03x11 - Dark Secrets

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR A -year-old father comes home intoxicated

and passes out on the couch, but when his daughters try

to wake him in the morning--

He has no pulse, no blood pressure.

He's basically dead.

NARRATOR Dr. G. suspects his medical history played

a key role in his death, but she uncovers

a far more twisted k*ller.

This is somebody who just needed a slap across the face.

I mean, there's something wrong with this fella.

NARRATOR Then, the police discover an elderly man's

decomposing corpse in the home where

he lived with his stepson.

The body was completely covered with a comforter

and a large plastic tarp.

NARRATOR And Dr. G. is the only one

who can unlock the mystery behind this horrifying family

tragedy.

Was there an argument that went on

and he k*lled his father, and he's trying

to just hide it with blankets?

The whole situation just sounds bizarre.

NARRATOR Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,

shocking revelations.

These are the everyday cases of "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner."

It's another hectic morning for Dr. Jan

Garavaglia, chief medical examiner for the District

Morgue in Florida.

As a working mother, hours a day are never enough.

I need to know what we have today.

Do you know?

Is it bad?

NARRATOR And multitasking is the secret to survival.

Eight bodies.

You know I have to go to court this morning.

NARRATOR But once she gets to the morgue,

it's all about the job at hand.

This one sounds like it might be straightforward.

We've got a -year-old man who's a really bad diabetic.

NARRATOR It all started the previous evening.

Tony Solito, a father of two young girls,

is coming off a long, hard day at work.

He makes plans to go out drinking

with his buddies to unwind.

But his wife, Sandra, is concerned.

Thanks, mom.

What's interesting about this, he is a diabetic,

and the wife's worried that he goes out

and drinks with his diabetes.

NARRATOR But Tony assures his wife that he won't be out long

and he'll be fine.

They eat dinner together, but then he leaves and goes

parties with his friends.

NARRATOR When Tony gets home many hours later,

he's incoherent and seems drunk.

He comes home fairly late about in the morning,

and he decides to sleep on the couch.

We get the story from her, so we don't know if they argued

or if he didn't want to wake her,

or why he slept on the couch.

NARRATOR The next morning, Tony's daughters

run into the living room to wake their father.

Tries to wake up dad, and he's cold and unresponsive.

NARRATOR In a panic, Tony's wife calls .

My husband, he won't wake up.

He's passed out.

NARRATOR Paramedics soon arrive and try to revive him.

Sir? PARAMEDIC Go ahead, take--

[interposing voices] PARAMEDIC Ma'am, I'm sorry.

I can't say, but we're doing the best we can.

PARAMEDIC He does not have a pulse.

NARRATOR But their efforts are in vain.

SANDRA WIFE Is he breathing?

NARRATOR Tony Solito is already dead.

[ominous music]

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Yeah, his wife

seems to be concerned about him being not

taking care of himself because of the diabetic problems

he's got.

So she really is, I get the sense

that she's worried that he may have d*ed from the diabetes.

NARRATOR Overcome with guilt, she wonders if she

could have saved her husband had she

tried harder to keep him home.

She knows all too well that consuming alcohol

could be dangerous for Tony because

of its high sugar content.

[music playing]

Diabetics like Tony have trouble processing

sugar or glucose because their bodies

don't manufacture insulin--

a protein produced in the pancreas.

Without enough insulin, glucose levels can skyrocket,

wreaking havoc in the body.

Sometimes even resulting in death.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA They have to have

the insulin because pancreas doesn't make insulin.

NARRATOR To make up for this lack of natural insulin, Tony,

like many diabetics, undergoes a daily regimen
[ … ]

of unpleasant injections.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We do know that he is on insulin.

We know he's on insulin on twice a day.

NARRATOR This ensures that his glucose levels or blood

sugar won't climb too high.

But it seems that Tony was not giving his condition

the attention it deserved.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So we get his medical records

and find out that he doesn't really

like to take care of himself.

His blood sugars are always very high.

His doctor was worried about, told

them to increase his insulin.

NARRATOR Now that she's reviewed

all the information available to her,

Dr. G. formulates an initial hypothesis.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I mean, certainly

diabetes is high on my list.

