02x01 - Death on the Road

[bunniefuu]

[music playing]

NARRATOR A man is found shot to death in a hotel room hundreds

of miles from his home.

Essentially, the top of his head was gone.

NARRATOR It appears to be a su1c1de,

until investigators find blood where there shouldn't be.

He is walking around that room bloody,

and that is just not possible with the wound he had.

NARRATOR Then, a man known as a cautious driver

inexplicably loses control.

[tires squealing]

And his widow's grief compels Dr. G to find answers.

JAN GARAVAGLIA You just wanted to help her.

You felt her loss of love.

NARRATOR Plus, take a tour of the morgue

that you'll never forget.

Now, what does a really good job are these garden shears.

NARRATOR Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,

shocking revelations--

these are the everyday cases of Dr. G, medical examiner.

[music playing]

Boyd Jones is on the run.

He's two days and hundreds of miles away from home,

barreling down the highway.

Keeping him company-- a large supply of beer

and a -gauge shotgun.

[music playing]

When he reaches a major Texas City,

a motel off the interstate catches his eye.

He checks in for the night.

It's the last time anyone will see Boyd Jones alive.

[music playing]

Around noon the next day, a motel worker is startled

by the sound of a g*nsh*t.

[g*nsh*t]

[music playing]

Police and EMS are called and rushed to the scene.

They break down the door, which is barred from inside.

They are greeted by a gruesome sight--

a man in a chair with most of his head missing.

They immediately call the experts

who specialize in death.

One of them is chief medical investigator Steve Hansen.

The police agency owns the crime scene,

but we own the body.

NARRATOR When he enters the room,

there was blood everywhere-- on the floor, the bed,

splattered on the walls.

To the right of the head of the bed is a chair,

and this is where the deceased was sitting.

[music playing]

He had a shotgun.

It looked like a pump shotgun.

I think his arms were kind of down in his lap.

It looked like an individual had sat down in a chair,

and taken a shotgun, and literally blown

the top of their head off.

[music playing]

There was a lot of blood--

behind, into the side of the head, up on the walls--

which would be consistent with the blood splatter

you'd expect to see from a shotgun blast like that.

We found the guy's glasses embedded in the ceiling,

over his body.

NARRATOR Hanson then examines the body more closely

and, aside from the massive head injury,

finds no other apparent wounds.

Meanwhile, police discover a legal document.

During the course of the scene search,

we found in his luggage a recent divorce decree.

NARRATOR There was also evidence of heavy drinking.

On the right side of the bed, there

was a trash can that was filled with or empty beer cans.

NARRATOR A detective examined the shotgun.

And, as expected, finds a spent shell in the chamber.

With a pump shotgun, you have to go ahead and-- physically,

manually--

pump the action to extract and eject

the round that's been fired.

There's going to be an empty round in the chamber.

NARRATOR With their first sweep of the room,

investigator Hansen and the police

have reached an initial hypothesis--

an intoxicated man carrying divorce papers

locked himself in his room and shot himself once in the head.

A clear run-of-the-mill case of su1c1de.

It was as standard as a crime scene gets.

NARRATOR But then, on the bloody carpet,

an officer makes a discovery that

challenges the team's seemingly open-and-shut case--

a second spent shotgun shell.

STEVE HANSON OK, two shotgun shells have been fired.

Wonder what the second shotgun shell was for?

NARRATOR Then, inspector Hanson is struck

by a stunning realization.

[shutter clicking]

STEVE HANSON We had blood in places

that we shouldn't have had.

Two, we've got a guy that shot himself in a corner

with a shotgun.
[ … ]

And yet, we've got blood all over the place.

The bathroom not only had blood that was trailed into it,

but there was a significant amount of blood in the sink

and on the mirror.

He had blood on the bottom of the socks.

For the life of us, we couldn't figure out why all this other

blood was there, because we didn't-- when

we were examining the body--

see any other injuries.

NARRATOR What seemed like a simple su1c1de

only a few moments earlier has suddenly

become a bewildering mystery.

The condition of his body and his head when

we got in there was inconsistent with him

getting up and walking around--

just not going to happen.

NARRATOR It's inconsistencies like these

that often suggest foul play.

If the extraneous blood cannot be

Boyd Jones', then whose is it?

