forties.
There the physical similarities ended.
While the man from Dewees was tal, long-bone measurements said the man from the trees stood only five-six to five-eight.
The former had long blond hair. This guy sported short brown curls.
Unlike the man from Dewees, the man from the trees had no dental work, and was, in fact, missing three upper molars and an upper bicuspid. The lowers were a mystery since I had no jaw. Tongue-side staining suggested the deceased had enjoyed cigarettes.
When I'd completed the biological profile, I began my search for skeletal abnormalities. As usual, I was looking for congenital oddities, bony remodeling due to repetitive activities, healed injuries, and evidence of medical history.
The man from the trees had taken his lumps, including a broken right fibula, fractured cheekbones, and some type of injury to his left shoulder blade, al healed. The X-rays showed an abnormal opacity on the left colarbone, suggesting the possibility of another old fracture.
The guy wasn't big, but he was a scrapper. And a great mender.
Straightening, I roled my shoulders, then my head. My back felt like the Panthers had run scrimmages on my spine.
The wal clock said four forty. Time to check the digits.
The tissue had softened nicely. Using a smal syringe, I injected TES beneath the dermal pads. The fingertips plumped. I wiped each with alcohol, blotted, ink-roled, then printed. The ridge detail came out reasonably clear.
I caled the tech. He colected the prints and I went back to the bones.
Postmortem damage was limited to the lower legs. Gnawing and splintering, coupled with the presence of smal circular puncture wounds, suggested the culprits were probably dogs.
I found no evidence of perimortem injury, nothing to suggest that death had resulted from anything but the obvious: asphyxiation due to compression of the neck structures.
In laymen's terms, hanging.
Emma caled at seven. I updated her. She said she planned to swing by the sheriff's office shortly to "goose" Gulet. Her words.
Reminded of my hunger by the reference to fowl, I hit the cafeteria. After an exquisite repast of undersauced lasagna and overdressed salad, I returned to the autopsy room.
Though some segments were stil insufficiently rehydrated, I was able to free most of the spine from its sleeve of putrefied muscle. Leaving one obstinate chunk to soak, I placed the newly liberated cervical and thoracic vertebrae on a tray with the two neck vertebrae I'd detached from the skul base.
Moving to the scope, I started with C-l, then, slowly, worked my way south. I found no surprises until I got to C-6.
Then it was Saturday al over again.
There was the vertebral body. There was the arch. There were the transverse processes with their smal holes for the passage of cranial vessels.
There, on the left, was the hinge fracture.
I adjusted focus and repositioned the light.
No question. A hairline crack kinked across the left transverse process, radiating from opposite sides of the foramen.
It was the exact pattern I'd seen on the Dewees skeleton. The hinging and lack of bony reaction told me that this fracture had also resulted from force applied to fresh bone.
This injury had also been sustained around the time of death.
But how?
C-6. Lower neck. Too far down to have resulted from hanging. Though the head had falen off, probably dislodged by yanking scavengers, the noose had remained, embedded between C-3 and C-4.
Sudden wrenching when the victim jumped from the branch? If he had jumped from the branch, how had he gotten up there? Shinnied six feet up the trunk? Maybe.
Closing my eyes, I conjured a picture of the body hanging from the tree. The knot had been at the back of the neck, not at the side. That seemed inconsistent with unilateral fracturing. I made a mental note to check Miler's scene photos.
Could hanging explain the Dewees victim's neck injury? Had he, too, committed suicide?
Maybe. But the guy sure hadn't dug his
There the physical similarities ended.
While the man from Dewees was tal, long-bone measurements said the man from the trees stood only five-six to five-eight.
The former had long blond hair. This guy sported short brown curls.
Unlike the man from Dewees, the man from the trees had no dental work, and was, in fact, missing three upper molars and an upper bicuspid. The lowers were a mystery since I had no jaw. Tongue-side staining suggested the deceased had enjoyed cigarettes.
When I'd completed the biological profile, I began my search for skeletal abnormalities. As usual, I was looking for congenital oddities, bony remodeling due to repetitive activities, healed injuries, and evidence of medical history.
The man from the trees had taken his lumps, including a broken right fibula, fractured cheekbones, and some type of injury to his left shoulder blade, al healed. The X-rays showed an abnormal opacity on the left colarbone, suggesting the possibility of another old fracture.
The guy wasn't big, but he was a scrapper. And a great mender.
Straightening, I roled my shoulders, then my head. My back felt like the Panthers had run scrimmages on my spine.
The wal clock said four forty. Time to check the digits.
The tissue had softened nicely. Using a smal syringe, I injected TES beneath the dermal pads. The fingertips plumped. I wiped each with alcohol, blotted, ink-roled, then printed. The ridge detail came out reasonably clear.
I caled the tech. He colected the prints and I went back to the bones.
Postmortem damage was limited to the lower legs. Gnawing and splintering, coupled with the presence of smal circular puncture wounds, suggested the culprits were probably dogs.
I found no evidence of perimortem injury, nothing to suggest that death had resulted from anything but the obvious: asphyxiation due to compression of the neck structures.
In laymen's terms, hanging.
Emma caled at seven. I updated her. She said she planned to swing by the sheriff's office shortly to "goose" Gulet. Her words.
Reminded of my hunger by the reference to fowl, I hit the cafeteria. After an exquisite repast of undersauced lasagna and overdressed salad, I returned to the autopsy room.
Though some segments were stil insufficiently rehydrated, I was able to free most of the spine from its sleeve of putrefied muscle. Leaving one obstinate chunk to soak, I placed the newly liberated cervical and thoracic vertebrae on a tray with the two neck vertebrae I'd detached from the skul base.
Moving to the scope, I started with C-l, then, slowly, worked my way south. I found no surprises until I got to C-6.
Then it was Saturday al over again.
There was the vertebral body. There was the arch. There were the transverse processes with their smal holes for the passage of cranial vessels.
There, on the left, was the hinge fracture.
I adjusted focus and repositioned the light.
No question. A hairline crack kinked across the left transverse process, radiating from opposite sides of the foramen.
It was the exact pattern I'd seen on the Dewees skeleton. The hinging and lack of bony reaction told me that this fracture had also resulted from force applied to fresh bone.
This injury had also been sustained around the time of death.
But how?
C-6. Lower neck. Too far down to have resulted from hanging. Though the head had falen off, probably dislodged by yanking scavengers, the noose had remained, embedded between C-3 and C-4.
Sudden wrenching when the victim jumped from the branch? If he had jumped from the branch, how had he gotten up there? Shinnied six feet up the trunk? Maybe.
Closing my eyes, I conjured a picture of the body hanging from the tree. The knot had been at the back of the neck, not at the side. That seemed inconsistent with unilateral fracturing. I made a mental note to check Miler's scene photos.
Could hanging explain the Dewees victim's neck injury? Had he, too, committed suicide?
Maybe. But the guy sure hadn't dug his
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