NARRATOR But only an autopsy will lead her to the truth.

[music playing]

[camera shutters]

As Dr. G. begins the external exam,

she considers how diabetes could have k*lled Tony.

And the primary suspect is a condition

known as ketoacidosis.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA If he had missed his insulin, if he

was drinking, yeah, that could put him

into ketoacidosis certainly.

NARRATOR Ketoacidosis often begins with an abnormally

high blood sugar level.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA They get very high glucose levels.

But the problem is, they don't have their insulin to get

the glucose into the cells.

And so you can't utilize the glucose as energy.

And so you start almost in a starvation mode.

NARRATOR Desperate for a source of energy,

the body begins burning fat instead of glucose as fuel.

The fat then breaks down into acids called ketones.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA You get fatty acid and filled up

and that turns into ketones, which

make your blood very acidic.

And that's what makes you so sick and you end up dying.

NARRATOR If Dr. G. finds both ketones and a high glucose

level in Tony's body, she can be almost certain

that ketoacidosis took his life.

To find out, she'll need to send samples

of Tony's blood, urine, and eye fluid to the toxicology lab.

They will also test for Tony's blood alcohol level.

Unfortunately, Dr. G. will have to wait six to nine

weeks for the lab results.

In the meantime, she looks for additional clues

with her standard external exam.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I look at his arms.

I look for needle tracks.

I look for trauma.

And I don't see anything.

His external examination is pretty benign, pretty negative.

We can find a lot when we go in there

but I don't like surprises.

NARRATOR She now hopes that the internal exam will yield more

clues so that she can soon provide some answers

to Tony's grieving widow.

[music playing]

Coming up next, Dr. G. explores another possibility.

Did Tony Solito fall victim to his own reckless drinking

habit?

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA It's very rare

to drink yourself to death, but it certainly happens.

I mean, he's with his buddies.

We'll have to see.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Dr. G. reexamines the investigator's report

on Tony Solito as morgue techs prepare his body

for the internal autopsy.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We just know he does have a family on one

side and a wife and two kids.

But yet, he goes out and parties pretty

heavily with his buddies.

His wife says he's going out drinking.

NARRATOR Tony also has a bad case of diabetes

and his wife Sandra is concerned that the drinking,

combined with his disease, finally did him in.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA She is right to be worried about him

not taking care of himself.

Him drinking is just one component of that.

Him not taking his insulin, him not watching his diet.

He sounds like he's having a very reckless lifestyle.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR Dr. G. performs the Y-incision

and opens up Tony's chest plate.

She will begin by checking Tony's heart

for atherosclerosis, or coronary artery disease,

which is common to diabetics.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA This will be interesting.

DR. VICTOR ROBERTS The major cause

of death of people that have diabetes across the board

is cardiovascular disease.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He's got a lot of blood?
[ … ]

MORGUE TECH Yes.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Down there, and I need to--

WOMAN OK.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Certainly, I'm

going to look for atherosclerosis,

see how his heart looks.

NARRATOR Atherosclerosis occurs when plaque

accumulates inside the coronary arteries,

restricting the flow of blood.

If Tony's coronary arteries show extensive narrowing from plaque

build-up, it could mean that the blood flow to his heart

was blocked causing a deadly heart att*ck.

As a first step, Dr. G removes Tony's

heart for a closer examination.

Any extreme narrowing of the arteries

may overrule her ketoacidosis theory.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The heart muscle.

Again, her tissues are starting get maroon and soft.

It looks OK.

NARRATOR But after a thorough dissection, she finds nothing.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA No coronary artery disease.

That's easy to see.

Lo and behold, he doesn't have any atherosclerosis.

Even though he is a terribly controlled diabetic.

NARRATOR Immediately, she can rule out

one possible cause of death, a heart att*ck

caused by atherosclerosis.

[ominous music]

However, as she continues her examination of Tony's heart,

she makes a critical discovery.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Normal heart should--

for him, it should be over .

His is grams.

His is enlarged.

It weighs more than it should.

And the left ventricle that pumps blood to the rest

of the body is thickened.

And that tells me that he's probably

has some high blood pressure.

