wasnât much that I could see. The drops of rain striking the surface of the water were calming in a way that I could never describe, considering what lay near me. The girl was simply drifting back and forth. There were no preliminary indications that her body had been rigged. Neither her hands nor feet were bound. I passed underneath her body and moved the beam of a flashlight over her darkened silhouette. If there was trauma induced I couldnât tell. I broke the water near her shoulders. Using a flashlight pen, I pulled aside sections of her hair. There was a large contusion on her scalp consistent with what was termed as blunt force trauma.
Isabellaâs skull had been fractured in two places as well as several vertebrae in her neck. The wound was made by an undetermined blunt instrument, most likely comprised of iron or steel. The indentation from the wound measured almost an inch in diameter.
Moving counter clockwise around the body I positioned myself at her side. The girlâs right arm had been almost completely detached below the joint at the elbow. Filleted tendon and bone protruded from the crude incision.
Isabella had her pelvic bone crushed. Her left ankle was broken in four places. Isabella suffered three broken ribs and a punctured lung. It was determined that she had had intercourse prior to being attacked.
An acrid stench clutched at the fragile breath of the night. I inhaled so forcefully from the tank that I thought my ribs would crack. I closed my eyes for a moment and removed the regulator. With as much precision as I could, I searched around her body. The poor girl, later identified as Mindy Yhros, was fully nude below the waist with severe bruising evident on her thighs, abdomen and feet.
Mull still stood at the edge of the lake when I started to carefully guide her body ashore. There was a black bag not more than a few feet from him. When I passed around her hips and ankles, I noticed a flower resting on the water, placed discriminately between her legs.
Body Number Eight (August): James Stanachek, 6 years old. Was discovered in a small abandoned quarry that hadnât been used in nearly a decade. It used to supply limestone, construction aggregate and sand to various parts of the state. It had been shuttered and advertised for sale for the last three years, without attracting any buyers. This was the only crime scene during the investigation where Detective Mull was not present. Two weeks after the body of Mindy Yhros was found on the McIlhenyâs farm, he was reassigned from the case. A departmental hearing found him emotionally unfit to make objective decisions because of the similarities between the ongoing case and the unsolved one involving his daughter.
The winds dragged the rescue line from the helicopter across the stretched mouth of the quarry as I held on tightly to the harness that suspended me some 115 feet above the abandoned crevasse. Abandoned, it had also remained isolated, being set back from the main highway. There was a derelict car parked behind some brush. That was what had led someone to contact the department. That was all it took sometimes. But the sad fact was that most physical crimes went unsolved, regardless of the advancements in forensic medicine and technology. There were machines that could measure almost anything. What the computers and the experts could not measure was the human condition, and how degraded and violated a sexual assault victim felt, and the hatred it bred from within; or how contracting a communicable disease from an affair made a woman feel when she tried to put her arms around her husband at night. Those people didnât talk. They suffocated.
The bottom of the quarry was filled with loose rock, trash and debris tossed into it throughout the past few years. The water level in the pit had recently climbed higher due to the flash flooding at the beginning of the previous week. I tugged at the secured line and
Isabellaâs skull had been fractured in two places as well as several vertebrae in her neck. The wound was made by an undetermined blunt instrument, most likely comprised of iron or steel. The indentation from the wound measured almost an inch in diameter.
Moving counter clockwise around the body I positioned myself at her side. The girlâs right arm had been almost completely detached below the joint at the elbow. Filleted tendon and bone protruded from the crude incision.
Isabella had her pelvic bone crushed. Her left ankle was broken in four places. Isabella suffered three broken ribs and a punctured lung. It was determined that she had had intercourse prior to being attacked.
An acrid stench clutched at the fragile breath of the night. I inhaled so forcefully from the tank that I thought my ribs would crack. I closed my eyes for a moment and removed the regulator. With as much precision as I could, I searched around her body. The poor girl, later identified as Mindy Yhros, was fully nude below the waist with severe bruising evident on her thighs, abdomen and feet.
Mull still stood at the edge of the lake when I started to carefully guide her body ashore. There was a black bag not more than a few feet from him. When I passed around her hips and ankles, I noticed a flower resting on the water, placed discriminately between her legs.
Body Number Eight (August): James Stanachek, 6 years old. Was discovered in a small abandoned quarry that hadnât been used in nearly a decade. It used to supply limestone, construction aggregate and sand to various parts of the state. It had been shuttered and advertised for sale for the last three years, without attracting any buyers. This was the only crime scene during the investigation where Detective Mull was not present. Two weeks after the body of Mindy Yhros was found on the McIlhenyâs farm, he was reassigned from the case. A departmental hearing found him emotionally unfit to make objective decisions because of the similarities between the ongoing case and the unsolved one involving his daughter.
The winds dragged the rescue line from the helicopter across the stretched mouth of the quarry as I held on tightly to the harness that suspended me some 115 feet above the abandoned crevasse. Abandoned, it had also remained isolated, being set back from the main highway. There was a derelict car parked behind some brush. That was what had led someone to contact the department. That was all it took sometimes. But the sad fact was that most physical crimes went unsolved, regardless of the advancements in forensic medicine and technology. There were machines that could measure almost anything. What the computers and the experts could not measure was the human condition, and how degraded and violated a sexual assault victim felt, and the hatred it bred from within; or how contracting a communicable disease from an affair made a woman feel when she tried to put her arms around her husband at night. Those people didnât talk. They suffocated.
The bottom of the quarry was filled with loose rock, trash and debris tossed into it throughout the past few years. The water level in the pit had recently climbed higher due to the flash flooding at the beginning of the previous week. I tugged at the secured line and
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