01x10 - Ashes to Ashes

[bunniefuu]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR A bizarre and brutal crime.

The woman's legs were actually completely burnt off.

They had these huge holes, and their bowels were hanging out.

NARRATOR Can Dr. G complete an autopsy in time

to catch a k*ller [g*nshots] and bring

solace to a tormented family waiting for answers?

I told him, I love you.

And he said, I love you, too.

And that's the last time I ever spoke with him.

NARRATOR And then, a man is found dead on a crowded Orlando

bus, but no one sees him dying.

He's in full rigor, posterior lividity.

NARRATOR The first question, was

it m*rder or something else?

The fact that he's found in a public place

always raises your suspicions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,

shocking revelations.

These are the everyday cases of "Dr. G, Medical Examiner."

[MUSIC PLAYING]

While working in Texas during the summer of ,

Dr. G was called on to help unravel one of the strangest

and most disturbing cases of her career.

In a span of hours, she'd not only

need to solve a heinous crime, but also

help bring closure to a victim's shocked and tormented family.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Shawn Cain was born to a poor family in rural Texas,

but he never seemed to let that get in his way.

In school, he excelled at football, making All-American

by his senior year.

By , Shawn was holding down two jobs

and was supporting an ailing father

and his five-year-old son, for whom he shared custody.

For those who knew him best, Shawn's character

was defined by his work ethic and his generosity.

You know, sometimes somebody'll come in the store

and, you know, they would, you know,

I don't have anything to eat.

He would buy them something.

I need a newspaper.

Hey, here, you know?

Everybody he ever saw he helped, you know?

He just, he-- everyone.

You know, I never saw him coming across anyone in need or anyone

that needed help that he turned--

would turn them away.

Never.

NARRATOR But on a seemingly ordinary September day,

Shawn would be the one in need of help.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

He tells his family that he's going

to watch a ballgame at a friend's house,

that he'll be back late.

It is the last time his family will see him alive.

That night, Shawn doesn't return home.

Instead, he ends up somewhere no one could have ever imagined.

[FIRE CRACKLING]

At PM, on a rural highway over miles away

from Shawn's home, a rancher spots what

appears to be a brush fire.

But upon closer inspection, he makes a horrific discovery.

And he looks closer, and he notices

there's two legs hanging out.

NARRATOR What at first appeared to be a typical range fire is

a pile of burning human bodies.

He immediately backed off and called the Sheriff's office.

NARRATOR By the next morning, the fire is out.

Police working with Dr. G's field investigator

recover the remains of three bodies.

Faced with what appears to be a triple homicide,

local police reach out for help to the state's

premier investigative agency, the Texas Rangers, who handle

nearly murders every year.

One of the primary responsibilities

of the Texas Rangers is to assist other police agencies.

On September , , the Frio County Sheriff's Department

contacted the Texas Ranger office requesting assistance

on a triple homicide.

Apparently, witnesses had found three bodies.

They were discarded on the side of a county road

and were set ablaze.

They were requesting our assistance

on this investigation.

NARRATOR Nearly hours after their discoveries,

authorities still have no idea who the bodies are.

And though they strongly suspect m*rder,

no one can say for sure how they died.

The only one who can answer these questions

is a medical examiner.

I knew that I was going to be having three burnt bodies

coming in the morgue because I'd heard about it

on the news the night before.

And so when I get there, we have our three

burnt bodies, all of which are burned beyond recognition.

It smells like burnt barbecue, like you've, like,

cooked something too long.
[ … ]

NARRATOR With the bodies comes a team

of Texas Rangers, who quickly state their primary objective--

identify the K*llers before they have

time to dispose of any more incriminating evidence.

For Dr. G, the clock is ticking.

[TICKING]

To do this, they assign one team led by Ranger Marrie Garcia

to observe the autopsy with Dr. G,

while another team tracks down leads in the field.

So everything we're finding, every little bit of thing

that we know that's going on, we're

telling Marrie and Marrie's relaying

it to Gary De Los Santos.