NARRATOR High blood pressure often causes the heart muscle

to thicken because it has to work harder to pump

the blood throughout the body.

High blood pressure can also be deadly.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Sometimes with high blood pressure,

we certainly can see arrythmias with the heart.

NARRATOR An arrhythmia occurs when the heart loses its b*at,

quivering ineffectively instead of pumping

blood throughout the body.

If Tony had an arrhythmia that lasted over a minute,

his organs would have become starved of blood

and then ceased to function.

It is a quick and sudden way to die.

But arrythmias leave no physical evidence in the heart.

To conclude that Tony's death was a result of an arrhythmia,

Dr. G. must first ruled out every other possible cause

of death.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA OK, well, I will cut it out.

Our work is cut out for us.

NARRATOR Everything else appears normal

until she gets to Tony's liver.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Oh, is this one big liver.

One of the other things I found was a very enlarged liver,

kind of round and fatty.

NARRATOR This could be a result of his diabetes

but it could also be the result of drinking heavily.

[ominous music]

If Tony had such a serious drinking habit, maybe

that fateful night, he simply drank more than

his body could handle.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA It's very rare

to drink yourself to death, but it certainly happens.

It wouldn't be the first one I had.

You're with your buddies.

You're drinking.

Maybe they took also another drug with it,

like a sleeping pill with the alcohol,

or like to central nervous system antidepressants,

or anti-anxiety medication with the drinking

could put him over the edge.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR Dr. G. now has several possible causes of death--

ketoacidosis brought on by Tony's high blood sugar;

alcohol poisoning; or an arrhythmia

caused by his high blood pressure and enlarged heart.

Dr. G. won't get answers to these questions

until the toxicology report comes back.

But she has one more place to look internally for clues--

Tony's lungs.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA And the left lung?

NARRATOR And there, she finds a crucial piece of evidence.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA When I looked at his lungs,

I noticed they're very heavy.

They're grams.

NARRATOR This finding indicates that Tony lingered in a coma

before he d*ed, which typically causes the lungs to fill up

with fluid.

Dr. G. now knows he did not die suddenly.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA A person who just d*ed suddenly,

let's say from an arrhythmia, maybe grams max.

NARRATOR An arrhythmia would have k*lled
[ … ]

Tony in a matter of minutes.

So right away, she can rule that out

as a possible cause of death.

But this finding is consistent with ketoacidosis,

which often causes victims to go into a coma before death.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The body just gives me this feeling

that he laid there in a coma for a while,

whether that was due to diabetic ketoacidosis

or maybe he really drank a lot.

NARRATOR Dr. G's final ruling now hinges on the results

of the toxicology report.

She eagerly awaits their arrival,

hoping to get to the bottom of this perplexing case.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Because I am worried about how high

that alcohol is going to be because his wife

seems to be concerned about it.

He was gone for quite a long time with his buddies.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR Coming up next, the results

come back from the lab with troubling implications

about Tony's Solito.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA When I look at the tox report

I'm very surprised on many levels.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner" continues.

[ominous music]

Dr. G. is counting on the toxicology report

to shed light on the mysterious and sudden death

of -year-old Tony Solito.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I have some suggestion that maybe he kind

of lingered in a coma somewhat.

So far, things aren't looking good for the cause of death.

After the internal exam, I've made the rounds of the organs.

I don't have a clear cut cause of death.

NARRATOR She hopes the report will contain

the answer she's been seeking.

If she finds that Tony's system contains ketones

and a high blood sugar level, she'll

know that he d*ed from ketoacidosis

resulting from his diabetes.

If Tony's blood alcohol level is extremely high,

she will conclude that he poisoned

himself to death with alcohol.

[ominous music]

Finally, after several weeks of waiting,

the toxicology report arrives.

But it's not at all what Dr. G. was expecting.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA When I look at the tox report

I'm very surprised on many levels.

First of all, the first thing I'm looking at is the alcohol.

And the blood shows none.

None at all.

NARRATOR Dr. G, now knows for sure that Tony

did not drink himself to death.

Next, she flips through the report to find

Tony's ketone and blood sugar.

And again, she is shocked by what she does not find.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He does not have any acid bodies,

no ketones, or acetone.

