheeler crash that I had worked since graduating the Patrol
School Academy in Austin. NARRATOR: Quickly, he learns that no one has emerged from the truck.
But with the fire at full force, his hands are tied. It would have been impossible to rescue
or attempt to rescue a driver. [CRACKLING] NARRATOR: Firefighters quickly arrive on the scene.
After a few tense minutes, they managed to tame the blaze, but not in time to save anyone caught inside.
Through smoke and steam, rescuers approach the charred wreck. The tragic sight is enough to rattle even the most seasoned
of them. [PIANO MUSIC] [THUD] There was a subject that was sitting in the driver's seat,
or what was left of the driver's seat. They have a completely charred body in the cab of the truck.
NARRATOR: Now, it falls on Dr. G to answer a multitude of questions surrounding this dramatic deadly crash.
Was it a case of mechanical failure or reckless driving? Could it have been alcohol?
Could he have fallen asleep at the wheel? An immediate concern of ours was that the driver might
have been possibly intoxicated. NARRATOR: But whether or not the driver was drunk,
Dr. G must determine the official cause of death, though it seems pretty cut and dried.
Looking at the crash scene, it was obvious that the driver died from the crash itself
or from the following fire. I think they'd already made up their mind that he probably
ends up with a lot of trauma, and then dies of his injuries, and a fire ensues. NARRATOR: But before looking into what killed the driver
or what caused the accident, Dr. G has an even more urgent mission. She must first find out who the driver is.
At this point, they don't even know who the truck belongs to, it was so badly burned.
NARRATOR: Putting a name to the remains will require an extraordinary two-pronged effort.
On their end, police will investigate the wreck. In a truck-tractor-trailer combination,
the problem is that they're-- typically, your drivers are not always the owner of that vehicle.
NARRATOR: But if they can salvage a license plate or vehicle tag, it could lead them to a trucking company.
Once they figure out who owns the truck and who should have been driving, we're going to have to match characteristics to see
if it could be the same person. NARRATOR: She'll put all her efforts into building the victim's biological profile, a list
of physical characteristics that can be used for identification. Height, weight.
Is it a male or female? Certainly, there's a lot of female cross-country drivers.
NARRATOR: Her findings will be critical, because there's no guarantee that the driver on call
was actually behind the wheel. Who should be driving that truck may not necessarily be who was driving that truck.
NARRATOR: Somewhere out there, a family is missing a father, a mother, a son, and only Dr. G can help reunite them.
[TENSE MUSIC] To document the condition of the body, one of the morgue technicians photographed the remains
as Dr. G prepares to take a closer look. I'm expecting maybe a vertebrate and some charred remains.
Oh, brother. NARRATOR: But on her gurney, she's got much more than she bargained for.
He's pretty much intact. He's just very badly charred. It is horrific to look at.
Some of this bone is black. There's exposed bone here. NARRATOR: Still, 90% of the body surface is destroyed.
Clearly burnt beyond recognition. NARRATOR: Dr. G begins searching the body for clues that could indicate the decedent's
sex, ethnicity, age. Fortunately, she makes a quick discovery. Although charred and burned, I can still
see external genitalia on him. You can clearly see that his male. Burnt, but there.
NARRATOR: She next takes basic measurements. Six feet tall, weighs at least 275 pounds, probably even
a little heavier, since he's lost some fluids during that charring. NARRATOR: Simple observations like these carry great meaning.
If they tell me the driver is five-foot-six and weighed 150 pounds, I would say, no, because this
guy is six feet tall and 275. NARRATOR: But here, things get trickier. With so much damage, there's no way to verify
ethnicity through skin color. You really truly cannot tell one charred body from a next,
as far as visually identifying them. NARRATOR: Even the shape of the body is that
of the classic burn victim, with fingers drawn in and elbows bent. We call it a pugilistic stance, a fighter stance,
because during the fire, their muscles start to contract, and they look as if they're in a boxing stance.
And that's what he had. NARRATOR: A DNA analysis would provide the most reliable and irrefutable proof.