The main thing that you look--

that you're looking for, of course, you'd

like to solve the crime just as--

absolutely as soon as possible.

NARRATOR Meanwhile, by AM,

the Cain family is beginning to ask questions

about Shawn's whereabouts.

He told my sister [INAUDIBLE],, OK, well,

I'm going to go over to her friend's house-- and it was--

it was early afternoon--

and I'll be back in a few hours, and never came back.

And he was missing for, you know,

the first day he was gone, we never--

we didn't think anything of it.

We were like, you know, he's years old,

and it-- and it wasn't uncommon for him

to go over to a friend's house and stay the night.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR At the morgue, Dr. G's staff is multitasking.

Along with the bodies, the Rangers

have hauled in over pounds of charred debris that must

be scrutinized piece by piece.

At the same time, Dr. G must perform three complex autopsies

in order to discover the victims'

identities and any clues leading to their K*llers.

But first, she must try to answer the core question

of any autopsy--

what is the cause of death?

In this case, the question itself is horrifying.

First of all, you have to determine,

are they alive when the fire occurred?

NARRATOR Dr. G orders X-rays, the first of many steps needed

to determine whether the victims died an agonizing death

engulfed in flames.

[BEEP]

Any charred bodies that's charred beyond recognition,

whether you think it's from foul play or accident,

you're going to do a complete X-ray of the body.

NARRATOR The X-rays immediately reveal

several critical pieces of evidence inside

each of the three bodies--

b*ll*ts.

We found both medium caliber projectiles, which

appeared to be millimeters, and we

found birdshot from a shotgun.

NARRATOR But this discovery alone

does not prove that g*nf*re k*lled the victims.

Dr. G must also determine if the wounds they caused were fatal.

To do so, she will need to perform internal autopsies.

They're burnt to the point of being black and charred.

Just finding wounds on a body that's

charred down to sometimes internal organs are difficult.

NARRATOR Difficult, but not impossible to Dr.

G's trained eye.

She begins with the male victim whose body was stacked

in the center of the pile.

Although heavily charred, Dr. G detects a defect, or hole

in the remaining muscle tissue on the man's

back left shoulder.

There is a huge g*nsh*t wound.

NARRATOR She immediately recognizes the abrasion

as a shotgun wound.

On his posterior shoulder on the left side,

but it didn't go into his chest cavity.

That, in and of itself, probably wasn't going

to be a fatal wound to him.

NARRATOR But what she finds next is a fatal wound.

DR. G Yeah, it looks like we have another b*llet wound here.

NARRATOR Two b*llet wounds in the man's abdomen.

DR. G When I opened up the abdominal cavity,

I could actually see the holes on the inside portion

of the abdominal cavity, and I knew

that those were g*nsh*t wounds.

His two fatal wounds were the two

g*nsh*t wounds to the abdomen.

Trisha, do you have a fresh one?

NARRATOR She moves quickly to the female body.

DR. G With the woman, I found the g*nsh*t

wound to the back of the head.

Went through her brain and then exited on her neck

on the opposite side, and so that

definitely was a lethal wound.

So she also had a shotgun wound basically

on her left side near her breast,

and this shotgun wound was really quite devastating.

It was a lethal wound.

NARRATOR Dr. G now turns to the final body,
[ … ]

that of the second male found at the bottom of the burning pile.

So obviously, he's got a lot of trauma--

NARRATOR On him, she finds two shotgun wounds.

He's got a large shotgun wound to his-- to his--

to the front of his neck and then

a shotgun wound on the side of his neck here.

DR. G It caused massive destruction of his neck,

I mean, basically just his spinal cords transected.

He's got like a two-inch defect all the way

going across his neck.

It's certainly a lethal wound.

I'm suspecting, since we have a b*llet in him,

that one of these is going to be the--

is an exit.

NARRATOR What's more, Dr. G finds that none of the victims

have soot in their throat or lungs,

indicating they weren't breathing

at the time of the fire.

Because his skin is all burnt, I

can't really tell if that's an entrance or an exit.