He doesn't have that.

He does have an elevated blood glucose in .

So it's probably higher, but probably not enough

to k*ll him.

NARRATOR Which can only mean one thing.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We have ruled

out diabetic ketoacidosis.

Poorly controlled diabetic, yes.

But that isn't k*lling him acutely.

NARRATOR But the toxicology report reveals very clearly

what did k*ll Tony Solito.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Well, I'm only

surprise at in the tox report is it's

giving me my cause of death.

An unexpected answer.

NARRATOR And that unexpected answer is heroin and cocaine.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He's not going

out drinking with his buddies.

He's going out using dr*gs with his buddies.

We're talking hardcore dr*gs--

heroin and cocaine-- in levels enough that

caused him his death.

NARRATOR The heroin level alone was high enough to k*ll Tony.

The cocaine only further irritated his heart,

possibly finishing the job and causing

it to stop b*ating completely.

PARAMEDIC He does not have a pulse, and he's not breathing.

NARRATOR Dr. G. now has a definitive answer

from the tox reports.

Tony Solito d*ed of heroin and cocaine intoxication.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I was shocked

to see heroin and cocaine in this supposedly family man.

I guess I have the view that once you have

children, at the very least, get your life together

as an example.

And you have responsibilities to live

to take care of your children.

Using cocaine and using heroin is not

conducive to a healthy life for living.

But maybe this guy didn't care.

He wasn't taking care of his diabetes either.
[ … ]

NARRATOR Dr. G. braces for a difficult phone

call to Tony's widow, Sandra, to explain how Tony d*ed.

But first, she lays out the events

leading up to Tony's death.

[ominous music]

TONY SOLITO Great cooking, mom.

Everyone thank your mom.

DAUGHTERS Thanks, mom.

NARRATOR It's Sunday night and Tony

Solito, a diabetic father of two,

is having dinner with his family.

TONY SOLITO It was good?

DAUGHTER Ah, no.

TONY SOLITO No?

NARRATOR When he announces that he's

going out drinking with some friends,

his wife Sandra objects.

SANDRA You already went out last night.

TONY SOLITO So?

NARRATOR But Tony goes out anyway.

TONY SOLITO I'll be back late.

SANDRA Yeah.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA But his wife thinks he's drinking, just

having a few beers with his buddies,

although she seems to be a little worried

that maybe he drinks too much.

TONY'S FRIEND Oh, you did.

TONY SOLITO I thought I'd never get out of the house tonight.

NARRATOR But on this night, Tony

never does go out drinking.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Instead of drinking with his friends,

he's out using dr*gs.

NARRATOR Tony snorts a large amount

of cocaine and heroin, which immediately begins

to break down into morphine.

The morphine, attaches to receptors in Tony's brain,

causing his bodily functions to grow slow and lethargic.

[ominous music]

TONY SOLITO I got to go.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

TONY'S FRIEND All right, see you again.

TONY SOLITO All right.

NARRATOR By the time he gets home, hours later,

he's completely incoherent and appears drunk.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Eventually, he comes home around

in the morning.

Appears to just go on the couch to sleep.

NARRATOR But Tony is not sleeping.

Instead, he slips into a deep coma.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The heroin attaches to the receptors

at his brain to the point where it depresses it enough

or he's probably no longer breathing.

NARRATOR And soon after Tony stops breathing, he dies.

[ominous music]

The news is a shock to Tony's wife.

She now knows that his drinking did not k*ll him,

but the full extent of his recklessness

is difficult to accept.

Dr. G. sees many deaths that are senseless and cruel.

But in some cases, when death seems so avoidable,

she can only wonder what drives people

to make such bad decisions.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA This guy needs a slap across the face,

and to be shaken, to be A, not taking care of himself

with his diabetes, letting his glucose

get that high, not eating right, not taking

his insulin when he should be.

With two kids, and then on top of that

using cocaine and heroin.

I mean, there is something wrong with this fella.

It really always bothers me, tremendously

bothers me when I see people dying of drug deaths

when they have kids.

It has a tremendous impact to people who love you

and to your life.

[sandra laughing]

[ominous music]

POLICEMAN Break it.

