Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 5, Episode 7 - One False Move - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A man is found dangling over the side of a footbridge, dead.
It's really odd. He's got a gunshot wound on the back of the head. NARRATOR: And as the clues begin to pile up,
this strange case just seems to get stranger. It was a shootout at the OK Corral.
Was he ambushed? What's going on here? NARRATOR: And then, a young man turns up dead, covered in vomit.
Now, they said he was drinking fast and furious. He was really, really drinking.
NARRATOR: But Dr. G. suspects there may be more to this story than meets the eye.
A surprising finding on this fellow-- it shocked everybody. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
shocking revelations-- these are the everyday cases of Dr. G. Medical Examiner. DR. G.: We're building this beautiful new morgue
and some of the planning is really exciting. And some parts are just dull. Today, we're going to look at chairs
and kind of determine the chairs you might like, the guest chairs, things like that.
Is that-- is that good? Sure. Yeah. With this one, the flexors are actually right here.
It doesn't have to be this color, does it? No. No, no, no. Yeah, no. Yeah, that's better.
OK. Yeah. This chair-- DR. G.: I've just had about enough of furniture shopping.
I would rather do a decomp than go through that furniture meeting. NARRATOR: If it's a medical challenge
Dr. G. is looking for, then she's about to get her wish. This morning, we have a man, it appears he's got a gunshot
wound to the back of the head. NARRATOR: And the circumstances surrounding this case are particularly unusual, even for Dr. G.
[MUSIC PLAYING] It's just after 5:00 PM and Michael Gordon is on his way to get some fishing
in before the sun goes down. But while crossing a footbridge near his home, he stumbles onto a startling scene.
He saw an elderly male perched over the railing. He knows that the person had been injured.
He was bleeding from the head. And he notified the police. NARRATOR: Michael immediately dials 9-1-1,
and police soon arrive, followed closely behind by Detective Daric Harvey. When I arrived on scene, one of the first things I noticed
was that the decedent was actually perched on top of a railing and was balanced over the waterway.
That's very unusual. There was blood coming from a small hole in the back of his head at the top part of his neck.
NARRATOR: Blood is still dripping from the wound, but all life is drained from the man's body.
It looks as if he took a bullet straight to the back of the head. A gunshot wound to the back of a person
is usually indicative of a homicide. NARRATOR: Detective Harvey and his team waste no time
jump-starting their investigation. Police identify the man as 69-year-old David Jacoby.
And they soon learned that he's an avid outdoorsman who lives in nearby Kissimmee, Florida.
As we checked over the decedent's person, we also noticed a black nylon holster on his right side.
The holster had a small caliber handgun in it. Had he gone to meet someone there, things went badly,
and a confrontation ensued? NARRATOR: Detectives immediately begin interviewing friends
and family members looking for anyone who may have had a beef with David Jacoby.
In the meantime, the body is transported to the district nine morgue, where investigators are relying on Dr. G.
to shed some much needed light on this bizarre scenario. DR. G.: So basically we're at what happened?
Was it a shootout at the OK Corral or was it some type of ambush? I need to look to see if there's evidence of a struggle.
Is there other trauma on the body? I need to look at the angle of the wound. I need to look at the location of the wound--
any other clues we can get from that body. NARRATOR: One person in particular is desperate for answers, Shawna Jacoby, David's only child.
When we contacted the daughter, the decedent was really the only family that she had,
and it was kind of like the end of her world. The only thing that we can give her
is that we're doing everything we can to investigate the case. NARRATOR: First step-- morgue technician [INAUDIBLE]
x-rays of David's cranium. We now have digital x-rays. It's all computer now, as opposed to the old film x-rays,
which we had a couple of years ago. Push a button, put it in the computer. We can manipulate the image there and see
things a little bit better. Sometimes, you'll see medical devices that [INAUDIBLE]
person had or old injuries. You're like, Oh, what's this? It's like Christmas. You find things in there you weren't expecting.
NARRATOR: What these x-rays ultimately reveal could be crucial to the police investigation.
The biggest piece of evidence that we were looking for at the autopsy was really the projectile.
If there was a projectile in the cranium of the decedent, we needed to find out exactly how
that bullet wound got there. NARRATOR: And examining the x-rays, Dr. G. discovers that the key piece of evidence police
are seeking is still lodged inside the man's brain. When I x-ray the body and I find the bullet, that's great,
because that's a piece of evidence, uh, that helps us determine the angle. We need to follow the track.