[music playing]

Investigators deliver the gruesome corpse a Boyd Jones

and its burden of unanswered questions

to the morgue of Dr. Jan Garavaglia,

otherwise known as Dr. G.

When I get the body, I have the pictures of the scene.

And I know that the top of his head is pretty much blown off.

No brain-- no cerebral hemisphere

was present in the cranial cavity.

There are some strange circumstances at the scene--

a lot of blood at the scene, which were

inconsistent with his wounds.

NARRATOR Her challenge?

To make sense of a death in a room

full of conflicting evidence, awash in blood.

[music playing]

Next, Dr. G traces the path of death through a shattered head.

We have to see if we can kind of

reconstruct that head a little bit

and put the pieces together.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Dr. G begins her external examination of Boyd Jones.

She carefully notes the bloody clothing and the remains

of the shattered head.

The day before, field investigators believed the case

was a clear-cut su1c1de until two

contradictory pieces of evidence were discovered at the scene--

a second shotgun shell, and a large amount of blood

found far from the body.

The blood in the room was not consistent with his injuries,

because there was blood in multiple areas of the wound,

away from where his body was.

NARRATOR Now, it's up to Dr. G to determine

if this is a case of su1c1de or something more sinister.

Before tackling these complex questions,

she must begin with the basics.

It really is tempting to just look at the head,

because that's really quite gruesome.

But you really have to look at everything.

So you just follow your normal protocol.

NARRATOR She searches for scars, signs

of previous su1c1de attempts, or any additional wounds

that could account for the mysterious blood.

Just checking-- we're going to have to look at his back,

but I don't believe his back has much.

NARRATOR But she can find no other source of bleeding.

JAN GARAVAGLIA There is no other sign of a g*nsh*t

anywhere else.

NARRATOR With the examination of the outside of the torso

complete, Dr. G now searches for one of the possible signs

of a g*nsh*t su1c1de--

a contact wound.

This unique injury occurs when the barrel of the g*n

is pressed firmly against the body and fired--

[expl*si*n]

--something not common in g*nsh*t murders.

With a contact wound, the heat from the discharge

sears the skin.

And the powder expl*si*n deposits a small amount of soot

on the skin and bone.

But in the case of Boyd Jones, there's a slight hitch.

Basically, everything from the nose

up is distorted or missing.

There are numerous portions of bone missing,

and a large amount of scalp missing.

NARRATOR Dr. G attempts to accomplish

the seemingly impossible--

putting the remains of the head back together.

It's tough because his eye was shattered.

I see the remnants of it.

I see the socket.

There's a lot of skin flaps.

It's like a petal that's open.

And when you put together some of his scalp,

you can actually see where he has an entrance g*nsh*t wound

in the left temporal region.

NARRATOR Astoundingly, in the midst of this carnage,

she is able to locate searing on a flap of skin

that used to be part of an ear and a bit of soot
[ … ]

on a bone fragment.

I could see that deposit of soot

and that searing, that burning of the skin,

from the end of that barrel when it went off, and the flash.

So I could see where the entrance wound was.

It was consistent with a fatal injury.

NARRATOR Dr. G has now established

that there was contact when the fatal shot was fired.

This suggests the possibility of su1c1de.

But she must also determine the angle of fire

because that, too, can support a su1c1de theory.

To do that, she needs to find tiny shotgun pellets

in a pattern consistent with a self-inflicted wound,

somewhere in this wreckage of a head.

And we've got pieces of bone from his face that are driven

into the base of the skull.

I recovered pellets from the right lateral aspect

of the scalp.

I also recovered some from the occipital region in the back.

NARRATOR The location of the remaining pellets,

the searing, and powder all indicate

that the barrel of Jones' g*n was fired from a low angle

into the left temple region--

a common location in suicides.

The first phase of Dr. G's investigation

has reached the same conclusion as the field investigators.

All signs seem to point to su1c1de.

But now, she must tackle the case's most perplexing mystery.

We have to find out, what caused

that other blood in that room?

Where did all that blood come from?

I have to find a second source of bleeding.

NARRATOR If Boyd Jones has only one wound,

the blood may be a product of natural causes.

One cause suggested by Steve Hanson

is an internal medical condition arising from liver damage.

Maybe he was bleeding from his mouth.