NARRATOR Coming up next.

Police are baffled when they discovered the decomposing

body of an elderly man in the home

he shared with his stepson.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Did he just let his dad die

and then doesn't know what to do with the body,

thinking maybe I'll just cover it with a tarp

and nobody will notice?

NARRATOR Now, they are counting on Dr. G.

to help them piece together this morbid puzzle.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Something needs to be investigated here.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

After a long morning of challenging cases, Dr. G,

Enjoys a break with her medical investigator, Steve Hansen.

It's a welcome diversion.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA There's a lot of stress

and sometimes you have to get out of this office.

Unfortunately, sometimes I can't.

I've got so much work to do.
[ … ]

But occasionally, lunch is a little oasis for me

that I can just say, OK, let's put this aside for a minute

and go out to lunch.

It's kind of set up like American Idol.

And I was one of the judges.

There's three judges, it's not--

Sometimes when we go out for lunch, we talk work.

I hate that.

But when I go out and we can just talk about our families

and talk about our lives, that's a lot more relaxing for me.

NARRATOR But the break from work is short lived.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I daydream of taking the afternoon off,

but unfortunately, it's no fun because then you

start thinking about all the work you

have to do back in your office.

Unfortunately, people don't stop dying.

NARRATOR Back at the morgue, a rather unusual corpse awaits.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We have a man

that's dead in the middle of his living room covered with tarp.

The whole situation just sounds bizarre.

Sometimes you cannot make these stories up.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR Once in the exam room, Dr. G. gets more details

from the investigator's report on -year-old retiree,

Alonzo Garcia.

[music playing]

A recent widower, Alonzo lived alone in a small retirement

compound in Kissimmee, Florida, until his stepson, Miguel,

abruptly lost his job and moved in with him.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA They live on a golf course,

at a nice community.

NARRATOR But one day, this seemingly peaceful life

is cut short.

[music playing]

Alonzo's sister, Leah, is the first to sense

that something is amiss.

Her brother hasn't returned her calls in a week

and she can't imagine why.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The sister who lives in another state

wants to know where he is.

NARRATOR But Miguel was evasive and incoherent.

MIGUEL No, I got to go. I will talk to you later.

He could hear from you. I got to go.

Bye.

NARRATOR Alarmed, Leah contacts a friend

on the local police force who agrees to check in on him.

And as soon as the detective arrives at the house,

he knows something's wrong.

DETECTIVE OLSON Hi, I'm Detective Olson.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA They actually smell a horrible odor.

MIGUEL What are you doing here?

NARRATOR And when Miguel opens the door,

he is paranoid, jittery, and extremely agitated.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He looked like he was high.

DETECTIVE OLSON The neighbors-- the neighbors have

said they haven't seen him.

MIGUEL He's probably on vacation.

He's on vacation.

DETECTIVE OLSON He's not here now?

MIGUEL No.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Then he becomes very belligerent,

doesn't want anybody in the house.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR They return a few hours later with a search

warrant, but the house is mysteriously silent

and Miguel is nowhere to be found.

POLICEMAN Break it.

NARRATOR As they enter the house,

they encounter an appalling scene.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The place is a mess.

There are bugs all over the place.

There is roaches all over.

There's really not much food in the house except alcohol.

NARRATOR And in the middle of the living room

is the source of the fetid stench.

The decomposing body of Alonzo Garcia.

[ominous music]

BILL STRATTON He was sitting in the recliner

completely covered with the comforter

and a large blue plastic tarp.

NARRATOR Investigators thoroughly

searched the house for evidence that could shed light

on this bizarre discovery.

What they find next has troubling implications.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA There is evidence

of drug use in the house-- cr*ck, cocaine use.

BILL STRATTON There was a pipe or smoking device that

had ash on it and charring.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Investigators wonder if Miguel is a drug addict.

And if so, could his father's death be

a result of neglect or abuse?

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I have seen dr*gs

totally destroy people to the point

where they cannot function.

NARRATOR Perhaps Miguel was so incapacitated

that he couldn't adequately care for his aging father.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA There is no real clear explanation

on why he would just cover the father with tarps.