NARRATOR Based on her analysis of the g*nsh*t wounds

and the lack of soot in the lungs,

Dr. G can now prove that all three victims were fatally shot

before they were set on fire.

Five hours into her investigation,

she makes the official declaration.

All three deaths are homicides.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As the official ruling is radioed to the Rangers

in the field, Dr. G must answer a far more difficult question

about the three victims--

who are they?

One of the first concerns is being

able to identify the body.

Without identifying the body, you ain't going anywhere.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Coming up next, Dr. G's

team uncovers clues that may lead

the way in a Texas manhunt.

And the family of Shawn Cain begins to worry.

I had kind of a bad feeling.

I thought, oh, you know, maybe has has a car accident,

maybe he's in one of the hospitals.

You never want to think your brother's dead.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's been hours since three bodies

were found engulfed in flames on a remote Texas field.

Dr. G, now well into the autopsies,

knows that all were shot to death before being set on fire.

But neither she nor the Texas Rangers

have any idea who perpetrated the horrendous act,

and the three victims are still unidentified.

With the odds of finding incriminating evidence

diminishing by the hour, Dr. G is

still in a race against time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's noon, the day after Shawn Cain drove off to his friend's

house to watch the ballgame.

None of his family members have heard from him since.

A call is made to the friend Shawn

was watching the game with.

The friend tells the family that Shawn

left last night around PM.

That's when my-- my dad was like, hey,

you know what, do something.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR At the same time, Dr. G begins her efforts

to identify the female found in the burning pile,

but it's not her body, but rather

the victim's clothing that yields the investigation's

first critical clue.

Oh, this is interesting.

DR. G Part of her bra was still intact, and under the bra

was a ID card.

Looked like a driver's license.

Had a person's name and a picture.

Now, of course, I can't compare the picture.

She's black and charred.

I can't see.

But we certainly had the name.

So we thought, well, you know, we hit gold here.

[INAUDIBLE],, can you go ahead and put

this in an evidence envelope?

NARRATOR The information is instantly

radioed to the investigators in the field, who

rushed to the address listed on the ID.

To their surprise, they find the woman whose name is on the ID

alive and well.

But the lead is far from a dead end.

The woman tells the Rangers that she

had recently lent the ID to a friend, Marta Esposito, age .

Still, the statement from Marta's friend

is not enough for the investigative team.

Next, the morgue staff locates the dentist of Marta Esposito,

and comparing past dental records

with those taken at the morgue, Dr. G makes a positive ID.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

With the identity of the first victim in hand,

Rangers continue searching for anyone
[ … ]

who knew Marta to help shed light on her whereabouts

the night before.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

One body identified, two to go.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Back at the morgue, Dr. G turns her attention

to the second body, the male found at the bottom

of the burning pile.

The man on the bottom, he would have been covered

the most, so he would have had the least amount of oxygen

and burning around him.

He still had a lot of normal Caucasian skin,

particularly on his back, particularly

on portions of his arms and legs,

and there were numerous tattoos.

NARRATOR Surprisingly, the Texas

Rangers recognized the tattoos.

They are the insignias of the deadly narcotics g*ng

known as the Mexican Mafia.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The Texas Rangers have seen their share of g*ng v*olence.

Drug feuds between the Mexican Mafia

and the prison-based g*ng known as Hermano

de Pistoleros Latinos, or HPL, had

been raging for over a decade.

[SIREN BLARING]

And along with the g*ng-related insignias,

the tattoos spared by the raging fire spelled out a name--

Tomas Morales.

The discovery is immediately radioed

to Rangers in the field.

We know for a fact that a lot of the g*ng members like

to tattoo their names on their bodies, sometimes

their girlfriends' or wives'.

NARRATOR Tomas Morales is a name

that Texas Rangers know well.

He is a known member of the Mexican Mafia.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

By PM, Rangers are blanketing

their network of g*ng informants asking about Morales.

Their relentless field work soon pays off.

Several people tell them that Marta Esposito was Tomas's

girlfriend and that both have been missing

since the previous night.