But for Dr. G, it's not a viable option. The DNA may take weeks. I know TV shows get it back in, you know, five minutes,
10 minutes, but that's not the real world. The real world is there is such a delay in getting the DNA back
that it's not usually useful for us in cases like this where we need a relatively quick answer,
and that the families would like the bodies back. NARRATOR: Doctor G's best bet is to examine
the toughest, most durable part of the body, the teeth. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The teeth will be the last things that are usually
consumed in the fire, and that's usually a great way to identify somebody. But I have to know really who we think you are,
but I'm expecting that from the trucking company. NARRATOR: When investigators provide a potential name
for the driver, Dr. G can simply track down any existing x-rays and dental records
for a possible match. Carefully, she pries apart the jaw and peers inside. But what she finds is not at all what she expected.
I can't come up with these stories. I couldn't make up the interesting twists and turns.
[THUD] [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: Dr. G taps on the charred teeth she finds in the mouth of her unidentified crash victim.
For a moment, it looks like she has a full set to examine. But then she realizes they're not teeth at all.
He's got dentures. He doesn't have any teeth. So teeth is not going to be the way I identify this fella.
NARRATOR: The dentures do suggest he was not a young man, but she still does not have a clear ID.
Her only option now is to try to uncover some other unique characteristic that may shed
light on the victim's identity. We're going to look for if he's had any surgeries, if he's
had any old trauma to the bone that may compare to a history of old trauma. NARRATOR: Her only hope is that the inside of his body
survived the inferno. [ORCHESTRAL MUSIC] But then, just before making the Y incision,
Dr. G gets breaking news from the police. The driver was identified by the company as Robert
Clark of Appomattox, Virginia. NARRATOR: Robert Juan Clark. We found out that he was around six feet tall, that he
did weigh roughly that amount. He did wear dentures. NARRATOR: Given the circumstances
and the matching characteristics, she is fairly confident that the decedent from the crash
is indeed Robert. Death verification was actually made by phone by me later that morning.
NARRATOR: Robert Clark, an unmarried man with no children, but he is survived by five siblings and a mother who
are devastated beyond grief. He was not supposed to die. You know, parents usually die first.
[SOMBER MUSIC] It was just awful. It was terrible. It was terrible. I couldn't believe it.
NARRATOR: As the oldest child, Robert naturally took care of his family. He was always there for whoever needed him.
He was just a very lovable person. Biggest heart there is. You couldn't get a bigger heart.
NARRATOR: Now, the family is shocked to learn police believe their Robert might have caused this accident by drinking
and driving, falling asleep at the wheel, or even taking drugs. Absolutely no way.
No way, no way. NARRATOR: And most of all, they're terrified that he may have suffered terribly in the crash,
or worse, in the heat and smoke of the fire. That was devastating, to think about he burned
up and was stuck in that truck. NARRATOR: The nightmare is all too real. But now that the victim has been identified,
Dr. G can start searching for answers to these difficult questions. Being a medical examiner means you don't get
caught up in any kind of drama. You just kind of put the pieces together and help sort it out.
NARRATOR: To her, the facts of the case, an 18-wheeler tumbling off the freeway,
strongly suggests an answer that doesn't involve fire. We're in a-- a tractor trailer.
It goes off the road and flips. I am going to certainly be looking for head trauma.
[RINSING] NARRATOR: With gloved hands, Dr. G feels four injuries on Robert Clark's charred head.
I see a lot of fracture to the skull. The suture lines have kind of burst open. NARRATOR: Suture lines are remnants
of where the bones of the skull fused together during childhood and early adulthood.
The fact that Robert's sutures have burst open indicates that some kind of enormous pressure
had been exerted on his skull. Yet Dr. G believes they're not from a crash impact at all,
but rather from the fire's heat. [THUD] The fire will actually cause especially this outer table
of bone to really fracture. NARRATOR: In fact, the head shows no external injuries that he could have
sustained during the accident. But she knows trauma, even fatal trauma, can still be hiding inside.
