Dr. G: Medical Examiner - Season 6, Episode 2 - Deadly Dive - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: A mother comes face to face with her worst nightmare when she finds her son
under six feet of water. I imagine that's the worst feeling in the world to see your child at the bottom of the pool.
NARRATOR: But when the clues don't add up, Dr. G is forced to consider a horrific scenario.
Maybe somebody just throw in the water to disguise his death. NARRATOR: Then a train engineer panics when he spots
a man lying on the tracks. It takes almost a mile for a big train to stop and he clearly hits him.
NARRATOR: Now it's up to Dr. G to piece together how and why this man died. Is it a suicide, is it an accident, is it a homicide?
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries, shocking revelations, these are the everyday cases of Dr. G,
medical examiner. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's early morning in Orlando, Florida and the district 9 morgue is already abuzz with talk
of the day's cases. WOMAN: What's all the dots on his back? I think he's got petichial hemorrhages all over.
It's a busy day in the morgue. We got homicides, we got unknown deaths, we have drug overdoses,
we have a woman who might be suicide, might be a natural. NARRATOR: It promises to be a heavy workload so Dr. G waste
no time prepping for her first case of the day, a 12-year-old apparent drowning victim named Joey Lucas.
This is a sad case that unfortunately we see all too often in spring and summer here in Florida.
We average, just my jurisdiction, about 12 a year of children who die from drowning.
I don't know what we're going to find but hopefully we'll see why he is found at the bottom of the pool.
NARRATOR: It's a hot Tuesday night in the quaint suburb of Winter Park, Florida.
Phil McGovern is heading off to bed when he notices 12-year-old Joey Lucas swimming in the pool
next door. The timing's a little interesting. The neighbor sees him swimming at around midnight
and nobody else is out there. NARRATOR: Phil is surprised to see Joey swimming so late
at night but thinks little of it since he often sees him in the pool. A few hours later, Joey's mother wakes up
to get ready for her early morning shift at the diner. She peeks into her son's room to check
on him but to her surprise, he isn't there or anywhere else in the house. As a last resort, Linda goes outside
to check the place Joey spends most of his spare time, the pool. And then she opens the door and steps out on the patio,
she comes face to face with a mother's worst nightmare. She finds him at the bottom of the pool.
I imagine that's the worst feeling in the world to see your child at the bottom of the pool
not moving. NARRATOR: Phil hears Linda screaming, rushes over to help and calls 911.
Within minutes emergency workers arrive and desperately trying to revive the 12-year-old.
They transport him to the hospital, but it's already too late. [BEEPING] [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Now Joey's body and the investigators report are in Dr. G's hands and Joey's family
is counting on her for answers. Today we have a real sad story. This is a boy that's found at the bottom of the pool.
The family says he's a very good swimmer. They say he likes to play Diver Dan rescue in the pool.
And sure enough, in the pool was the mask, the diving mask and a snorkel. Oh, boy.
Now there's some really sad facts about this case. For one, this little boy is depressed, for a good reason.
NARRATOR: According to the investigators report, at just 12 years old Joey Lucas has already had a hard life.
This is a child who's only 12 that's given way too much responsibility. He is pretty much made to take care
of the father who's a partial quadriplegic from an automobile accident. And unfortunately, the vast majority of his care
falls on this young boy. His mother has got some mental issues and he doesn't appear to be very well supervised.
In some ways you think that he's got all of these responsibilities and he's made to grow up so fast but on the other hand,
we hear that he likes to play games in the pool and pretend he's a diver rescuing people.
It's a sad juxtaposition of those two stories. NARRATOR: But as she reads on, it only seems to get worse.
He has used marijuana before. And he has been given sleeping pills in the past. A 12-year-old should not be given sleeping pills.
What's going on in this child's life? Why is he there swimming at midnight? NARRATOR: Now it's up to Dr. G to find out.
And at the top of her list of suspects is accidental trauma. Possibly he's running around the pool
and he trips and falls and hits his head or he dives into the pool and hits his head.