Two bodies identified, one to go.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

But before Dr. G attempts to ID the final body,

her assistants alert her to evidence that has just

been found in the pile of debris they have been sifting through."], index ,…}

DR G A couple of these pieces of carpet were burnt together,

and I distinctly remember the fellow, who we're training

to be a forensic pathologist, she's asking me if we do

need to go through every piece.

And I said, yes, every piece needs

to be opened and separated.

And so we-- I can remember her struggling

with these two pieces of carpet that just

kind of melded together.

And she opened it, and here was this yellow piece

of paper partially burnt.

[CAMERA SHUTTERS]

NARRATOR Close examination reveals

that it is a Western Union credit application.

And she looked at it and said, is--

is this important to you?

And I looked at it, and it had a name and an address on it.

And I thought, you know, what are the odds?

Surely this couldn't be what I think it might be.

I immediately got Ranger De Los Santos on the phone

and asked him if this name and this address

was of interest to him.

There was just silence for a moment,

and he said, where did you get that?

NARRATOR The address on the Western Union slip

is the house of Paco Lopez, a known

underboss of the HPL g*ng, the bloody rivals

of the Mexican Mafia.

The Texas Rangers were excited because they realized,

well, maybe this informant is telling the truth,

and B, now we have a piece of evidence

that we can go and get a search warrant and go into that house.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Warrant in hand, the Rangers

arrive at Lopez's house.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[KNOCKING]

Texas Rangers!

Nobody move!

Texas Rangers!

NARRATOR As they burst in, three men make a run for it.

We got a runner.

He's out the front.

NARRATOR Part of the search team

gives chase, while others stay behind and begin

to search the house, which immediately

offers up damning clues.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Lopez and the others in the house

are now the Rangers' lead suspects.

[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ … ]

By the end of the first day, two of the burned bodies

have been identified, the scene of the sh**ting

has been located, and the Rangers

have Paco Lopez, their chief suspect, on the run.

However, there remains one final question Dr. G must answer--

who is the third victim still lying in her morgue?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Coming up next, a surgical procedure performed three years

earlier connects the dots between a horrible crime

and a sister's desperate search for her missing brother.

We started asking more questions,

and it just-- that's when everything

just kind of hit and sunk in.

NARRATOR And later, a man dies on the city bus

without any witnesses to his death.

We really don't know anything about him.

He's just, I mean, it was just kind of sad.

NARRATOR With no known medical history,

can Dr. G figure out what or who was this man's silent k*ller?

When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In the last hours, Dr. G has performed three

complex autopsies, producing a string of valuable evidence

that has led Texas Rangers directly to drug dealers

responsible for the sh**ting and burning of a woman and two men."], index ,…}

But the third victim still lies in Dr. G's morgue unidentified.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Across town, Pam Cain, the sister

of missing -year-old Shawn, reaches out

to a friend for help.

My friend had a lot of people-- friends

in the Sheriff's department.

And so I said, hey, you know, can you do me a favor?

You know, maybe-- maybe he got picked out for whatever.

You know, hey, just check it out.

And they-- so they checked all the jails.

Wasn't there.

Checked-- I'd started calling hospitals.

No luck.

NARRATOR While the Cain family's

search turns up no leads, Dr. G examines the final victim.

Unlike the other bodies, this one

has no outward evidence to identify

him, no ID, and no tattoos.

However, when Dr. G reviews all her findings on the man,

she discovers one vital clue inside the body.

One fellow had had some major surgery

with orthopedic devices, metal rods going up the spine,

probably for a curvature of spine that was corrected.

So we knew that--

that is not an everyday operation.

NARRATOR The rods are known in medical circles

as Harrington rods, a name borrowed from their inventor,

and every rod has a serial number.

Each of these rods are unique.

All the orthopedic devices have unique numbers on them

that we can track then to a lot, what hospital they were sent

to, and we can track them to the specific person that gets this."], index ,…}

NARRATOR With the cooperation of the hospital,

Dr. G secures the records, and with them comes a man's name--

Shawn Cain.

