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Voices
“Hi, you’ve reached John and Kelly. We’re not here to take your call right now, so leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.” The voice is cheery like the one we all use for our phone tags. I listen to these reminders of the recently departed life with…
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When He Snapped
Afterward, no one could explain why he had done it. It happened while Ashley was watching television, an after-school cartoon, Rugrats, maybe, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, her face inches from the screen. Her mother would have scolded her for ruining her eyes or absorbing harmful radiation or not doing…
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The Canal
“Will there be girls?” the teen asked eagerly, brushing red bangs from his forehead. “Copy that,” crackled the radio followed by, “but it’s not at my home 20.” Eddie huddled next to his roommate who was speaking into the handheld. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed, “What’s he mean?” Their garage was base station for…
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Storage Locker
“I don’t know why I made the payments on that stupid storage locker,” the woman said, her frosted lips pouting. The interview had drawn to an end. The FBI agent closed the folder in front of him, standing up to see her out. “Even before I paid the gas and electric. It was that important…
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La Petite Morte
Evelyn had arrived early for the meeting. The curtains were closed on the first floor windows of the motel room. It didn’t matter. The only view was an empty parking lot, on this weekday at lunchtime. A Reader’s Digest lay abandoned on an end table next to a plastic cup of water. Rumpled linens covered…
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Rain
“What’s going on?” I asked. There was an angry edge to my voice as I watched the bodies being laid on the floor — two hundred and twenty eight of them. “I don’t know, Doc,” answered Kaholo, my pathology assistant, as he put on a butcher’s apron. His torso was thick and so were his…
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Hector
The Orange Crush. It sounds like an athletic team or a sparkling refreshment. Certainly not an elite division of prison guards. Not the name of an organized effort to control the incarcerated. Yet, that is what has been identified in a class action suit filed by inmates against the Illinois Department of Corrections. In an…
Final Words: Reflections of a Forensic Pathologist
Category: Archived Post
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Voices
“Hi, you’ve reached John and Kelly. We’re not here to take your call right now, so leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.” The voice is cheery like the one we all use for our phone tags. I listen to these reminders of the recently departed life with…
-
When He Snapped
Afterward, no one could explain why he had done it. It happened while Ashley was watching television, an after-school cartoon, Rugrats, maybe, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, her face inches from the screen. Her mother would have scolded her for ruining her eyes or absorbing harmful radiation or not doing…
-
The Canal
“Will there be girls?” the teen asked eagerly, brushing red bangs from his forehead. “Copy that,” crackled the radio followed by, “but it’s not at my home 20.” Eddie huddled next to his roommate who was speaking into the handheld. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed, “What’s he mean?” Their garage was base station for…
-
Storage Locker
“I don’t know why I made the payments on that stupid storage locker,” the woman said, her frosted lips pouting. The interview had drawn to an end. The FBI agent closed the folder in front of him, standing up to see her out. “Even before I paid the gas and electric. It was that important…
-
La Petite Morte
Evelyn had arrived early for the meeting. The curtains were closed on the first floor windows of the motel room. It didn’t matter. The only view was an empty parking lot, on this weekday at lunchtime. A Reader’s Digest lay abandoned on an end table next to a plastic cup of water. Rumpled linens covered…
-
Rain
“What’s going on?” I asked. There was an angry edge to my voice as I watched the bodies being laid on the floor — two hundred and twenty eight of them. “I don’t know, Doc,” answered Kaholo, my pathology assistant, as he put on a butcher’s apron. His torso was thick and so were his…
-
Hector
The Orange Crush. It sounds like an athletic team or a sparkling refreshment. Certainly not an elite division of prison guards. Not the name of an organized effort to control the incarcerated. Yet, that is what has been identified in a class action suit filed by inmates against the Illinois Department of Corrections. In an…