NARRATOR: But there are a number of ways even strong swimmers can get into trouble in the water.
Maybe he's holding his breath to stay underwater for an extended period of time and you can pass out.
If nobody's around to see this, you're going to drown. Kids need supervision in the water, even strong swimmers.
NARRATOR: And despite his young age an apparent clean bill of health, Dr. G will also be on the lookout
for natural disease. Although we don't expect it would kids, they can have a heart attack, they can have a seizure.
And if you have a heart attack or you have a seizure, you may who survived it on land but you may
not survive it in the water. So we're always going to be looking for that when somebody drowns.
NARRATOR: But given Joey's history of depression, Dr. G must also consider an even more tragic scenario.
I'm a little worried that he's got ready access to a lot of pills in the house because I could
see this poor kid taking a bunch of medication and then going swimming and drowning.
NARRATOR: Still taking into account all of the circumstances, Dr. G can't ignore
the possibility that Joey simply fell victim to some form of abuse. Maybe They couldn't take him anymore and so
you know they strangle him and throw him into the pool. We must rule out child abuse.
All right we're ready, right? Yes. When you have a drowning case it is unwitnessed,
oftentimes you don't know exactly what happened and you never will. The only thing you can do is piece together
a possible scenario but you probably will never have the definitive answer. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Okey dokey, let's go for it. We look very carefully on the external examination because you don't know what it's going to tell us.
You know, that's the first step in determining what happened. All right, let's see.
So I'm surprised when I see him. Not only was he given responsibilities way older
than he should have had, he looks older. This 12-year-old boy is 5 foot 10 and he looks more like a 14 or 15-year-old.
Gosh. NARRATOR: As her gaze moves downward, Dr. G has her eyes peeled for any visible signs of abuse.
We're going to look for bruises about the face, the mouth, the neck. NARRATOR: Inch by inch, she scans the 12 year old's body.
Not a mark on him. I don't see any evidence of trauma. I certainly don't see any evidence of struggle
but that could be at fault too. There is some subtle trauma that can kill children that may leave very
little marks on the outside. For a 12-year-old, he sounds pretty precocious and he looks precocious.
So I'm looking for everything. I'm looking for previous suicide attempts, I'm looking for even drug use.
OK, does his hands look black? NARRATOR: She begins by checking for horizontal cuts or scars
across the wrists. No evidence of any kind of previous suicide attempt. NARRATOR: Then she scans the body
for evidence of drug use like bruised needle puncture marks. I don't think he injects.
I don't see any vascular scars, I don't see any needle puncture marks, I don't see anything abnormal.
Nothing. NARRATOR: So far the external exam has revealed nothing of note. But then a subtle clue catches Dr. G's eye.
Do you see these? His hands aren't wrinkled and his feet aren't wrinkled. It made me think he probably wasn't in the water
all that long. And now, that was interesting. NARRATOR: For Dr. G, this brings the most horrific possibility
to the forefront. Maybe somebody just throw them in the water to disguise his death.
I mean, that is paranoid thinking but that's why I get paid. I get paid to always think of the worst,
could the worst of happened? [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Dr. G has just discovered a disturbing clue
in the case of Joey Lucas, a 12-year-old suspected drowning victim. He didn't have any wrinkling of his hands and his feet.
NARRATOR: And this makes her wonder if there could be something more sinister afoot.
Maybe somebody just throw them in the water to disguise his death. I doubt it, his snorkel is there, his mask is there
and the neighbor saw him swimming. We have a child that's dead and we don't know what to believe.
So where we go from here is we'll start at he head and we'll look to see if there's any trauma.
OK. I'm looking for everything. It could be blows to the head, could be delayed trauma
or maybe diving in, hitting his head, going unconscious, that sort of thing. When I reflect the scalp, I don't
see any evidence of contusion, I don't see any skull fractures. Next, morgue technician Tom Hemphill assist Dr. G by sawing
through the skull itself. I take the calvarium off. No evidence of hemorrhage, no evidence of trauma.