The Texas Rangers are sent to break

the news to the Cain family.

Sister Pam, away at the time, has the terrible news

delivered by her siblings.

My other brother said, hey, you know what,

we have to tell you something.

And, you know, my sister and I were like, what, you know?

Well, the Texas Rangers have been here,

and they found Shawn.

And, you know, we were like, well, where was he?

Is he, you know, at somebody's house?

He said, no, he's in the morgue.

NARRATOR To double check Shawn's identity,

his family is asked whether Shawn

had undergone any back surgery.

They confirmed he had.

Shawn had broken his back a few years prior here.

He-- he had lived in Dallas for-- for a time,

and he broke his back.

And he had two rods, I believe they're Harrington rods,

in his back.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR The devastating news is

only made worse by the strange and horrific circumstances.

You know, the first thought that I had in my head

when I found out all the details,

you know, that they had burned the bodies,

was, please, God, let him have passed on before this happened,

you know, so he didn't feel anything.

NARRATOR Rangers quickly tell the family

that Dr G's autopsies revealed that her brother

had died before the fire.

It is a comforting answer to a grim prayer.

But when Pam hears the circumstances of the death,

an even more perplexing question is raised.

I think my first thought was, what

were you doing in that house?

NARRATOR Could Shawn Cain, hardworking father, supportive
[ … ]

son, giving friend, have been involved with the Mexican

Mafia or their rival g*ng?

Was he leading a double life?

It is a question that will soon be answered with the help

of Dr. G and the Texas Rangers.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

First, they discover that Marta, the female m*rder

victim, and Shawn were, in fact, loosely

related through marriage.

But a remote family tie explains precious little

about that grim night.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

However, since the arrest of Paco Lopez and his accomplices,

Texas Rangers have secured a key informant,

the brother of Paco Lopez.

Forced to help dispose of the bodies,

Paco's brother came forward, afraid for his own life

because of what he knows.

To put his brother Paco away where he can't hurt him,

he tells the Rangers everything he knows

about the murders, including Shawn's

involvement in the incident.

After a dramatic -hour tandem investigation, in the morgue

and in the field, Dr. G and the Rangers

can now explain how all three bodies ended up burning

by a remote Texas roadside.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Shawn leaves his friend's place after watching

a game around PM and is probably heading home.

Sometime on the way, he picks up Marta Esposito, whom he knew

through a family connection.

She is accompanied by her boyfriend, a drug dealer

from the Mexican Mafia g*ng named Tomas Morales.

Exactly where they met that night will never be known.

What is known, according to the Rangers' informant,

is that at approximately PM, Shawn's car,

with Marta, Tomas, and Shawn inside,

pulls up to the home of Lopez, a member of the rival HPL g*ng.

Tomas is not making a social call.

Talking to the informant and other folks,

it was determined that he had arrived at the suspect's house

collecting on an old drug debt that one of the subjects

owed him.

NARRATOR But Lopez, expecting Tomas,

has no intention of paying and sets an ambush.

The only hitch--

Tomas isn't alone.

Unbeknownst to the people inside the house,

he also had two other people with him.

We believe that they knew they could not get rid of one person

and leave the other two to walk away and notify the police,

so they were coaxed coming into the house.

NARRATOR One of the g*ng members comes out to the car

and invites Marta and Shawn into the house.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Once inside, Lopez and company unleash their deadly plan.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Their primary target, Tomas Morales,

is the first to be dispatched.

According to the informant and Dr. G's findings,

Lopez empties both barrels of a gauge shotgun

from a distance of three to four feet.

So the one is going straight across the neck,

and the other is going in a more downward

direction towards the axilla.

So he definitely-- both of those would have been fatal.

He died from the two shotgun wounds.

NARRATOR Marta Esposito is next.

Get up!

[g*nsh*t]

NARRATOR From Doctor G's findings,

it seems she was futilely attempting to shield herself.

Her arm was kind of up and partially in the way.

The shotgun wound went through her liver,

caused a lot of internal damage.

