Page 5 - Daniel Spitz News Today

Many times the case is not suspicious but we dont know that until one of our investigators gets there and talks to the family, investigates the scene firsthand, takes photographs and actually examines the body. >> okay. so hes in the garage right now cut down? >> from what i understand he had a couple friends come over. >> okay. well go take a look. see what we got. >> did they remove the rope from his neck? >> by 7:00 a.m. investigator bill robinette has been briefed by officers on the scene an...

Back of your head you get the contusions opposite. thats what these are. these are all contusions. >> right. >> enough to kill you, right? >> yep. he had a very specific bruise pattern of the brain, which is contusions which mean you have a bruise on the brain at the site of the impact and you also have bruising on the brain opposite the site of the impact because of how the brain moves within the skull when there is a head impact. >> having solved charles kruegers cause of death mystery, dr. sp...

Assaulted. a team of forensic nurses is brought in to take samples which will be sent to a lab for analysis. >> and the reason we were called in was because its a suspicious death. its not known at this point what the cause of death was. >> youre done? okay. cool. thanks. >> all autopsies begin with an external exam. as michelle and christina clean off the body, dr. spitz takes note of any physical injuries. >> all right. lets roll him this way and then roll him the other way and we shall soon s...

One undercover detective asks us not to reveal his face. >> do you have the rope? >> yes. >> take a picture of it so we can correlate it with the ligature mark. quite an elaborate knot on the rope he prepared. left what could be a suicide note but not really. stating what hes planning on doing. >> just rambling about the family. ive got a copy. >> okay. we take a copy for our file. >> with the external exams completed, dr. spitz is now ready to move on to the internal exams. as hes about to star...

>> they unwrap the womans hands, which were covered with paper bags at the scene to preserve potential evidence. because of the suspicious nature of the death, forensic nurses are brought in to perform a sexual assault exam. >> got cervical swabs. >> they meticulously pull samples from the body and place them into marked envelopes and bags which are sent to a lab for analysis. kristina and michelle take several samples of blood from different parts of the body. >> you got enough for tox. >> urin...

That essentially caused their death. actually while the person was in the water. >> after the hour plus autopsy dr. spitz has reached a dr. spitz has reached a conclusion which toxicology reports confirm weeks later. the mans system had no trace of drugs or alcohol. his death is purely accidental. >> it certainly looks to be a drowning death. there is probably a component of the environment where he was swimming which caused it to be very difficult for him to maintain himself on the water. >> it...

The gentleman doesnt seem to have neon this side. hes full of rigor. happens about 12 hours after death. hes also a young man, really good muscle structure. the more muscle you have the more rigor youll have because it binds to the proteins in your muscles. >> once the bodies are photographed and bodily fluids drawn for toxicology testing, dr. spitz begins the external exams. a comprehensive analysis of the body from head to toe. he bounces back and forth between the two cases, beginning with ji...

This could be some type of aneurism that ruptured but quickly figured out it was a 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...

This is a routine. we have to come out for every case. high blood pressure, any heart problems, asthma? >> i dont know. hed been on alcohol for quite a few years. >> okay. >> the man is open about his sons alcoholism. over the years, doctor spitz has seen that in many cases people end up in his office at least partly as a result of their own actions. >> one of the things that happens in a medical examiner setting is if you look at all the cases and step back, you see that most of the people that...

>> thats from long-standing alcohol. look at that. its as cirrhotic as they get. hes a young man, 36, pretty unusual to develop cirrhosis of the liver at that age. the autopsy did confirm he had alcoholic liver cirrhosis. i want to confirm his toxicology was not a causative or contributory factor in the death because he does have an underlying history of prescription drug abuse. >> curt lewitskis autopsy like andrea beans, is filed as pending until test results come back. coming up -- these bo...