I also look for any kind of evidence that may have precipitated a seizure. Although he has no history of seizure,
maybe there's some anatomic problem with his brain that may have caused a seizure.
If you have a seizure in the water and nobody's around, you're pretty much going to drown.
Once I get in and look at the brain, his brain for the most part looks completely normal.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately after an extensive cranial exam, Dr. G still has little to go on.
I found nothing that I could pinpoint to his head that would have caused him to drown in that water.
So we'll have to wait till we get into the internal and see what's there. So I do my Y incision, of course,
looking for trauma the whole way. Maybe evidence of falling on the side of the pool,
breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, puncturing his spleen, all of those are possibilities.
Explains it, OK. That all looks normal, don't see any trauma whatsoever. There's nothing there.
NARRATOR: Now it's looking less likely that Joey suffered either an accidental or inflicted injury.
But Dr. G can't rule it out for sure until she examines his neck at the end of the autopsy.
All right. But at this point I want to make sure it still looks like he drowned.
NARRATOR: Next, Dr. G head straight to the lungs looking for the telltale signs of drowning.
Usually you see a very heavy lung, very wet lung, frothy fluid coming up the trachea.
The lungs weigh sometimes twice, three times what they normally do. But this problem is there's no really great test for drowning.
Because sometimes in drownings, the lungs are quite dry. The water starts going down the trachea
and there's almost a spasm that occurs and the water doesn't fill up the lungs. And even though we pull them out from under water,
the lungs are remarkably not wet. NARRATOR: But just one glance at Joey's lungs tells her this isn't the case.
Nice heavy lungs, consistent with his suspected mode of death. Our guy's lungs are pretty classic for a drowning.
His lungs are just full of fluid. They're wet, they're heavy. NARRATOR: With these findings in hand,
Dr. G can finally rule Joey's official cause of death as drowning. Well, I think we have our cause of death.
So now we have to question what are the factors that caused him to drown? Is there anything we can find that played
a role in his drowning? NARRATOR: And with no shortage of possibilities, an overdose is still high on her list.
Time to take the toxicology because I'm very worried about access to those pills
and his history of depression. So I remove urine, I removed blood. All of that will be sent to toxicology.
NARRATOR: But she'll have to wait several weeks for the results. In the meantime, even though she's established a cause
of death, Dr. G must finish her examination of Joey's major organs. I'm expecting all of his organs to look normal, as they
should and a 12-year-old. Is this accurate? But much to my surprise, there's something abnormal.
So just to clarify, 500. His heart is twice as big as it should be. NARRATOR: And as she dissects the muscle,
Dr. G spots another abnormality. The heart muscle of the left ventricle is thickened
and his septum, the heart muscle between the left ventricle and the right ventricle, is asymmetrically thickened.
He has a classic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic meaning a big heart. And it's a big heart due to a thickened muscle.
This is a genetic mutation that he inherited from one of his parents. If anything, there is one important thing
that comes out of this autopsy. The family needs to know that their child had this congenital abnormality.
He was at risk for sudden arrhythmias and sudden death. At this point, I think that I at least have one possibility
of why he drowned in that pool. NARRATOR: But the investigation doesn't stop here.
An arrhythmia leaves no trace evidence in the body so the only way to know if Joey's heart is to blame
is to first rule out everything else. I'm looking for anything that would tell us
anything more about this child. What do we got left here? NARRATOR: And the last stop in the autopsy
is the neck where she'll be on the lookout for any sign of accidental or inflicted trauma.
So I do a dissection of the neck, both the strap muscles, the trachea and then the spinal cord.
But he has no evidence of a broken neck and he has no evidence of any kind of strangulation.
NARRATOR: Dr. G has now safely ruled out both a fatal diving accident and foul play.