The shotgun was around and /, feet away.

[g*nsh*t]

NARRATOR Shawn Cain, the man in the wrong place

at the wrong time, is the last to die.

[g*nsh*t]

Field and morgue findings suggest

that in the chaos of the other sh**t,

[g*nsh*t] Shawn attempts to escape through a front window.

But as he does, Lopez wields his shotgun toward Shawn and fires."], index ,…}

[g*nsh*t]

And the shotgun wound in his shoulder was a non-fatal wound.

It was of similar distance, about four feet away,

scalloped edges, only had one or two stray pellets.

[g*nsh*t]

NARRATOR But the blast spins Shawn

around to face his assailant.

Then one of Lopez's accomplices fires two sh*ts

from a millimeter p*stol.

[g*nshots]

The b*ll*ts lacerate his abdomen, wounds

that end Shawn Cain's life.

Lopez and his accomplices then scramble

to rid the apartment of massive amounts of damning evidence.

After they k*lled all three, they

decided to call other people to help
[ … ]

them dispose of the bodies.

NARRATOR One of which is Paco Lopez's

brother, who would soon turn into the Rangers'

key informant.

GERARDO DE LOS SANTOS (VOICEOVER)

They, in turn, wrapped up the bodies in carpet

and drove them out to the countryside

and set them on fire.

[TIRES SQUEALING]

NARRATOR The grim tale gives Pam and her family one note

of solace--

Shawn was not involved in a g*ng or drug dealing.

He was simply giving a friend a ride.

The third victim on this case was an Anglo male, Shawn.

We do not believe he was associated with any g*ng.

He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR All three K*llers were in custody within a week.

Due to the cold-blooded and premeditated nature

of the murders, the prosecution sought

the death penalty for Lopez.

Doctor G's testimony about how the killings were carried out

and how the victims died weighed heavily on the jury.

You know, when I first got into forensic pathology,

I think I had a fear that I would be testifying

against really bad people and they would be just a few feet

away, and things that I would say would put them in jail

or give them the death penalty, and that

did scare me a little bit.

And then once I've done it many, many times, I realize that I'm

just reporting what happened.

NARRATOR Paco Lopez and one accomplice

were sentenced to life in prison.

A third accomplice received the death penalty.

For the Texas Rangers, it is an ending

that couldn't have been reached without the efforts of Dr. G.

I mean, she puts her soul and heart into what she does.

NARRATOR As for Pam Cain, the senselessness of Shawn's death

will always be overshadowed by the way he lived.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Her lasting memory of Shawn is not his horrific death.

It is, instead, a small incident that occurred the last time

she saw him alive.

She had run out of gas, and her brother came to help.

And I gave him a hug, and I said,

thank you for coming for me.

And he said, hey, I'd--

I'd walk through fire for you.

You know that.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.

We have a -year-old man who is found dead on a city bus.

NARRATOR What k*lled this man on an Orlando bus?

And why didn't anyone notice that he was dying?

We knew nothing about him.

I had no cause of death whatsoever.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR More than million people in the US rely

upon it every day--

public transportation.

And for more than years, Larry Haggarty

has been a rider.

and never married, Larry is a Vietnam veteran who spent

most of his life in Orlando.

According to those who know him best,

he's gregarious, enjoys time spent with friends,

and loves his job in the wardrobe department

of a local theme park, where he has

worked for almost two decades.

Larry was just the kind of guy that you just

knew that you liked, his-- his character,

his ideals, his laughter.

He was so funny.

Just-- just made you feel good to be around him.

NARRATOR Larry, however, didn't like to be behind the wheel.

Instead, every day, he takes a -minute bus ride

to and from work on the Lynx Number

route, which loops from downtown through the local theme parks.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It was Larry's own personal chauffeur.

I mean, it happened to be a little bit bigger

than a limousine, but he--

he seemed to like that, the fact that he didn't have to worry

about driving, he didn't have to worry about the insurance,

he didn't have to worry about maintenance.