We need to retrieve the bullet. There's a vital piece of evidence. NARRATOR: But before Dr. G. can recover the bullet,
she must first complete her external exam. When I initially look at the body, what's
interesting about him, he's got a tremendous amount of petechiae, little broken blood
vessels of his face, his eyes, the upper portion of the body. NARRATOR: Unfortunately, this finding quickly leads Dr.
G. to an unsettling conclusion. He's clearly alive when he's dangling over that railing.
NARRATOR: The presence of broken blood vessels indicates that Joseph's heart was
still pumping blood while he was suspended over the water. These little facts, you kind of put away in your brain,
and you wonder, is this a key piece of the puzzle? NARRATOR: And is Dr. G. continues to scan David's body,
she hones in on what could be another key piece of the puzzle. DR. G.: He had a holster on his right side, hooked to his belt.
What was interesting about the holster is that there was blood on it. There was blood on the outside of the snap,
and there was blood on the inside of that flap. Give me the swab. NARRATOR: Dr. G. collects blood samples
from the thick leather pouch to submit for DNA analysis. Next, she inspects David's hands.
At the crime scene, Doctor G.'s investigators covered them with paper bags to preserve evidence,
and it's a good thing they did. There was a lot of soot on his hands, particularly on the left hand, in the webbing,
between the thumb and first digit. NARRATOR: The soot can only mean one thing. So he's got soot on his hands and he's
in possession of the gun, it probably means he's been shooting that gun. NARRATOR: David wasn't just ambushed on the bridge.
He shot back. The question is at whom? [MUSIC PLAYING] Dr. G. has just discovered something
shocking during her external exam of David Jacoby. He wasn't just shot. He also fired his own gun.
But this is just one piece of a larger puzzle. How are we going to put this all together?
I'm not sure yet. NARRATOR: To gather as many clues as possible, Dr. G. must complete a meticulous exam
of David's entire body. The gunshot wound is on the back of the head, and I'm going to wait till I finish the internal exam
before I go there, because I'm going to have to flip the body over. I need to look to see if there's evidence of a struggle.
Is there any other clues we can get from that body? I open up his body with a Y-incision.
I make the shoulder-to-shoulder incision, then down to the pubic bone. NARRATOR: Dr. G. reflects the skin,
examining the rib cage for signs of trauma, such as fractures. But she sees none.
No trauma on the inside. NARRATOR: Next, she cuts down the sides of the rib cage
and lifts it to expose the network of organs beneath. Here, she searches for signs of injury
in the form of bruising, bleeding, or perforated tissue. There is no evidence of any struggle.
No evidence of trauma to that abdomen. NARRATOR: But there's one last place to look
for evidence of an assault-- David's neck. So I do, you know, the regular neck dissection, where I do the layers of the strap muscles.
NARRATOR: And as she folds back the surrounding tissue, she's surprised by what she sees.
Oh, boy. He clearly had a lot of degenerative disease to the neck and a metal plate that
had been put on top of the front portion of his neck. So clearly, he's had surgery.
He's had some orthopedic device in. NARRATOR: The extent of degeneration and reconstructive
work, leaves little doubt that David's suffered from chronic neck pain. All right, let's see.
NARRATOR: Dr. G. notes this finding and resumes her search for signs of trauma. DR. G.: The hyoid bone, which is at the base of the tongue,
was fine. Thyroid cartilage was fine. There's no evidence of trauma to the neck.
NARRATOR: After a painstaking internal examination, it's looking like the only acute injury David sustained was
the gunshot wound to his head, and she's counting on that wound to tell her the story
behind this fatal shooting. [MUSIC PLAYING] Training her eyes on the back of David's head,
Dr. G. immediately discovers a critical clue. Oh, look at that. There is soot and searing just on the edge of that wound.
NARRATOR: Soot is a byproduct of the gunpowder combustion that occurs when a gun is fired.
As soon as Dr. G. sees it, she knows that the gun was fired at very close range to David's head.
The closer your skin is to the end of that barrel, different things get put on that skin.
So if you're a couple feet out, you're just going to get that gun powder that hits the skin.
But as you get closer, that soot is going to go on edge or inside the wound. Huh.
I also see a muzzle imprint. That's where the barrel of the gun kind of slaps against the skin when the bullet goes off,
and it indicates a hard contact. It clearly was a contact gunshot wound. NARRATOR: This finding raises new questions for Dr. G.