He probably drowned as a result of an arrhythmia with his cardiomyopathy. NARRATOR: But just as she's about to close the book
on Joey's internal exam, chief medical investigator Steve Hansen rushes in with an unexpected piece
of information. Well as I'm wrapping up the autopsy and I really think I have this under control,
my investigator comes in with a new twist to the story. Oh my! I don't know what's going on.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Oh my! NARRATOR: Chief medical investigator, Steve Hansen, has just made a startling new discovery in the case
of 12-year-old Joey Lucas. The mother found a propane tank in the skimmer. It's one of those little propane tanks
that you use was one of those portable gas stoves. Well-- now that makes me think, oh, this guy
was playing Diver Dan rescue. Was he using that propane tank as a pretend oxygen tank
or something more sinister? I'm glad I had that information before I sent blood to the toxicologist because propane isn't routinely picked
up in our toxicology screens. Let's see what the tox shows first. So I'm hoping toxicology is going to give me the answer.
NARRATOR: Five weeks later, Joey's lab work finally arrives at the district 9 morgue.
When we get the tox back, we see the sleeping medication, the diphenhydramine, an antihistamine
that's often used to sleeping. It was a fairly high level, but it was OK. But there is something else on that toxicology
that's quite disturbing. His blood is testing positive for propane. You just have to shake your head.
There is just so many facets of the story that are sad and this is just one more.
And I think that's the final piece of the puzzle. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: It's just before 12:00 AM on a school night
and Joey Lucas has had a long, difficult day. So he heads outside to the backyard
pool for a much needed escape. He's got tremendous responsibilities put on his shoulder and a very dysfunctional family.
He's clearly unsupervised and he has a history of depression. This is a recipe for disaster.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately on this night, it all comes to a head when Joey's favorite game of Diver Dan rescue
goes tragically beyond child's play. He's huffing, he's huffing propane in the pool.
With his history of marijuana, I am not that naive to think that he doesn't know what he's doing.
I suspect that he's huffing that propane on purpose to get high. NARRATOR: As he breathes in the propane,
it prevents oxygen from reaching his brain creating a feeling of euphoria. But unbeknownst to Joey, the dangerous chemicals are also
having an effect on his heart. The propane will actually sensitize your heart to adrenaline.
And with any kind of exercise, it'll also have a direct effect on your heart that may precipitate arrhythmias.
NARRATOR: And coincidentally, Joey's undiagnosed heart condition has already put him at an increased
risk for sudden death. We have two deadly mixes, huffing propane and an already enlarged heart from a cardiomyopathy.
That is a setup for a cardiac arrhythmia. NARRATOR: Joey's damaged heart soon goes into overdrive as it struggles to pump
blood to his vital organs. And it isn't long before it begins to beat erratically.
He has a cardiac arrhythmia. He's in a pool. He has no chance of surviving. He passes out and drowns at the bottom of the pool.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Even though I figured out what happened to him, I never really figured out why he didn't
have wrinkled hands and feet. Perhaps it was just as youth or they dried out before I saw him.
Sometimes you just can't figure out all the answers. Ultimately, I rule the case a drowning
associated with propane use and an enlarged abnormal heart. NARRATOR: It's a tragic end to a young life.
And for Dr. G, this case serves as a reminder of the growing problem of inhalant abuse
among adolescents. Huffing, believe it or not, is the second most common drug of abuse for young teenagers.
They take common household chemicals, anything that they can sniff of huff, that can cause a high for them,
a temporary high, euphoria. But unfortunately there's some definite dangers associated with it.
These can kill. Kids need to be watched, I don't care how mature they act. A 12-year-old is a 12-year-old and he still
needs parental supervision. I just pray that your own don't make such stupid decisions.
So Eric and I will have a talk tonight, it'll be about the stupid decisions, it'll be about the
better not be using drugs or I'll go after them with a scalpel. Our kids are only young once and we just
have to put all our effort in getting them to adulthood intact. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Tragically, child deaths can often
be the result of a lack of experience and poor decision making. But the case of 31-year-old Andy Santana
supports Dr. G's belief that older is not always wiser. This goes in the category of bad men behavior.
Trying to beat a train, trying to walk in the train tracks, trying to sleep on a train tracks, not a good thing to do.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Going to turn on your lights. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: As chief medical examiner of Osceola and Orange
Counties, Dr. G sees her fair share of motor vehicle fatalities. Oh we got three today.
