Day 13

2/17/10

Case 1

38 YO WM
Poss. suicide
Looked much older
Hx depression, schizophrenia
Reported to live in an apartment complex for the mentally ill/those just out of acute care facilities. Little surveillance.
Neighbors reported that deceased seemed depressed, had not been seen for a few days.
Found in bathtub full of water, w/ approx 1 in. over face.
Smashed glass by sink, blood pool nearby.
Deceased has an open sharp-force trauma on R knee.
COD drowning (?)

Case 2

29 YO WM
Hx of epilepsy
Found unresponsive on floor of apt near bed, friend called 911.
Deceased had not been seen for several days.
No signs of drugs or foul play.
Body in early decomp
5.5x3 in. area of skin slippage on inner R wrist, discoloration on lower abd.
Lips bitten, pale; peeled skin from inner lips stuck to teeth.
Eyes pale, clouded.
COD epilepsy (?)

Case 3

Sign Out
56 YO WM
Poss. nat
Insulin dept diabetes
Had not been seen recently, friends called for welfare check
Hep C +

Case 4

Sign Out (?)
68 YO WM
Poss. nat
Collapsed at home in front of daughter, who called 911
Found in asystole by EMS
Very recent multiple surgeries
PCP “does not sign death certificates, will not sign this one”.

The water in the tub on case 1 was pinky with blood, apparently from the incised wound on his knee, said the report. Everything glass or ceramic in the apartment had been smashed, but there was no sign of any intruder. The body was lying in the tub with the head toward the spigot, shoved against the tub’s margin and about an inch under water, the back arched, shoving the torso up and out of the water, and the legs curled back underneath the body. The spigot leaked slowly into the tub. There was a pool of blood on the floor in front of the tub, with streaks of clotted, dripped blood leading down to it from the rim, where the man had apparently sat down for a while.

Bizarrely, underneath the body in the tub, lay the shattered and sharp-edged remains of a large number of coffee mugs. During the external, there were no visible wounds from these on the body.

Everything in the apartment was in tens. There were ten $10 bills in the wallet (on the counter). There were ten containers of cleaning solution in the closet. Ten rows of ten items each in the fridge. The clothes in the closet were separated into ten groups of ten with collections of ten hangers in between each. Previously in the cupboards (now on the floor), the remains of ten plates, ten glasses, ten bowls. Ten forks, ten knives, ten spoons in the silverware drawer. Ten coffee mugs, shivered into soggy pieces, at the bottom of the tub.