DR. G.: Was he ambushed? Was he being forced to walk against his will with the gun
to the back of the head? You know, what exactly happened? NARRATOR: Her next step is to figure out what angle the gun
was held at when it was fired. Doing so could help her work out where the shooter was standing.
Often, a muzzle print can supply Dr. G. with this information. But this time, she's not so lucky.
There was kind of a partial muzzle imprint, so I can't really say how the gun was turned.
OK. I need to cut the scalp and look at the inside of the wound. NARRATOR: Next, Dr. G. gently slices through the scalp
and reflects the skin around the bullet wound. It was in the middle of the upper portion of his neck,
right where the skull connects to your neck. NARRATOR: She begins to trace the trajectory of the bullet.
The wound goes through the upper neck muscles, and then hits into the base of the skull.
NARRATOR: Morgue technician, Brian Mahulsky uses an oscillating saw to cut into the skull,
taking extreme care not to disturb the bullet hole. Then I take the skullcap off and look at the brain itself.
NARRATOR: Dr. G. carefully dissects the tissue as she follows the track of the bullet through the brain,
until at last, she strikes pay dirt. There in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls
movement, balance, and coordination, sits a tiny piece of metal, the bullet that blasted
its way through David's head. Ooh, look at that. When I retrieved the bullet, it is mangled.
NARRATOR: But she's still able to determine its caliber. It was a 22. NARRATOR: She records this information,
and then, as she maps the path the bullet cut through David's brain, a startling picture
begins to emerge. I realize, this is an odd trajectory. This is not what I would expect.
NARRATOR: And suddenly, Dr. G. has a whole new theory about David Jacoby's fatal shooting.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Dr. G. has just traced the path of the bullet that tore through David Jacoby's skull and into his brain.
It's really odd. This changes the whole complexity of the case. NARRATOR: Suddenly, she's forced to consider a whole new theory.
I relook at my pictures. I relook at my notes. NARRATOR: Just then, medical investigator Dean
Boyd Smith arrives with news he's received from Detective Harvey. Is that all there is on that [INAUDIBLE]??
NARRATOR: He's confirmed that the gun found in David's holster was a 22, the same caliber as the bullet
Dr. G. removed from his brain. And Detective Harvey has also gathered some new information
from David's daughter, Shawna. She told us that the decedent had, had quite a bit of pain recently [INAUDIBLE] neck area,
to the point that when someone touched his shoulder, he screamed in pain and had to sit down.
At some points, he couldn't even walk. NARRATOR: Dr. G. considers these new clues.
The odd trajectory of the bullet through his head, the caliber matching his gun, and the news that David
had been living in severe pain. Each piece of new information supports the theory
that Dr. G. has been turning over in her brain since she completed the cranial exam.
I think at this point, you can put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and the preponderance of evidence
is that this is a suicide. NARRATOR: But how could David have shot himself in the back of his own head.
And if he did, why would the gun be tucked neatly back in his holster. Despite the strange circumstances,
Dr. G. is confident she can answer these remaining questions and replay for detectives, step by step,
the final moments of David's life. [MUSIC PLAYING] David Jacoby is 69 years old, and lately, his body has been
feeling the effects of time. He had terrible excruciating neck pain. He was having a lot of problems.
He's had surgery before. But the pain seemed to be getting worse and worse. NARRATOR: Suffering near constant discomfort,
David can no longer enjoy life the way he used to. They've pretty much done everything they could, and it's
not going to get any better-- how he's having difficulty walking at times and has
had to give up hunting. He can't put up with this anymore. He goes and drives to a very rural area of Florida.
NARRATOR: According to the police investigation, it was a location David had visited many times before.
He was very fond of this location. A person traveling back to an area that was very fond for them, it's a very strong
indicator towards a suicide. NARRATOR: On the bridge, David takes out his gun. He aims it at the back of his neck, the very spot that
has caused him so much pain. Surprisingly, I see that quite often, that when people are very upset over their health,
they will shoot themselves in that part of the body. NARRATOR: It's an awkward position for his arm,
so he uses his left hand for support. He's got a lot of soot on the left hand where he could have cupped the end off the barrel
around, steadying it. This trajectory went clearly from right to left at a very,
uh, a sharp angle. And it's very consistent with him taking his right hand, putting it to the back of his head, and shooting.