He found comfort in the fact that he could get on the bus

and go home.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Today, however, Larry isn't going to make it home.

After getting off from work, Larry boards the bus at about

o'clock on a Saturday evening.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

He takes his usual seat, puts earphones on, and settles in

for the short ride home.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

No one notices as he seems to drift off to sleep.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Nearly minutes later, the bus completes its route at

Orlando's downtown bus station.
[ … ]

All of the passengers disembark except for one, Larry Haggarty.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The driver tries to wake him, but he doesn't respond.

He can't.

Larry is dead.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When I had conversed with the driver about the situation,

he was very stressed out or nervous, upset, because he,

you know, once he realized the situation,

you know, he just didn't know what to do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR After Orlando Police investigate the scene,

Larry Haggarty's body is transferred to the morgue.

There, Dr. G will be tasked with unraveling two mysteries--

determining what exactly happened to this man

on his commute home and why didn't his fellow commuters

realize something was wrong.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

hours later, it's early Sunday morning.

But while much of Orlando is waking up,

Dr. G is working the weekend shift at District .

[MUSIC PLAYING]

No underwear?

He hasn't got underwear?

[INAUDIBLE]

So it's a Sunday morning, I'm in the morgue,

and we have a case where the man is found on the bus

the night before.

My investigator goes and investigates,

and it's just a fellow we know nothing about.

NARRATOR Normally when a new body arrives at the morgue,

Dr. G reviews medical records or personal histories

of the victim that have been collected by her investigators

before determining if an autopsy is necessary.

But in the case of Larry Haggarty,

tracking down information on the victim has been difficult.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

By AM, after a round of futile caused by investigators,

Dr. G still only knows the basics

about Larry Haggarty-- his name and the circumstances

in which he was found.

DR. G The-- the fact that he's found in a public place

always raises your suspicions a little bit more.

So we would be more apt to autopsy him just because he is

found in a public place because bad things can happen

to you in a public place.

NARRATOR In cases where the decedent could be the victim

of a crime, time is critical.

Any evidence on the body must be collected

as quickly as possible.

With this in mind, Dr. G and her staff

begin to prep Larry Haggarty for examination.

When we return, Dr. G begins the autopsy on Larry Haggarty

and must consider a dark possibility.

Was he m*rder*d?

And the head, could've been trauma.

Maybe somebody had bumped him on his head.

I always have to be suspicious.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR On the commute home from work,

Larry Haggarty dies on a crowded bus without anyone noticing.

Nobody remembers him getting on,

and nobody remembers him having any troubles.

NARRATOR Now Dr. G must determine a cause of death

and answer this question-- what would

cause a man to die unnoticed on a bus full of passengers?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As Dr. G prepares to examine Larry Haggarty,

she approaches the case with one thought in mind--

there are an infinite number of ways to die.

Often, clues to a person's mysterious death

can be gleaned in their medical records,

providing Dr. G at least a starting point

for her investigation.

But in cases like this, where there are no records available,

Dr. G must approach her work as if it

were essentially a blank slate.

Anything could have caused this person's death.

In this case, we had no clue.

We had no clue that he had any history,

and we didn't know anybody that knew him.

NARRATOR However, there is one small, yet crucial inference

that Dr. G can make about the cause of this man's death.

Whatever or whoever k*lled him must

have done so quietly, so quietly that no one noticed a thing.

And that is why, as she begins the external exam,

Dr. G is on the lookout for any signs of trauma

that might indicate foul play.

What I definitely had to do since he's found on a bus

is make sure there's no trauma, so I look very carefully

from head to toe, under the armpits, between the legs,

everywhere.

No tattoos, no vascular scars.

Fingers are a little dirty.

No interior wrist scars, no chest scars, no surgical scars.

A couple of bug bites on him, though.

I wonder if he gardens or something.

NARRATOR Bug bites, but nothing else.

OK.
[ … ]

There's no clue that there was any kind of trauma related.

NARRATOR From the looks of Larry externally,

foul play seems less likely.