These two must have been really going fast. I don't think there's an inch on this girl that isn't bruised.
I'll get out of your way so you can take the pictures. NARRATOR: But it's surprising how
many railroad related accidents come through the morgue each year. Railroad deaths are not that uncommon.
As it turns out, we probably get a couple a year. Oftentimes they're just devastating injuries
and they take a lot of work doing the autopsy, trying to figure out the injuries.
[MUSIC PLAYING] So today we have a 31-year-old Hispanic male who's just gotten off of work, works
at a citrus packing plant. He usually crosses the railroad track, gets a beer and then waits for his girlfriend to pick him up.
NARRATOR: But on this fateful Wednesday, Andy Santana's daily routine takes an unexpected turn.
His girlfriend states that he called her but the guy at the gas station said, didn't buy his beer today.
The next we know, he's next to the railroad track and here comes an oncoming train.
NARRATOR: The train's engineer can hardly believe his eyes when he spots Andy lying face up on the tracks
less than 100 feet in front of him. He describes him as having his head on the rail,
he's on his back. He tries to blows whistle but it takes almost a mile for a big train to stop.
[TRAIN WHISTLE] And he clearly hits him. And they actually found his body about 20
feet from where the engineer said he impacted him. Of course, the engineer is devastated
and it's very disturbing to him. He has a lot of guilt about this and he would like to know what happened.
NARRATOR: In the meantime, Andy's grief stricken family and girlfriend are also counting on Dr. G for answers.
They want to know why he died and that's ultimately why I'm here. [MUSIC PLAYING]
He's a good looking boy. NARRATOR: As a first step, Dr. G calls through the investigators
report. The history of this fellow is he started drinking and smoking as a teenager.
In fact, his long term girlfriend left him about six months ago because of alcohol and drug
use. He's got a new girlfriend that he lives with and the drinking problem continues.
He's got the nicotine patch. We know that he drinks heavily. Could it have been an accident that he was
passed out on the road track? That is actually the biggest percentage of people getting
killed on train tracks, are people who are intoxicated and sleep on train tracks.
NARRATOR: In fact over 80% of all railroad deaths are ruled as accidents with the majority of them
being alcohol or drug related. In my experience, the vast majority of them are men.
This goes in the category of bad men behavior. Trying to beat a train, trying to walk in the train tracks,
trying to sleep on a train tracks, not a good thing to do. When I was in Texas, we knew the local culture
for some of the illegal aliens that were coming across, they'd sleep on the railroad tracks
to make sure the snakes didn't get them. Thinking that they would wake up from the vibrations of
the train to get out in time. They were more afraid of the snakes than the train.
NARRATOR: But the gas station attendants statement makes Dr. G question whether Andy
was drunk in the first place. We know that he just gotten off work about 40 minutes earlier according to his girlfriend,
but we know from the attendant at the gas station where he usually buys his beer, he didn't show up today.
NARRATOR: Now Dr. G must consider the possibility that Andy wasn't drunk and his tragic death was no accident.
When anybody hears death and been run over by a train, they're thinking the worst.
They're immediately thinking, could it have been a suicide. So we need to look at what's going on in this life.
Does he have any history of previous suicide attempts? Does he have a history of depression?
Why anybody would choose to jump in front of the train to commit suicide, I don't know, because there
is a good chance you may not die but you may live with no arms or legs. You may end up living in a vegetative state
with severe head trauma. It isn't always an instant death. NARRATOR: Unfortunately, Dr. G must also consider
a more sinister possibility. According to his girlfriend, he uses illicit drugs.
If you use illicit drugs, that means you buy illicit drugs. If you buy illicit drugs, that means
you are in contact with people doing illicit things. If you are in contact with people doing illicit things,
there's a chance you're going to die from it. It could be a homicide. They kill you and place your body on the railroad track
to make you think it's an accident. So there is a chance that maybe he just got murdered.