It's an uncommon place for a suicide, but it's still seen. NARRATOR: The bullet immediately rips through David's neck
and into his skull. It goes right to left, slightly upward, and grazes the cerebellum.
It hits a very hard part at the base of the skull, and then just kind of bounces back in to the cerebellum.
NARRATOR: But unbelievably, the gunshot does not kill him. By doing the autopsy, we know that, that wound is not going
to cause him to die instantly. In fact, he would still have function left. NARRATOR: This explains why the police found David's
gun tucked back in its holster. A lot of people survive gunshot wounds to head. You wouldn't necessarily be passed out right away.
He may have easily holstered that gun. He certainly has blood on the inside of that holster flap.
NARRATOR: Wounded, bleeding, and stunned that he's still alive, David staggers forward.
I suspect he staggered to the edge, possibly realizing he didn't kill himself with that gunshot,
takes a few steps, maybe to hurl himself over the bridge or just collapses, but for whatever reason,
he then passed out, and teetered on that railing. NARRATOR: David dangles from the rail unconscious,
but still alive and breathing. Blood rushes to his head, and he begins to develop burst blood vessels, or petechiae on his face.
He was probably still alive, causing those florid petechiae, those burst blood vessels because his head
was hanging down and his heart was still pumping. NARRATOR: But once David's injured brain begins
to swell from the trauma of the bullet wound, his death come swiftly. He started to have a little bit of swelling in his brain,
and the blood collecting around the brainstem, eventually caused him to die. This is, uh, Jan Garavaglia, over
at the medical examiner's office, Dr. G. If you could, uh-- NARRATOR: After delivering her report to the detectives,
Dr. G. shares the findings with David's daughter, Shawna. DR. G.: When I first told the daughter,
uh, she didn't want to believe that it was a suicide. But then when she thought about it a little more,
and she contemplated it, uh, she kind of thought about all the clues he was giving,
and the chronic pain, and it started making more sense to her. NARRATOR: For Dr. G., the story David's body tells
is undeniable. You put the pieces together to make the jigsaw puzzle scene for us.
And when you do that, you clearly come up with suicide. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G. is often able to bring a sense of peace
to those who've lost a loved one, but sometimes, the truth she uncovers can be the last thing a grieving family wants to hear.
It's always hard to think someone you love died from choices that they made. [MUSIC PLAYING]
DR. G.: I have a really important announcement to make. You all have to hold off for a second.
Dr. Stefani passed his anatomic boards. He got it. WOMAN: All right. [APPLAUSE] WOMAN: When do we go drinking?
We go-- the first thing out of your mouth is drinking? I said congratulations. You didn't say-- what did she say?
What time? [CHATTER] NARRATOR: The victim in Dr. G.'s next case also had cause for celebration, but unfortunately, he
did not survive the party. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's 9:30 PM on a muggy night in early June.
Christopher Castro and his roommates are headed out to a local bar in Maitland, Florida.
A few hours earlier, Chris graduated from community college. And now, it's time to celebrate.
[CHEERING] This whole celebration involved alcohol. He's drinking beer. He's drinking shots.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Have just one more drink with me. Start another dance party. I guess he felt free to really belt them down.
NARRATOR: As the night wears on, Chris's friends noticed that he's becoming more and more intoxicated.
One more beer. NARRATOR: But they don't think much of it. They've seen him this drunk before.
It's nearly dawn when the guys finally stumble out of the bar and head home. The following afternoon, everyone's
awake, except for Chris. His roommate goes to wake him up. At first, he thinks he's just sleeping,
and he tries to shake him. He turns him a little bit and realizes there's a lot of vomit in his mouth and kind of on his face.
And he realizes something's not right, and, uh, calls 9-1-1. NARRATOR: As soon as EMS arrives,
they clear Chris's airway and try several times to resuscitate him, but it's too late.
They just pronounce him dead. NARRATOR: Right off the bat, Dr. G. has a good idea as to what
may have caused Chris's death. DR. G.: A one-night drinking binge can kill you by just pure alcohol poisoning.
It can put you into a coma and cause your death. A couple of those cases come through my morgue each year,
usually young people, and they're usually drinking very fast. My condolences on his death.
Oh, I'm very sorry. NARRATOR: As a first step, Dr. G. calls Chris's devastated mother to see if she can
gather any further information. Right. She says, he has a history of-- of drinking.
It looks like it's more like a binge type thing, when he goes out and celebrates with his friends.