But a body holds many secrets on the inside,

and in Larry's case, as soon as his chest is opened,

it reveals one to Dr. G. Larry was a smoker.

Big old lungs kind of overinflated.

Kind of a big old barrel chest, too.

Lot of blackening from his smoking days.

NARRATOR But even though Larry's lungs

are damaged from his smoking, Dr. G can

see that they did not k*ll him.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

His heart is another story.

To begin with, at grams, it is nearly double

the size of a normal heart.

Ooh, that's big.

NARRATOR But that's not the only abnormality Dr. G finds.

He's got very bad coronary artery disease.

His entire left anterior descending is calcified.

The vessels that supply blood and oxygen

to the heart, the coronary arteries, were severely narrow.

We don't even have-- a very minimal

opening, and some of that's necrotic, too, really.

NARRATOR Dr. G wonders whether Larry was aware

of his deadly heart condition, until she

finds two foreign objects.

He's got-- ooh, he's got a stent in his coronary artery.

Wish we'd have known that.

NARRATOR The two stents Dr. G discovers in Larry's

coronary arteries are wire mesh tubes inserted

during angioplasty, a procedure where

a balloon-tipped catheter is threaded up

into the arteries of the heart.

Once in place, the stents serve as buttresses to hold open

previously blocked vessels.

As soon as I saw those metal stents,

I know that he'd been to a cardiologist and has a history.

NARRATOR In addition, Dr. G finds several abnormalities

in Larry's heart, a clear indication that Larry

suffered several heart att*cks.

One of them likely occurred some time ago,

but the other is much more recent, only hours old.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DR. G In this case, the back of the heart

had areas of recent heart attack with a fresh

real early hemorrhage in there.

So I knew there was a new episode

going on over an old episode.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR But this discovery raises

more questions than answers.

Gripping, crushing pain is the hallmark

of the overwhelming majority of heart attack victims.

If a heart attack k*lled Larry, why

were there no witnesses to this telltale sign

while he rode the bus?

Dr. G theorizes that Larry might have suffered another type

of heart attack altogether.

Classic heart attack is the chest pain,

I'm having the big one, you know, Ethel, and you go down.

And the-- but there's about % with heart att*cks

that they don't feel anything or very minimal symptoms.

NARRATOR It is known as a silent heart attack.

A silent heart attack is exactly like a normal heart attack.

In each, blood to the heart is cut off

and part of the heart muscle dies,

resulting in the formation of tough scar

tissue, which weakens the heart and can

trigger deadly arrhythmias.

But there is one critical difference between the two.

A person having a normal heart attack will know it.

One having a silent attack will not.

DR. G I don't know why.

I don't think anybody really knows why some people have

the classic symptoms and some people have atypical symptoms

or no symptoms.

NARRATOR After finishing dissection of Larry's heart,

Dr. G now knows for certain how Larry Haggarty met his fate

and why no one on the bus knew he was dying.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

According to Dr. G, Larry Haggarty

suffers coronary artery disease, as evidenced

by the stents and severe blockages

she finds in his heart.

Then, while at work that Saturday,

Larry unknowingly suffers a silent heart attack.

A friend saw him sit down and was a little out of breath.

And on asking about it, Larry said, oh, nothing's wrong,

and got up.

NARRATOR Later that evening, as he boards

the bus, an area of Larry's heart

is beginning to die from lack of oxygen.

The electrical signal that generates

the heart's beating can't get through the damaged tissue.

The heart short circuits and stumbles into an arrhythmia.

It was irritable, and so instead

of beating so all the rest of his brain and the body

can get blood, it starts quivering.

He can't pump blood to the brain, so he passes out.
[ … ]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR Within minutes, his heart ceases to beat,

and Larry stops breathing.

To everyone around him, he appears to be

just another sleeping commuter.

No, it just, to me, there was a sense of sadness to the case.

Here's this man just minding his own business

with his little earphones probably

trying to block out the world sitting on the bus by himself.

Nobody notices anything.

He's just-- just sitting there and dies.

There was just something a little sad

about the-- the case to me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MAN Atlas.