NARRATOR: And finally, there's one last thing she must keep in mind. There's always a bicycle is something devastating
natural happened to him. You know, that is something we just have to rule out. It can be an accident, It can be a suicide,
or it could be a homicide. So those are all the avenues that we're going to have to kind of weed out.
[MUSIC PLAYING] When I first look at the body, I'm actually surprised. He's incredibly good shape for being hit by a train.
He's got a pair of jeans on him that aren't even torn, soiled. He's got a t-shirt on and he's got some definite injuries
to the head. I need the head, I need a head shot. He's got about a five inch laceration
a couple inches above the ear and there's brain oozing out. That's pretty much all he's got to the scalp.
And then he's got some abrasions on his face, mostly the right side. Those abrasions to the face are from him
being thrown onto those rocks. Clearly this is a severe impact because we have a probably 4,000 pound locomotive going down
the track, impacting his head, throwing him off the train track. And all we really see externally is a five inch laceration.
NARRATOR: Dr. G then looks closely for any signs of Andy's drug use or previous suicide attempts.
Of course I'm not going to see a drug overdose but I would see previous attempts at maybe slitting
his wrists or his throat and I certainly don't see any evidence of scars. NARRATOR: But when she turns Andy's body over,
she spots another more curious injury. He's got an abrasion to his upper back. About 10 inches long about two inches wide and it
just is kind of a scrape abrasion. NARRATOR: Dr. G knows this injury could very well be from the train but at this point
she can't assume anything. It certainly raises the possibility he was beaten but I don't see any defensive wounds as
if he'd been struggling. No other bruises, no other abrasions, nothing on his hands, nothing else.
I don't see anything, but just because I don't externally find a gunshot wound, just because externally I
don't find a stab wound, he could still die from a blow to the head. He could still have been strangled
and placed on the track. So not until I do that internal exam will I really be able to rule anything in or out.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Where is Sandy? What are you doing, Sandy? NARRATOR: Dr. G is preparing to autopsy
the body of 31-year-old Andy Santana who was hit by a train yesterday in Kissimmee, Florida.
What's he doing on the railroad track? Is that a suicide, is it an accident, is it a homicide?
[MUSIC PLAYING] The first thing I need to do is document the injuries. Yeah, that head a mess.
I know he's got brain coming out of his head and I can see the laceration but when you look and put that
with the scene, you can see that the train has a small amount of blood right on the side of the cow catcher.
The cow catcher is that piece of metal on the front of the train, it kind of sweeps the track.
I go ahead and reflect the scalp. Underneath that laceration he has a depressed skull
fracture where the cow catcher just broke in and dented his skull. This then causes the base of the skull
to fracture from side to side. It's a hinge and that it breaks the skull in half.
Those hinge fractures along the base of the skull are very common from massive side impact injuries.
NARRATOR: To get a look at the brain, morgue technician, Bryan Mulhusky cut through what remains of the fragmented bone.
When I take that calvarium off, I can see the lacerated torn brain underneath that depressed skull fracture.
It's torn the dura. NARRATOR: Carefully Dr. G carries the damaged organ to the dissecting table
for closer inspection. I look at the brain still to make sure there's no natural disease, nothing
that would have made him collapse on the railroad track. Like a bleed in his brain or aneurysm burst
and that is something we just have to rule out. Somebody could have some crazy, loony theory that, you know,
maybe this is because he blew an aneurysm right as he's walking on the railroad track.
You know, hey, if they come up with the theory, I have to be able to have the facts to say
it happened or didn't happen. Just normal looking. NARRATOR: But after a thorough dissection,
she comes up empty handed. There's really nothing here. Well the end of the cranial, we have a massive head injury
caused by a single blow that was consistent with the cow catcher. And what it appears to have happened
is that cow catcher caught this head and the scalp, probably part of his shoulder as he's turning, scraping,
and then getting thrown. NARRATOR: Dr. G now knows that all of Andy's injuries, including the strange abrasion on his upper back,
were caused by the train. But she still needs to know if he was alive or dead when the train hit him.