NARRATOR: She also tells Dr. G. that in spite of his outgoing nature, Chris had a history of anxiety.
He has a prescription, uh, for Alprazolan, which is an anti-anxiety medication. The day prior to him being found dead,
he had just gotten a new prescription for the Alprazolan. NARRATOR: It's a drug that doesn't mix well with alcohol.
DR. G.: A combination of the alcohol with the anti-anxiety drug, clearly could kill him.
We're going to have to do the autopsy, the toxicology, and see where those facts lead us.
You know, when I first see him, I can tell that he's, you know, overweight, almost obese.
But, you know, he's only 23. I'm not really expecting that, that has anything to do with his death.
The obesity doesn't usually kill you until you're older. NARRATOR: Dr. G. continues her external examination
by checking Chris's skin for irregularities, and she spots something on his arms.
He's got needle puncture marks. They appear acute. NARRATOR: The marks could look like evidence
of intravenous drug abuse, but Dr. G. can tell that they were left by the IV Chris had in his arm while paramedics
were attempting to revive him. That's part of the resuscitation. It doesn't appear to be from drug use.
There's no vascular scars from previous drug use. NARRATOR: Dr. G. is more concerned with what she sees
in and around Chris's airway. He's still got an endotracheal tube with vomit in it.
And it looks like he's aspirated his vomit. NARRATOR: That means at some point before he died,
Chris inhaled vomit into his respiratory system. DR. G.: A lot of people when they are found
will have vomit around them, in their mouths. And people think, Oh, that's probably why they died.
They choked on their vomit. But in reality, we don't usually see that. The vomit is a result of the death,
and the death is actually caused by something else. NARRATOR: But what that is, Dr. G. has yet to figure out.
Now, I'm not going to jump to the conclusion until I see what the rest of the autopsy shows.
[MUSIC PLAYING] After I do my Y-incision, I need to take my toxicology. That may be key in this case, and we
need to take that right away. Uh, let's see if we can get tox. NARRATOR: Only the toxicology results
can reveal exactly how much alcohol and Alprazolan was in Chris's body. Continuing with the internal exam, Dr. G.
turns her attention to Chris's lungs. Now let's see what have here. When I remove his lungs, there's no evidence
of pneumonia, tumor, hemorrhage, other infections. NARRATOR: But as she cuts into the soft tissue,
Dr. G. notices something unusual. Wow. With somebody going into a coma from alcohol poisoning,
I will expect the lungs to fill up with fluid, especially with Alprazolan. It's not really clear why that happens,
but for whatever the reason, you know, when we see people die from an overdose, they get very heavy lungs.
NARRATOR: But Chris's lungs contain almost no fluid. Suddenly, Dr. G. must consider a whole full new set of suspects.
Is it some kind of natural disease, and that the partying and the alcohol, had nothing to do with it.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G. has just finished examining 23-year-old Chris Castro's lungs,
and they're not at all typical of a death by overdose. Now, she wonders if alcohol even played a part in Chris's death.
We're going to have to figure out what are those-- the other things that could've caused his death.
So then I go to his heart, and his heart surprised me. Let's see what this heart weighs.
It's a big heart. It was enlarged. It weighed almost twice what I would expect. It is known that people who have an enlarged hearts,
are more prone to have sudden death. NARRATOR: And that's not all. Surprisingly, when I cut his coronary arteries,
I found a plaque, or a cholesterol buildup, which is unusual for somebody 23. It was at least an 80% narrowing,
and that's a dangerous narrowing, even for just one coronary artery. I don't usually see it in somebody so young.
It could be partly his diet and his lack of exercise. He's probably got a genetic component to that,
that he is genetically prone to coronary heart disease to have it so young. NARRATOR: It now appears possible that Chris's narrowed
coronary arteries could have been causing his heart to struggle for critical blood supply.
He could have died from this heart. The heart could have gone into a sudden cardiac arrhythmia.
Certainly, people die suddenly and unexpectedly with that. Heart arrhythmia is an irritation
in the electrical system of the heart, where instead of that electrical beat, uh, pumping out that blood, the electrical system
quivers instead of beating. And you can't send blood to any parts of your body. You pass out, and you die.
NARRATOR: Add alcohol to the equation, and Chris's heart becomes even more vulnerable.
Even at all low level of alcohol, it would more likely bring that heart into an arrhythmia.