Did he just let his dad die and then
[ … ]

doesn't know what to do with the body,

thinking maybe I'll just cover it with the tarp and nobody

will notice.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR But then the team finds

a disturbing clue about Alonzo's mysterious death.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA My investigator at the scene

thought he saw maybe some contusion on the forehead.

NARRATOR Now, they must consider

a terrible and tragic scenario.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So there is this worry--

could he have done something to the father?

It's very possible it could have been a homicide.

NARRATOR But before police can accuse Miguel of any crime,

they need proof.

Evidence that can only come--

[ominous music]

--from Dr. G.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I mean, was the man m*rder*d

or did he die a natural death?

And so that's going to be pivotal right here.

Their investigation is hinging on what

we provide them at autopsy.

I just need to give them the facts.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR One glance at Alonzo's body and Dr. G.

can tell that this autopsy will not take place in the morgue's

usual exam room.

Rather it will be in the decomp room,

a separate room where she performs autopsies

on decomposing bodies.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We've got a separate autopsy

room because he smells.

And people don't want to be exposed to it.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Determined to unravel this case,

she begins the meticulous search for trauma,

starting with the head.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Now my investigator

thought since he's possibly saw some contusions or bruising

on the head.

Well, it's very difficult when a body has decomposed

to find external trauma.

We will be looking for discoloration,

a darker kind of bruise.

But the skin has already kind of green

to black so it's difficult to interpret that.

NARRATOR But a careful inspection yields no marks.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I don't see it.

I just see a lot of decompositional changes.

NARRATOR Nevertheless, years experience

tells her trauma can be extremely

elusive in the external exam.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So we really have to look internally.

I really cannot rule out foul play at this point--

for scars.

NARRATOR Next, Dr. G. shifts her attention

to the rest of the body.

First, a search for the hallmarks of v*olence.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We're going to look for any type of trauma.

I obviously don't see any Kn*fe wounds.

I don't see any g*nsh*t wounds.

NARRATOR Then a search for possible signs of neglect.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I'm looking for bedsores.

Was he confined to a bed and nobody checked on him

or move him?

NARRATOR Dr. G. painstakingly examines Alonzo's eroding skin.

On his elbows, on his hips, until finally, she's satisfied.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I don't see any drama.

So we're going to look internal, and look

on the inside for trauma.

Certainly you can miss some.

NARRATOR There are no antemortem defects

of any kind on his body.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA At this point,

I'm no longer really thinking that it

was a neglect situation.

NARRATOR But for Dr. G, eliminating neglect only

heightens her primary concern.

The haunting possibility of homicide.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA There is a body here that's being hidden.

What did he really die of?

[ominous music]

NARRATOR Coming up next, Dr. G. makes a k*ller finding.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA His lungs actually

have a lot of blackening.

There's also a breakdown of the tissues of the lungs.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Dr. G. reflects the scalp of Alonzo Garcia,

keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of trauma.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Now, I have to make sure he doesn't

have a blow to the head.

NARRATOR Yesterday, police discovered

the -year-old's rotting corpse under a comforter

and large plastic tarp.

Allegedly, Alonzo's stepson, Miguel,

had simply covered his father's dead body

and left him on a recliner in the living room.
[ … ]

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA We don't know what happened.

Why is he trying to cover up the body?

Did he do something?

NARRATOR Alonzo's sister in California

fears that her nephew, once the pride of the family,

may have spiraled out of control after losing his job.

BILL STRATTON There were some older photographs

of him that show that he was well-built, rather

muscular, neat.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He was an educated professional,

nothing what he looks like now.

He's very thin, unkempt, very ill-looking.

NARRATOR Dr. G. wonders if dr*gs

could be behind this tragic transformation.

And as an unemployed man, Miguel would

need money to feed his habit.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The deceased man

receives a check that gets automatically

deposited to his account.

NARRATOR Police cannot discount the theory that Alonzo could

have been k*lled for his money.

[music playing]

Dr. G. inspects the skull for fractures.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA A little congestion over here,

but I don't think that's--

I think that's just the way he was found.

It doesn't look like a bruise.

NARRATOR And finds none.

But an injury to the brain itself may be lurking beneath.