He was throwing up blood.

Maybe that would account for it.

JAN GARAVAGLIA There's a lot of alcohol present in the room.

And alcoholics sometimes tend to have

gastrointestinal hemorrhages.

And they really can look like homicides.

NARRATOR Alcohol abuse can damage

the liver, causing blood to back up

in the vein that feeds into it.

In an attempt to bypass the liver,

this blood forms bulging vessels called varices

in the esophagus-- the tube that connects

the throat to the stomach.

When these varices rupture, blood pours into the esophagus.

The victim vomits enormous, sometimes

fatal, quantities of blood.

When you're just vomiting bright red blood, frank blood

coming out of your mouth, and you're vomiting it all over,

the blood looks tremendous.

NARRATOR To find out if the blood was

a product of esophageal bleeding,

she must open up Boyd Jones in the internal exam.

We have to do the Y incision.

And we would look internally and look for a hemorrhage.

Maybe the esophagus would bleed that much

if he was a chronic alcoholic.

NARRATOR As she opens the chest--

in sections, the esophagus--

she encounters a surprise.

There is no blood, as there should be,

after a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

There is no sign of any other hemorrhaging, and no varices.

He did not have a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

STEVE HANSON The blood didn't come from there.

And I'm sitting there going, well, that certainly throws

that theory down the tube.

NARRATOR If the blood can't be explained by natural disease,

then what caused it?

The possibility of foul play can't be ruled out.

[music playing]

Next-- one slice with a scalpel brings a shocking discovery.

I called the crime scene investigator.

And I said, you're not going to believe this.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Subclavian region-- so we're going

to have to dissect this out.

NARRATOR Dr. G prepares to remove

and weigh Boyd Jones' lungs.

She's found evidence of a contact shotgun wound,

suggesting su1c1de.

But there's an unsolved mystery--

blood found far from where he died

with no evidence of natural disease to explain it.

This could point to foul play.

[music playing]

In the meantime, the police have also

learned more about Boyd Jones.

He has an arrest record for battering his wife, who

has recently filed for divorce.

She's listed him as a missing person

and a possible su1c1de risk.

It's a scenario that forensic psychologist Nancy
[ … ]

Slicner has seen all too often.

If the marriage has failed--

all the things that they were able to control

and were assured of in the past have been taken away--

life is going to be completely different.

And for some people, that's just too scary.

NARRATOR Dr. G sections Boyd Jones' lungs

and is immediately rewarded with a revelation.

He has a massive amount of aspirated blood in his lungs.

Arden's going to go ahead and get the tox so I don't forget.

NARRATOR Next, she moves on to the stomach.

When she opens it up, she finds something else amiss.

I found a lot of blood in his stomach

that was starting to get digested

from the juices of the stomach.

NARRATOR Blood in the lungs and the stomach prove one thing--

Boyd Jones was alive with a head wound for at least

a few minutes, swallowing the blood

and breathing it into his lungs.

That indicates a less fatal-type injury--

still causing blood, causing blood in his mouth.

And he's ending up swallowing it.

[music playing]

With the autopsy complete, Dr. G

now knows that there was a less lethal head

wound prior to the massive one that k*lled him.

But the most important question appears to be unanswered.

What caused the first wound?

She calls the police to make her report

and learns they have conducted more interviews

at the hotel where Jones died.

And this time, they've learned something new.

When they went back, one of the witnesses said,

I thought I heard a second g*nsh*t.

[g*nsh*t]

But there is a lot of construction going on,

and they thought it was possibly part of the construction.

NARRATOR With this stunning information in hand--

finally put together the whole sad story of his last days.

He had a history of depression.

And the depression seemed to be precipitated by a divorce.

After threatening su1c1de, for some reason,

he decides to get in this car, checks into a motel.

NARRATOR There, in the lonely motel room,

he mulls over his fate.

NANCY SLICNER A million thoughts--

will anybody care?

Will anybody know?

Does it matter?

Things aren't going to get better.

Things are only going to get worse.

My whole life has been like this.

So, yeah, the jumble of thoughts kind of cascading

through their mind is typical.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Eventually, he picks up the g*n.

NANCY SLICNER We know this from su1c1de survivors.

Folks have told us that they actually pick up the g*n.

They play with it.

They put it to their head.