NARRATOR: But a fatal heart arrhythmia often leaves no physical trace whatsoever.
In order to determine if this is what killed him, Dr. G. will have to eliminate all other possibilities.
But what does everything else show? I mean, there's many things that could trump that.
It's got to be a diagnosis of exclusion. We've got to rule everything else out. NARRATOR: She cuts out a sliver of the heart tissue
to be sent out and made into microscope slides that she will examine later. At the cellular level, Dr. G. might
be able to detect if something other than an arrhythmia caused Chris's heart to fail.
Next, Dr. G. turns her attention to Chris's liver. Let's see what his liver-- his liver is not looking good.
I can tell. NARRATOR: With one glance, she can see that it, too, is abnormal. A nice normal liver would be nice and brown
with a sharp edge. His liver was yellow and it had a rounded edge. NARRATOR: She carefully removes the organ
and sets it on the scale. DR. G.: You know, somebody this-- this, uh, size, maybe 1,500 grams would be a normal liver.
His liver was almost 3,000 grams. NARRATOR: The irregular color, size, and shape of Chris's liver are indications of one defect.
It was clearly enlarged by fat, what we call a fatty liver or steatosis. NARRATOR: It's a dangerous liver disorder that could eventually
have led to cirrhosis. DR. G.: There are many causes for a fatty liver. In the United States, probably still the most common cause
is alcohol consumption. I would venture to guess that it is due to his alcohol use.
NARRATOR: But Dr. G. won't know if the damage to his liver was severe enough to kill him until she examines
the tissue under a microscope. At the end of her internal exam, Dr. G. has no clear indication
of what caused Chris's sudden death, and there is just one place left to look. We still have to go to the head.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: As Dr. G. pulls back Chris's hair to get a closer look at his scalp,
she discovers something striking. Oh, look at that. NARRATOR: And it could be the key
that unlocks the entire case. [MUSIC PLAYING] As Dr. G. examines Chris Castro's head,
she makes a surprising new discovery. He does have a contusion, or a slight bruise to his scalp.
Maybe this is the unexpected that I was actually looking and hoping for. Maybe he fell while he was drinking
and his fellows didn't know about it. And then over the ensuing hours, he developed, uh, a bleed in his head
that was enough to compress his brain. I'm not going to know that, until I see how that affects his brain.
NARRATOR: Morgue technician Kelly Romance uses an oscillating saw to cut through the bone.
Well, when I take that calvarium off and look at his brain, there is no evidence of any trauma.
And then I'll cut his brain. There's no evidence of infection. There's no evidence, uh, that I can see of anything wrong, uh,
inside his brain, grossly. NARRATOR: At the end of the autopsy, Dr. G. is left with only two possibilities.
Natural disease is still in there, uh, because he does have an enlarged heart and he has narrowing
of his coronary artery. And I'm still worried about his alcohol use, possibly mixed with that Alprazolan.
So those things are still in the running. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Before the tox results come in,
Dr. G. receives the microscopic slides of Chris's organ tissues. The first thing I get back is those microscopic slides.
NARRATOR: She first focuses on a view of Chris's heart tissue, magnified 400 times.
The microbes still show us an enlarged heart, but nothing acute. I have no evidence of infection, no areas
that look like they were deprived of oxygen and blood. NARRATOR: She sees no further evidence
to show that he died from an acute heart problem, but this still does not rule out the possibility that his
severely blocked arteries caused a fatal heart arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.
He certainly could have had an arrhythmia with no findings microscopically. NARRATOR: She then moves on to examine
the slides of Chris's liver. What you see when you look under the microscope is instead
of nice pink cells, we see cells which have vacuoles of clearness, which is fat or triglycerides,
which have actually pushed the nuclei aside. It's just filling up the cells, and they're like ballooning
out with these triglycerides. They are a form of fat. And that's what makes the whole thing
yellow and kind of enlarged. And it almost feels greasy when you cut it. NARRATOR: Dr. G. can now see that Chris's
liver was bad enough that it could have caused his death. We see people dying suddenly and unexpectedly just
with that fatty liver. NARRATOR: But just as with the heart, she can't cite this is Chris's cause of death
without excluding all other possibilities. She's waiting on one last piece of evidence
before she can draw any final conclusions. I still have to wait for the toxicology.
NARRATOR: Two weeks after the autopsy, the toxicology report arrives, and what it contains
is nothing short of shocking. DR. G.: Well his toxicology was surprising. Although he was drinking heavily,
his alcohol level was a 0.14-- 148-- clearly intoxicated, but not enough to kill you.