[ominous music]

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So I have to open up the skull,

take the calvarium off.

NARRATOR It's a procedure she's done more than , times.

But this time, she faces a formidable challenge.

Once again, decomposition.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Yeah, you have to look at these really

quickly because they'll disintegrate

right in front of your eyes.

At this point, the brain is going to be very

soft and kind of semi-liquid.

It'll hold its shape for about a split second when

you take that calvarium off.

So you got about a split second to look

and make sure there's no blood on the outside of that brain.

It just kind of all part on me.

There's not a whole lot of forensic pathology

you got to be quick on.

But when you're opening up the calvarium of a decomposed body,

you got to be right there and you got to be quick.

NARRATOR And her concerns are justified.

As soon as she extracts the organ, it begins to fall apart.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Semi-liquid, it's like a toothpaste.

You know, toothpaste just doesn't keep its shape.

It's almost semi-liquid.

We just got to look at them quick.

It's partially liquid over there.

NARRATOR But Dr. G. can see enough to tell

that there's no blood.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So it looked like a normal decomposed brain."], index ,…}

And so I don't see any trauma to the head at all.

NARRATOR Despite the investigator's earlier

suspicions, if Alonzo had suffered a violent death,

it was not from a blow to the head.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA No blood inside the brain,

no blood in the brain stem.

NARRATOR Now, Dr. G must dig deeper for clues,

inside his body.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA When we open them, all bets are off.

I don't know what I'm going to find.

[ominous music]

Take some of that.

We could squeeze all that off of there.

NARRATOR Dr. G. makes the standard Y-incision

from Alonzo's shoulders to his torso.

Any injuries found in this area could indicate a struggle.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA An old person

may die from trauma that is a lot less severe than somebody

who is and healthy.

NARRATOR Dr. G scours his decomposing abdomen.

But soon ends her search empty handed.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA All I can say

is there is not one bit of trauma in the skella.

There is no blood in there.

I don't see any rib fractures.

NARRATOR These negative findings

shed light on at least one aspect

of Alonzo's mysterious death.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He did not die from trauma.

Basically, it looks at this point

that it's unlikely that the son overtly k*lled his father.

NARRATOR But the unsettling question remains--

what could have possibly been the motive behind Miguel's

inexplicable behavior?

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA You just don't let your loved one

rot in the middle of your house and just

keep putting blankets and tarps over him

because he's smelling bad.

NARRATOR To completely exonerate

the stepson in the eyes of the investigators,

Dr. G. must scientifically prove what did k*ll Alonzo Garcia.
[ … ]

And there's only one way to do it.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I have to continue the autopsy

to make sure that he has some natural disease

to determine why he d*ed.

NARRATOR She inspects the liver, the stomach, the spleen.

None show more than a hint of disease.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Everything here

looks normal, except for the decompositional changes.

His kidneys show evidence of high blood pressure,

but we're not coming out of it too much.

NARRATOR She quickly moves on to his respiratory system.

And suddenly, she makes an alarming discovery.

Skella had anthracotic pigment.

Hard to say if the disease.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA His lungs actually have

a lot of blackening pigment.

There's also emphysema breakdown in the tissues of the lungs.

NARRATOR Both the blackening and the emphysema

are serious lung diseases.

Doctor G's findings suggest that at some point in his life,

Alonzo had a very unhealthy habit.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He must've smoked at one time.

NARRATOR Emphysema alone affects almost

two million people in the US.

times more common than lung cancer,

it's the most deadly respiratory disease.

But Dr. G. doesn't think this is what k*lled him.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Certainly, you can die from emphysema.

But we usually don't see it in the morgue

because you don't die suddenly from emphysema.

It's usually a slow process.

You're needing more and more oxygen.

So you're followed by a doctor.

He usually signs the death certificates.

It's not somebody who just dies suddenly in an old easy chair.

NARRATOR Now, as Dr. G. approaches

the end of her autopsy, Alonzo Garcia's cause of death

remains elusive.

[ominous music]

Coming up next.

The clues add up to one big mystery.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA All we have proof

of is that the man is dead.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G--

Medical Examiner" continues.