There's always the possibility that it he murdered and dead and then put on the railroad tracks to disguise
the homicide as an accident. We need to see if the injuries that the train caused
have hemorrhage associated with them. That would mean that his heart was beating
and he was alive when the train hit him. But if we see the injuries and there's no hemorrhage
associated with that, then we know his heart's really now beating and possibly he was dead or dying
and placed on the railroad tracks. [MUSIC PLAYING] Give me a scalpel with a-- NARRATOR: Using a scalpel, Dr. G slices
through the tissue of Andy's chest and performs a standard Y shaped incision. So I do my Y incision and it's unbelievable
that he has no trauma. Lord, he has no trauma underneath the skin. He's got no trauma to the muscles.
NARRATOR: Dr. G then surveys Andy's organs in situ or in their natural place in the body
for any abnormalities. Let's see what's going on here. He has really no natural disease.
Anything interesting? Except for one thing, his liver. He has a nasty looking liver.
His liver is enlarged, it's fatty, it's round, and you can see by even palpitating it that he's
got an increased amount of scar tissue, he's got early cirrhosis. He's clearly an alcoholic.
So that fits what the girlfriend tells me. But nothing that would have really killed him at this.
Point you want to get the tox? NARRATOR: Then she draws samples of Andy's blood that will be sent to a lab and tested for the presence
of drugs and alcohol. We really need to get our toxicology and hopefully that may give us some kind of answer.
NARRATOR: But the results won't arrive for several weeks. In the meantime, she turns her attention
to Andy's heart and lungs. His heart was completely normal. He doesn't even have any coronary artery disease.
He has no natural disease to his lungs besides the evidence of smoking. He doesn't have any cancer, he doesn't have any emphysema,
he's only 31. Smoking I'll get you but it'll get you a little later. NARRATOR: Now with the chest cavity clear,
Dr. G can finally examine the wound on Andy's back from inside his body. You can see the second and third rib fractured
on the back, right underneath that area of abrasion, and a large amount of hemorrhage.
Underneath the pleura is that thin coating that surrounds that cavity, you can see a massive amount
of hemorrhage under there. What it tells me is that he's clearly alive when he got
hit by the train. NARRATOR: To confirm this finding, there's still one more step left in Dr. G's autopsy.
We're going to have to flip him. Ultimately when I'm done with the autopsy, turn him over, incise that abrasion
that I could see on his back and see a tremendous amount of hemorrhage in the muscle of that upper back
where that train hit him. NARRATOR: And with this, Dr. G has the conclusive answer
she's been looking for. Clearly the cause of death is due to the blow to the head
from that cow catcher that hit his head. Once the autopsy is done, we've narrowed our possibilities.
As soon as I see that hemorrhage and that he was alive when he was on that train tracks and the rest of the autopsy
showed no other trauma, I can rule out homicide. I have not ruled out suicide or accident,
we need some other facts. I'm done with him. We need to talk to his family members
and we need to paint a picture of what's going on in his life. NARRATOR: Dr. G reaches out to Andy's mother and girlfriend.
We talked to the girlfriend who clearly stated that he has an alcohol problem. That she'd been living with him and no evidence of suicide.
No evidence of even depression. We then confirm that with his mom. NARRATOR: Based on this information,
suicide is looking less likely. But if Andy wasn't looking to take his own life, what would he be doing lying
face up on the train tracks? Dr. G will need to wait for the toxicology results for a definitive answer.
What evidence do we have of suicide? What evidence do we have for accident? Do I have a preponderance of evidence
of one way or the other? I don't know, but the tox may answer those questions for us.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: It's been three long weeks since the autopsy of 31-year-old Andy Santana, who was killed
instantly by an oncoming train. So far, Dr. G's found nothing to explain why Andy was
on the train tracks to begin with, which she's hoping his lab work may hold the answer.
The toxicology is going to help tremendously because as a forensic pathologist, we look at patterns.
We look for patterns of injuries but we also look at patterns of how and what people do.