Something that would kill him would be above a 0.3. And that's enough to put you in a coma and cause death.
I was expecting that, but that's not what the toxicology showed. NARRATOR: Chris's alcohol level alone was not
enough to kill him, but combined with Alprazolan, it could have been lethal. Dr. G. scans the report for the content of Alprazolan
in Chris's blood, and once again, she's surprised by what she finds. There was no Alprazolan.
NARRATOR: But as she continues down the page, something else catches her eye. DR. G.: I find something else, something totally unexpected.
This is his cause of death, and there is no question. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Christopher Castro and his three roommates
are out at a local bar, celebrating his graduation from college just that morning.
DR. G.: He's having a good time. He was out partying. [CHEERING] One more. NARRATOR: But for Chris, the alcohol
apparently wasn't enough. Somewhere along the line, he bought some methadone. What was lethal on his toxicology was his methadone.
NARRATOR: Methadone is an opiate best known for its use as a treatment for heroin addiction.
It's a drug that Dr. G. didn't expect to find in Chris's system, but one she knows to be very dangerous.
He probably took it at a time when some of his other buddies didn't notice. NARRATOR: But over an hour after taking the pill,
it's likely he's still not feeling the effects he anticipated. Methadone doesn't have the same kind of euphoric feeling
as some of these other drugs do. It has more of a feeling like alcohol. NARRATOR: Possibly thinking he didn't take enough,
Chris pops another pill. The problem is people will take more and more of it not
thinking they're getting high and they'll just keep adding more. NARRATOR: But what they don't know
is that methadone stays in the system much longer than most other drugs. DR. G.: It has a very long half life.
Particularly, with that long half life, it builds up and builds up and builds up.
His buddies clearly recognized him as highly intoxicated. Part of that was alcohol, but part of that was his methadone.
NARRATOR: And by the time he goes to bed, Chris's body is in big trouble. There is, uh, no question he's got
a lethal level of methadone. Add that to his alcohol, which is not enough to kill him
in itself, but add those things together, and you've got a lethal combination. Certainly, he has high enough levels to just
purely die from an overdose. The exact mechanism of how he died is unclear. But there's still that component of his heart,
that he's-- already has heart disease. It might be why I didn't see a lot of edema fluid
in his lungs. [SIRENS] NARRATOR: But whatever the exact mechanism of Chris's death,
one thing is clear. The bottom line is he died from the effects of that methadone, uh, with the alcohol.
NARRATOR: Dr. G. contacts Chris's mother to share her findings. Well, we finished the autopsy, and, uh--
His family was shocked that he had methadone. They didn't know anything about methadone.
Yes, it is. They just think of it as a treatment for heroin. They're like, well, he's not a heroin addict.
Where would he have gotten it? NARRATOR: But methadone is not just used to treat heroin addiction.
For years, doctors have also been prescribing it as a prescription painkiller. It's much more readily available now.
And, you know, nobody really knows how it's getting on the street. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey, where did you go? I was talking. DR. G.: Deaths from methadone have shot up,
uh-- some statistics show over 390% in just five or six years. [MUSIC PLAYING] You walk around in a loop and it gets you nowhere.
Prescription drugs have a part in people's lives, if they're not abused. But it's a dead end road when you start abusing these drugs.
This is a road to the morgue. [MUSIC PLAYING] Atlas

All circumstances point to foul play in the case of a dead hunter and the police fear that a killer is on the loose. Dr. G must provide them with answers before there are more victims.

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

Brief Summary

Dr. G. investigates two deaths: a suspected suicide of a man shot in the head and a young man's overdose from alcohol and methadone.

Key points

Bizarre Death Investigation. A man is found dead with a gunshot wound, leading to a complex investigation.
Shocking Autopsy Findings. Dr. G. discovers that the victim fired his own gun before dying.
Unraveling the Mystery. Dr. G. pieces together evidence suggesting a suicide rather than a homicide.
Chris's Death Investigation. Dr. G. investigates the cause of Chris's sudden death, uncovering shocking truths.
Unexpected Toxicology Results. The toxicology report reveals surprising findings about Chris's death.
The Role of Methadone. Chris's toxicology report shows lethal levels of methadone, a surprising discovery.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's really odd.

0:23WatchJun 15, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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