Page 8 - Daniel Spitz News Today

Right now hes laying on the garage floor of his grandmothers address. >> the call came in at 5:50 a.m. within the hour, bill is moments away. >> i should be there probably in about five, six minutes if we dont get stopped by the police here. >> bills boss, macomb county medical examiner dr. daniel spitz, sends investigators to most residential death scenes to work with police and make sure no detail is missed. >> they go to scenes. they collect information. theyre knowledgeable about wounds and ...

But this case still is an unknown cause of death. and an unknown situation until the exam is done. >> despite the morbid surroundings, its just another day at the medical examiners office. >> when are you going back up to your cottage? >> probably next week. i have five off. so ill be going. i cant wait. oh, i cant wait. >> dr. spitz begins the exam by analyzing the information his medical investigator gathered at the scene. >> you know hes got real signs of chronic alcoholism. he has a long his...

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. spitz must now try to determine ...

A little bit but not dripping down his legs. >> so he broke both bifold doors off their hinges? >> yes. >> and then kept going down the stairs and through the wall. >> dr. spitz performs hundreds of autopsies every year. hes seen a lot since taking this job in 2004 but the case of charles krueger jr. has to be one of the strangest deaths yet. >> yeah. there he is. >> wow. >> totally through. >> so half of his bodys on the landing and the other half is like in the basement. >> yes. >> okay. well,...

"y" incision across the body, opening the chest, opening the abdomen, and removing the rib plate, the chest plate so that you can visualize the chest and abdominal organs and then looking at the body cavities, looking for collections of blood or infection. >> something going on in her abdomen with all this blood. >> watch, find its an aneurism. >> lets just work our way down. >> oh, theres a problem. >> the first clue dr. spitz finds? an accumulation of blood in mrs. moores abdomen. but he quick...

I relayed that to the police now who are in the process of determining whose blood does that belong to. >> dr. spitz and detectives believe the womans psychiatric history may hold the keys to understanding her death and the bloody scene. >> it is going to be a medical or toxicology issue that we sort out after we get more results in. >> okay. >> take some fingerprints and then were done. weve gained a lot of information over the last 24 hours about whats going on. this woman, unfortunately, has ...

Getting swept away while walking his dog. now, back to our special. >> dr. daniel spitz is the medical examiner for macomb and st. claire counties, just north of detroit michigan. investigators from his office attend every death scene in the county occurring outside a hospital, hospice, or nursing home. his job, simply stated, to perform autopsies and figure out why people died. >> we obviously dont like surprises. we send an investigator to basically make sure the death is what it seems to be...

Death. even though the organs are decomposed you can still at this level of decomposition make a pretty good analysis of everything. you have a stock container? >> all of anns organs turn out to be normal except for her enlarged heart. but until her blood samples are tested for drugs, dr. spitz must move this death investigation as pending. >> one of the things i will exclude before i focus my attention back on the heart is the toxicology concern that i have because of the medications that shes ...

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 start. holy ...

No blood, not on his underwear. a little bit but not dripping down his legs. >> so he broke both bifold doors off their hinges? >> yes. >> and then kept going down the stairs and through the wall. >> dr. spitz performs hundreds of autopsies every year. hes seen a lot since taking this job in 2004 but the case of charles krueger jr. has to be one of the strangest deaths yet. >> yeah. there he is. >> wow. >> totally through. >> so half of his bodys on the landing and the other half is like in the ...