Normally, she'd reflect the scalp at this point to look for hemorrhage and to prepare for sawing open
the skull to expose the brain. But with Robert, there's not much for her to remove.
[SOMBER MUSIC] There's nothing to reflect. The only piece of scalp was a little piece
on the back lower aspect with a tuft of hair, which was actually burnt, too. NARRATOR: So Dr. G proceeds directly with the next step.
With an oscillating saw, her assistant cuts through the top of Robert's skull. [SAWING]
[TENSE MUSIC] All right. Have you got the key? The calvarium's a little more fragile than normal,
but we can still use the saw. NARRATOR: Gently, with a steady hand, she removes it then extracts the brain.
The brain is really kind of cooked. It gets a little firm and a little bit shrunken.
NARRATOR: She dissects it, looking not only for trauma, but anything else that might have
contributed to the accident. I cut the brain to see if there's any trauma internally
that I couldn't see externally, any stroke, any hemorrhage, anything that may have explained why he
went off the side of the road. But his brain looks completely normal, except for the fact that there's some heat effect to it.
[WHOOSH] NARRATOR: This finding rules out injury to the head as a cause of death.
But this is just the first step in the hunt for trauma. [ROCK MUSIC] There's a whole host of other things that I could find--
multiple rib fractures, multiple internal organ trauma, lacerated liver, a lacerated spleen.
Sometimes even the heart can tear open, so I have to open the rest of his body. NARRATOR: Unlike the brain, however,
his organs don't have a solid protective shell. If they're as damaged as his skin,
the entire autopsy could come to a screeching halt. The more destroyed the body, the less I'm
going to be able to say and do. [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: Dr. G puts her scalpel to crash victim Robert
Clark's charred shoulder. We're ready to open him and now document the injuries internally.
I do the standard Y incision, just cut through that charcoal, and then cut down the middle.
Some areas are completely devoid of any type of skin or muscle, but I just try to cut what's left so we can open that up.
NARRATOR: Slowly, the abdominal and pleural cavities come into view. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
Surprisingly, she finds that the extreme temperatures from the fiery truck accident had actually spared his organs.
The burning was just on the outside. The rest of his tissues are still nice, and glistening, and the normal color on the inside.
His lungs looked fine. His bones of his pelvis are fine, no free blood. I don't see any trauma on him.
It seems pretty amazing that he could get through this accident and not have any injuries, not even a broken rib.
NARRATOR: The pristine condition of his organs suddenly puts a very disturbing twist on the investigation.
Well, he certainly didn't die from trauma. And now, I'm wondering, could he have been trapped in the cab?
NARRATOR: This possibility haunts Robert's family. I was thinking the worst, you know,
that he had suffered terribly in the fire. It couldn't happen. It just couldn't happen.
[CRACKLING] [ROCK MUSIC] NARRATOR: The only way to determine whether Robert did perish in the fire
is to examine his airway passages. I will often open up the trachea to see if there's any soot or discoloration from the heat.
And then I'll take out the larynx, and to see if there's any red inflamed look to the mucosa.
NARRATOR: If there's soot or inflammation in the windpipe, it will be a telltale sign that Robert
was alive during the fire, and most likely succumbed to either smoke inhalation or a heat-related death.
[CRACKLING] Much of the muscles are already burnt off, but the trachea's intact.
So I'll just incise that. NARRATOR: She slices open the trachea and larynx, searching for damage to the airway passage.
But after a careful examination, she comes to an unmistakable conclusion. This trachea is nice in pain with no evidence
of soot inside. There's no heat effect at all. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, this rules out the family's worst fear.
There is really no evidence that he was alive during the fire. NARRATOR: At this point, Dr. G knows that Robert didn't
die from trauma or the fire. So what did kill him, and what caused the accident in the first place?
Why did he go off the road? NARRATOR: The police have had their suspicions from the beginning.
Most accidents on the interstate late at night are drivers falling asleep or crashes that