They thought about it.

They put it down.

They had another drink.

They went back to the w*apon.

NARRATOR He sits on the bed.

But contrary to all the overt physical evidence,

Boyd does not place the g*n to his head.

According to Dr. G's final analysis,

he probably places the g*n somewhere on his face

and pulls the trigger.

[g*nsh*t]

Shockingly, when the smoke clears, he's still alive.

If he's trying to sh**t himself with a shotgun,

and he flinches and he pulls back,

then maybe he just shot part of his face off.

NARRATOR Blood begins to pour from his wounds.

JAN GARAVAGLIA It must have been very superficial.

You get a wound to your scalp or your face,

it's going to bleed a lot.

The prior g*nsh*t wound would have caused that.

We see that, in the hotel room, that there's a lot of blood

around.

He must have also been getting that blood down his lung.

[music playing]

STEVE HANSON Then he gets up and he walks into the bathroom.

And just the way that the blood was--

he had to have put his hands on the sink.

And there's no way that he couldn't have looked

at himself in the mirror.

And I'm thinking that would have been pretty upsetting.

NANCY SLICNER Between the sh*ts, all

I can imagine is him thinking, oh, my god, oh, my god, I

didn't even do this right.

Looking at himself and saying, I'm not going

to go through life like this.

This is just another indication that I'm a loser.

Comes back, sits in a chair several minutes

after the first g*nsh*t wound, and puts it up

to his temple on the left side, pulls the trigger,

and blows the top of his head off.
[ … ]

[g*nsh*t]

NARRATOR The force of the shot severs much of Jones' brain

from the brain stem and spinal cord.

His breathing ceases.

His heart stops beating.

And finally, he dies.

With her scalpel and her uncanny ability

to interpret the forensic evidence,

Dr. G has finally solved the mystery

of a very unusual death.

And once again, the autopsy has uncovered a sad story--

the story of a man who first ran out of town and then

ran out of hope in a lonely motel room.

Suicides are always the saddest cases--

always the saddest cases, because there's

always that sense of anguish.

You know they had to have that horrible anguish

before they did it.

And that, to me, is always sad.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Coming up, Dr. G shares the secrets behind

the tools of her unusual trade.

We just buy this at any of your local--

Dollar store.

Yeah, dollar store, that's exactly where I got it.

[inaudible]

NARRATOR When "Dr. G Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

In her morgue in Orange and Osceola counties,

Dr. G gets about four cases a day that require autopsy.

This guy will be full tox, for microscopics, complete autopsy.

NARRATOR And in each autopsy, Dr. G

relies upon specific instruments to help

determine cause of death.

We have a scale, my son.

NARRATOR These are the tools of the medical examiner's trade.

[music playing]

One of the most vital tools in the morgue

isn't really an instrument at all.

It's a -square-foot refrigerator,

which is used to preserve a body and slow

the rate of decomposition.

This is our cooler.

The reason we put them in a refrigerator--

it would be no different than you buying

a steak at home in the morning.

You can put it in the refrigerator

if you're going to cook it that night

and want it to stay fresh.

We do the same thing, basically, before we do our autopsy.

NARRATOR One of the functions of an autopsy

is to quantify parts of the body in terms

of weight, length, and volume in order

to detect any abnormalities.

They are big--

.

NARRATOR Or, for instance, to describe the amount of blood

a victim lost.

Any loose fluid in the body cavities we've got to measure.

NARRATOR Some of the tools are highly specialized,

such as the different types of hypodermic syringes

used for collecting body fluid for toxicological tests.

We put the needle in the white part of the eye,

and inside the eyeball where there's the fluid,

and then draw it out.

For some people, watching the autopsy is not a problem.

But watching to put a needle in eye,

for some reason-- it really does tend to bother people.

It's one of the first things we do.

So if they can make it through that,

they can make through the whole autopsy.

- Usually. - Usually.

[laughs]

[music playing]

NARRATOR Other measuring instruments

are a tad less sophisticated.

JAN GARAVAGLIA If there is a little blood,

I use what I call my gravy ladle.

If you have a lot of blood, we go with the bigger container,

and then the soup ladle.

And it gets the blood out just a little faster

than my gravy ladle.

And again, we just buy this at any your local--

Dollar store.