[ominous music]

Now, Dr. G. is left with only one of Alonzo Garcia's organs

to inspect-- the heart.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So I'm not really finding

anything clear cut k*lling him.

So then it's important to go to the heart.

NARRATOR The -year-old man's stepson, Miguel,

had been a suspect in his father's death.

But Dr. G. found no signs of foul play.

But without forensic evidence proving what did happen,

this family may always question how Alonzo d*ed.

[ominous music]

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Say, I think we're going to take a chance.

We're going to see--

sometimes you can see a few things in the heart.

We're going to see if we can see anything.

NARRATOR Like the rest of his body,

Alonzo's heart is soft from decomposition.

But to her expert eye, something about its shape

doesn't seem right.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA His heart looked like it was starting

to dilate or get bigger.

NARRATOR As a next step, Dr. G. begins to dissect the organ.

[ominous music]

And suddenly comes face to face with Alonzo's k*ller.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA I look at his native heart

or natural coronary arteries, and they're very severely

narrowed, all of them, very filled

with the cholesterol plaque.

NARRATOR It's clear that Alonzo had been suffering

from a dangerous condition that afflicts

. million Americans--

atherosclerotic coronary artery disease or atherosclerosis.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The arteries that supply blood and oxygen

to the heart build-up with plaque,

and they build up with plaque--

cholesterol plaque.

They calcified atherosclerosis stays.

The rest your heart can decompose

but the atherosclerosis will stay there.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR If severe enough, this illness

can stop blood from flowing through the heart

altogether, triggering an arrhythmia-- an irregular

and fatal heartbeat.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Unfortunately he

may not have had any symptoms.

You certainly can die suddenly with this.

We see that all the time.

NARRATOR Looking back at the other findings

from the autopsy, Dr. G. can see how Alonzo was at high risk

for this heart disease.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA High blood pressure will accelerate it.

Smoking certainly will accelerate it.

NARRATOR Now there's no doubt what k*lled Alonzo Garcia.
[ … ]

An arrhythmia brought on by blocked arteries.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA Because of the severe nature of his heart

disease, with no evidence of trauma,

no other natural disease, it appears

that he probably just d*ed in his sleep

while he was sitting on that recliner.

There is no other cause of death.

NARRATOR At last Dr. G. has enough forensic evidence

to describe what--

not who-- k*lled Alonzo Garcia.

[music playing]

Lonely after his wife's death, Alonzo welcomes his stepson,

Miguel, into his home.

According to the medical investigator's report,

Miguel is unemployed and unstable.

But Alonzo appreciates the company.

He never suspects he's now living with a k*ller.

Not his stepson, but a formidable enemy lurking

much closer inside his heart.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA He's got the narrowing

to his coronary arteries.

So arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart

build-up with cholesterol plaque.

NARRATOR Over time, his smoking and hypertension

accelerate the problem.

As the arteries close up, Alonzo's blood

must struggle harder and harder to reach his heart.

Until one day, while Alonzo naps in his easy chair,

the condition turns deadly.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The blood is not going to the heart.

It's starting to fail.

The muscle just isn't contracting.

It probably isn't pumping enough blood.

NARRATOR His heart falters and his pulse degenerates

into a fatal arrhythmia.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA The heart starts to quiver, and die.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR With no circulating blood,

his vital organs shut down one by one.

And slowly, peacefully, Alonzo Garcia dies.

[ominous music]

Dr. G. makes her final ruling--

a natural death due to heart disease.

Now, with these autopsy results, police

can officially close the case.

To the family's relief, Alonzo's stepson

is cleared of all suspicion.

Still, there's one aspect of the case that troubles Dr. G.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA There is no real clear explanation

on why he would just cover the father with tarps.

We don't know exactly why he's going to leave a body there.

NARRATOR In the end, police find no evidence

that Miguel was collecting his stepfather's

social security checks.

Why Alonzo's stepson left him in that chair,

is one mystery that even forensic science

will never solve.

DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA So we don't know exactly what went on.

We just don't know.

We'll never know.

The sad part is that he has a son that lets him decompose.

And this is a son that's educated.

He knows better.

The man is dead.

Has been left there dead, and his body has been covered

with tarps and death ignored.

That's really sad.

[music playing]