involved an intoxicated driver. NARRATOR: Intoxication is one theory, but Dr. G has another--
natural disease. Is there anything that could have made him pass out prior to going off the side of the road?
NARRATOR: With the help of her assistant, Dr. G begins inspecting all of Robert's organs one
by one for evidence of a disease that could have struck suddenly and fatally. She starts with a likely suspect for sudden death, the heart.
First, she removes and weighs the organ, and this is where the case takes a final left turn.
The heart, it was over 700 grams. It probably shouldn't have weighed more than 350.
NARRATOR: Dr. G recognizes the unusual size of his heart as dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition
caused by abnormalities in the heart muscle. The muscle gets thicker. and then over time, as the heart muscle starts to fail,
the heart dilates, because it can't effectively pump the blood out. He's in congestive heart failure.
It didn't fail because of the accident. It didn't fail because he's in the fire.
His heart's been failing for a while, whether he knew it or not. NARRATOR: And with a disease failing heart,
Robert was in constant danger of cardiac arrest and death. His heart was a walking time bomb.
He could have died at any moment. Unfortunately, he just happened to be driving a truck.
NARRATOR: But to prove to the police that nothing else drove Robert off the road, Dr. G
must first perform the required toxicology tests. The insides are fine on him, and so I'm still
able to remove liquid blood. NARRATOR: The results, however, show no trace of alcohol, and only one drug--
aspirin. Maybe thinking he's not feeling well, he takes some aspirin. That's the only drug we find in him.
NARRATOR: Now, Dr. G can finally explain what really killed the 58-year-old truck driver and caused his 18-wheel rig
to go up in flames. [SOMBER MUSIC] [BLUES MUSIC] Wednesday evening, 6 PM, Robert Clark
hits the road for the last leg of his drive to Laredo, Texas. He's already looking forward to his next trip,
if only he could shake off this nagging cold. He probably thought he had some type of a chest cold.
NARRATOR: Roberts shrugs off the symptoms with some aspirin. He has no idea he's actually suffering
from a serious, life-threatening disease. For whatever reason, possibly high blood pressure,
his heart's enlarged. And then as he's driving, his heart's failing. NARRATOR: At around 3:45 AM, Robert is speeding
down a quad stretch of freeway. Then in the blink of an eye, his heart simply stops beating.
He has a fatal cardiac arrhythmia, goes off the side of the road. Even the jarring of going off the side of the road
doesn't wake him, because he probably died very suddenly. [CRACKLING] NARRATOR: The vehicle goes up in flames.
But long before the fire consumes his body, he's gone. [GENTLE MUSIC] So there, he's got his eyes closed, but a real smile on him
anyway. NARRATOR: Robert's family is grateful that Dr. G could save his reputation,
and above all, reassure them that he had a quick, merciful death. It relieves the whole family's mind
to know that he did not suffer. [FOLK MUSIC] And I hope that gives them some comfort that he
didn't experience that-- that fire. MAN 1: (SINGING) So my better judgment is lost,
to leave a message for my boss. JAN GARAVAGLIA: I'm sure they wished it was in another 20 years, but he did
die quickly and without pain. MAN 1: (SINGING) Drive away. We won't miss a thing.
You know, this is just life anyway. [TENSE MUSIC] MAN 2: Atlas.

Police discover the dead body of Andrew Hopper clutching a syringe and covered with blood. The body is in Dr. G’s hands, as are the clues to solving the case.

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

Brief Summary

Andrew Hopper's death linked to heroin use; Robert Clark died from heart failure in a truck crash.

Key points

A Mysterious Death. An anonymous call leads police to a dead body in a field, raising questions.
Shocking Discovery. Toxicology reveals Andrew's death was due to a high level of morphine from heroin.
Robert Clark's Tragic Death. Robert Clark, a truck driver, dies in a fiery crash, raising questions about the cause.
The Heart of the Matter. Dr. G discovers Robert's heart condition led to his fatal accident.
A Sudden Death. In an instant, his heart stops, leading to a tragic accident.
Family's Relief. Dr. G reassures Robert's family about his quick and merciful death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He has had some problems.

Marilyn reflects on her father's struggles.

5:40WatchJun 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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