Yeah, dollar store, that's exactly where I got it.

[inaudible]

[laughing]

NARRATOR One of the most important tools

that Dr. G utilizes during the autopsy

is also one of the smallest and sharpest--

the scalpel.

Trusty tool to get inside the body

is going to be our scalpel and a very sharp blade.

NARRATOR The scalpel can slice through skin and soft tissue

handily.

What it cannot do is cut through a rib cage.

No, the one thing we do have to get by

is you're going to have to open that chest plate.

NARRATOR There are several tools that can be used to open

a rib cage in an autopsy.
[ … ]

One specialty instrument is a pair of rib cutters,

but they are not Dr. G's favorite.

This is one of the true autopsy tools I know about.

But I just hate it.

I mean, it's made just to cut the ribs.

And I think it does a lousy job.

What does a really good job are these garden shears.

And why this does a good job is because I

can get better leverage.

And you can really cut it easily.

And this is just garden pruning shears.

Get them at any of your local hardware stores.

That's what we.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Sometimes, however, even leverage isn't enough.

To open the skull and examine the brain,

Dr. G relies upon electricity and an oscillating saw.

[saw whirring]

Once we reflect the skull, all we've got is bone there.

So that bone has to be open.

So nowadays, we use a saw.

We use an oscillating saw-- the same kind of saw

that you would see in an orthopedic surgeon's

office to take off a cast.

But it only cuts bone.

It won't cut tissue.

It just oscillates. It doesn't spin.

Because if it spun, it would just

make a heck of a mess in here.

[music playing]

NARRATOR Though some of Dr. G's tools are high tech,

a surprising number are not.

And every one of them allows her to do

the job she loves every day.

Coming up-- a tragic car accident and a widow who needs

answers.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The question is, why

did he get into the accident?

We really, at this point, don't know.

NARRATOR When "Dr. G Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Traffic accidents-- they are the number one

cause of accidental death in Dr. G's morgue.

In Florida alone, someone is k*lled in a traffic accident

every three hours.

While each has a devastating impact on the victims'

families, occasionally, these seemingly everyday deaths

have a profound effect on Dr. G, as well.

Such is the case with Larry and Susan Burkhardt.

[interposing voices]

It is AM on a clear December morning.

-year-old Larry Burkhardt is making

a two-hour drive that he's repeated hundreds of times

before.

He's heading from his home in Vero Beach to his daughter's

house in Orlando where his wife, Susan, is babysitting

their -month-old grandson.

She needs to sign some real estate papers,

and suggested that Larry drive them up.

SUSAN BURKHARDT It was a sunny, dry day.

I made that drive every week.

I didn't think a thing of it.

Nothing to it-- no car, no problem.

NARRATOR At approximately AM, as Larry cruises

along Orlando's beeline expressway,

something goes horribly wrong.

[tires screeching]

[glass and metal shatter]

[sirens wailing]

The fire department is the first to arrive on the scene.

They find Larry trapped in his car in critical condition.

He's quickly removed from the vehicle

and rushed to the Orlando Regional Medical Center.

While Larry is en route to the hospital,

Susan receives an unexpected phone call.

Larry's been in an accident.

And that-- oh, my god.

Then the panic hit me.

Oh, my god, you mean my Larry?

NARRATOR Susan and her daughter,

Diane, rush to the hospital.

As soon as they arrive, they're ushered into a small room.

SUSAN BURKHARDT All of a sudden,

we're in this little, tiny room.

Here comes this chaplain, and then two troopers--

Florida Highway Patrol troopers.

When that chaplain walked in, we

were just kind of shell shocked, because you

know what that means.

NARRATOR The highway patrolman confirms their worst fears--

Larry is dead.

To have it all pulled out from under me so fast

is just mind boggling.

NARRATOR But while she grieves for her husband,

another powerful emotion quickly rises to the surface--

guilt.

Something wonderful is heading your way.

Best wishes.

Why was I in Orlando?

Why wasn't I in Vero Beach with Larry?
[ … ]

Why did he have to make that trip to get

my signature on those papers?

NARRATOR Because Larry was making the drive as a favor

to Susan, she can't help but feel

partially responsible for her husband's accident.

[tires screeching]

[glass and metal shatter]

Then it occurs to her--

Larry has a history of heart disease.

