Page 16 - Daniel Spitz News Today

I go to crime scenes. i work with the police involving deaths and involving injury cases. i never know when my phone rings what the next mystery may be. >> dr. spitz is a forensic pathologist and often testifies at trials to explain his findings. one of the most high-profile cases hes investigated is the death of tara grant, a 34-year-old mother of who whose dismembered body was found in her garage in 2007. >> all indicative of a manual strangulation. >> her husband stephen grant was found guilt...

Cindys disappearance for 12 years. >> the family described this. she always had a purse with her. >> this looks to be like a black, like a plastic, maybe leather type bag. >> dr. spitz carefully goes through every scrap. >> mainly im looking for any kind of damage to the clothing that could be indicative of an injury that she may have sustained. you are looking for any clues as to what may have caused her death. >> the clothes and purse seem to point to a teenage girl. but the bones tell even mo...

510 grams. >> and then there are the occasional cases that may never be resolved. toxicology on charles krueger jr. yields unexpected results. >> he has no evidence of acute alcohol intoxication. and that was concerning for me. most of the time alcoholics who fall and sustain fatal injuries are intoxicated at the time of the injury. >> police work uncovered information that the man had had a seizure one day before his death and was treated at a local hospital and released. perhaps the next day h...

Its hard because it definitely hits home. i knew her when she was healthy and happy. to see her in this kind of condition, its heart wrenching. >> making the case even more difficult. neither dr. spitz nor investigator roland can find any obvious answers as to how the woman died. >> it is very mysterious at this point. i tell you, it is a rare scene that ive been to where you have sort of conflicting evidence -- in other words, blood evidence indicating some type of trauma but a body which doesn...

Small amount of bleeding and there was a small injury to her liver which was cpr related. that was quickly ruled as being sort of an artifact of resuscitation as opposed to being related to her death. >> then the rest of the body is examined in the order in which dr. spitz always conducts these exams, organs removed, weighed, and dissected. and, finally, the head opened up. >> with a history of headaches you might expect some type of catastrophic bleed in the brain but that doesnt seem to be the...

Some jaw pain and was really being treated for that but nobody felt it was much of anything and she was actually being scheduled to be sent home and all of a sudden went into cardiac arrest and died, so an unusual situation. >> sunday may be a day of rest for many but for macomb county, michigan medical examiner dr. daniel spitz, the work never stops. >> took what kind of blood so far? >> three and one. >> christina heisler, one of dr. spitzs two assistants, prepares both of todays cases simulta...

The external exam of mrs. moore revealed nothing. >> were still trying to figure out exactly what happened. >> finally, as he dissects the heart, dr. spitz finds the elusive answer. >> it wasnt long before i identified a severe coronary artery narrowing that involved one of her main coronary arteries that precipitated a sudden cardiac arythmia and sudden death. >> there is a very profound blockage in the beginning portion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. you can see right at the ...

>> with cause and manner of death now conclusively determined in both of the days cases, jill moore and ryan sudowsky are ready to be picked up by their respective funeral homes. dr. spitzs work is done for the day. its odd to consider but tomorrows cases may be alive and well at the moment with no idea theyre about to end up on the autopsy table tomorrow morning. but the doctor tried not to think about things like that as he spends whats left of the weekend out on lake st. claire with his famil...

Psychogenic polydipsia. there is a compelling urge to consume large amounts of water in the polydipsia. the psychogenic part means its brought on by an underlying psychiatric illness or psychosis. >> the autopsy results are not a surprise to her family. andrea had been hospitalized for the condition before. >> andrea had a history of three other episodes of these instances. she would have a seizure, stop breathing and nearly die from cardiac arrest. >> dr. spitz is able to determine the cause an...

Other tests help solve more cases. toxicology results for curt lewitski, a 36-year-old man who died in bed, show high levels of several prescription drugs in his system. dr. spitz records the cause of death as an accidental overdose. >> it showed he was acutely intoxicated by alcohol .15, it also showed that he had methadone, hydrocodone and oxymorphone. some pretty potent pain medications. lab results solved the mystery of how andrea bean died. she was found in her bed with blood smeared thro...