NARRATOR: Today the long awaited toxicology results have finally arrived at the district 9 morgue.
When I look at the drug tests, he has no illicit drugs. He's at the ubiquitous caffeine and nicotine from smoking
cigarettes and drinking coffee. NARRATOR: But as Dr. G's eye moves down the page,
one number grabs her attention. And with this critical piece of information in hand,
she can finally close the book on the tragic case of Andy Santana. Knowing his history, knowing that he was alive
when the train hit him, there is no other trauma, no natural disease, we've seen it before.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: It's around 5:00 PM on Wednesday evening when Andy Santana finishes his day's
work as a citrus packer. And waits by the train tracks for a ride from his girlfriend.
When we get the toxicology report, we see that he's highly intoxicated. He's got above a 0.22 in his blood.
The legal limit for driving is a 0.08. Whether he was drunk at work, it's hard to say
and we never can figure out where he's getting that alcohol but when we relook at the scene pictures,
there's a big bottle of beer sitting next to him. NARRATOR: Where Andy got the beer
and how he was able to get so drunk on the job may remain a mystery. But once under the influence.
the 31-year-old makes a tragic and fatal decision. He's waiting for his ride and decides to rest next
to those train tracks and that rail just happens to prop his head up as a pillow
and he probably falls asleep. NARRATOR: Moments later, an oncoming train comes barreling down the tracks.
Because he's highly intoxicated with over a 0.22, he doesn't hear that train. He would have a decrease in perception of things
around him, he would have slurred speech, he would be not as coordinated. He didn't have time to get up off of those tracks.
That train comes upon him, the engineer sees him only 100 feet before he hits him, can't stop in time.
The cow catcher then hits his head, throws him 20 feet. He gets some abrasions on his face and a lethal blow
to the head. And it's an accidental death, I do not believe he intended to die. And if you look at where he is on those railroad tracks,
he's at a spot where he can still see the area where his girlfriend comes to pick him up.
I think it was just a nice resting spot for him. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: With the case finally closed,
Dr. G reaches out to the train engineer to assure him that he was in no way responsible for Andy's death.
At least he knows this wasn't his fault. There's really not a lot that could have been done.
NARRATOR: And then she makes the difficult call to Andy's loved ones. Hi, this is Dr. [INAUDIBLE]--
They're happy that I didn't call it a suicide because they didn't believe it was and nor do I.
But they're left with an accident which they have a hard time understanding that he
would do something so stupid. But when you have that high of an alcohol level and we have that pattern of behavior seen time
and time again, and I explain that to them, they put it together. I'm really sorry.
Sometimes there is you know behaviors that people don't understand. I mean, who'd have thought that we find
people intoxicated just resting on railroad tracks, but we see it. When I tell people that we see cases like this,
they have a hard time believing it. All right, bye bye. But it's just another way for alcohol in one way
or another can get you. [MUSIC PLAYING]

A train engineer panics when he spots a man lying on the tracks. He blows the whistle, but the train can’t stop in time. It’s up to Dr. G to piece together how Andy Santana died.

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

Brief Summary

Dr. G investigates the drowning of Joey Lucas and the train death of Andy Santana, revealing tragic circumstances and health issues in both cases.

Key points

A Mother's Nightmare. A mother finds her son at the bottom of the pool, leading to a tragic investigation.
Uncovering the Truth. Dr. G investigates the drowning of 12-year-old Joey Lucas, revealing shocking details about his life.
The Dangers of Inhalant Abuse. Dr. G highlights the growing problem of inhalant abuse among adolescents after Joey's tragic death.
Tragic Routine Turned Fatal. Andy Santana's daily routine ends in tragedy when he falls asleep on the tracks.
The Engineer's Devastating Discovery. The train engineer spots Andy lying on the tracks just moments before impact.
Alcohol's Role in the Tragedy. Toxicology results reveal Andy was highly intoxicated at the time of his death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Oh boy.

Dr. G reacts to the sad facts about Joey's case.

4:46WatchJun 22, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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