Susan wonders if that could have played a role.

SUSAN BURKHARDT That's what our first two questions were.

Was it a heart attack, or a stroke?

Did the heart cause an accident?

NARRATOR If his heart gave out, it

suggests that he could have died,

regardless of his trip to bring her the papers,

And Susan can rest easier.

Like all car accident victims in Orange County,

Larry Burkhardt's body arrives in Dr. G's morgue.

This morning, we have a -year-old man that looks

like another car accident.

The wife states that he had a heart attack years ago,

but he was treated with angioplasty.

He'd been back to the cardiologist,

and they thought he was great.

The question is, why did he get into the accident?

We really, at this point, don't know.

Was it natural?

Was it a combination of natural and trauma?

Was it just all trauma?

NARRATOR What Dr. G learns from the investigator's report

is that Larry Burkhardt suffered from heart

disease and, according to his family,

was a very cautious driver.

It points to a scenario that Dr. G has seen before.

We get cases in that people will have a stroke,

or they'll have a heart attack, and then

have an accident because of it.

We get several a year.

NARRATOR Dr. G begins the external exam,

checking the severity of Larry's injuries.

JAN GARAVAGLIA But I'm seeing some marks

that might suggest seat belt.

NARRATOR He has abrasions on his shoulders and hip,

indicating where his body had been restrained by his belt

during the accident.

But she doesn't see much else.

We're really seeing very minor stuff.

NARRATOR Severe head and chest injuries

are apparent in almost / of all traffic fatalities,

but Larry shows no signs of such trauma.

So the fact that he doesn't have a lot of external injuries

always keeps the possibility alive

that maybe he'd already suffered a heart attack

and that the accident didn't k*ll him at all.

NARRATOR By the time Dr. G has finished her external exam,

she still isn't certain what actually

k*lled Larry Burkhardt.

Coming up-- Dr. G determines Larry's cause of death,

but the answer opens the door to more questions.

I know I need more information.

I need more pieces of the puzzle to help me put that together.

NARRATOR Next, when "Dr. G Medical Examiner" continues.

[music playing]

Dr. G is about to perform the internal autopsy

on Larry Burkhardt, the apparent victim of a fatal car accident."], index ,…}

His widow, Susan, is waiting for the findings with bated breath."], index ,…}

She is still feeling guilty about his being

on the road that day, and she's hoping

that his death might have been the result of natural causes.

[music playing]

Dr. G begins the internal exam by making a Y incision.

[inaudible]---- why is it so bloody?

NARRATOR She is immediately confronted

with an abdominal cavity nearly overflowing with blood.

The blood should all still be in your vessels.

And for it to be in body cavities

like your abdominal cavity, just hanging there, loose,

or in your pleural cavities where your lungs should sit,

it shouldn't be there.

NARRATOR After removing a substantial amount of blood

from Larry's body, Dr. G locates the source

of much of the bleeding.

Oh, he's got a-- oh-- big, old laceration.

I think I know where it's coming from.

NARRATOR Larry's liver is nearly cut in two.

He's getting thrown inside the car, or into the dashboard,

into the wheel.

Probably compressed his liver to the point

where it can't stretch, and it tears.

His liver is almost completely transacted,

meaning cut in half.

Still kind of hanging there.

And your liver is very vascular, and you

bleed very profusely when that liver is that damaged.

NARRATOR For Dr. G, the extent of Larry's internal bleed

is proof of one thing.

He was alive during the accident.

That indicates that he did have a blood pressure.

His heart was beating when he got those injuries.
[ … ]

I know that his heart is pumping,

and that liver laceration was continuing

to pump out blood-- over a liter of blood-- in his belly.

After the autopsy, we could say he

clearly died from his injuries.

NARRATOR She returns to her office

to call Larry's widow, Susan, and explain her findings.

Hi, this is Dr. Garavaglia at the medical examiner's

office in Orlando.

NARRATOR But before Dr. G can share the grim details

of Larry's death, Susan takes the opportunity to share

her story of life with Larry.

I was years old, and I fell head over heels in love

with him.

And he never left my side for the next and / years,

so it was a wonderful time.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I was in awe of her relationship

with her husband.

I was in awe of that love, that feeling,

she had of how wonderful that relationship was,

and how intense it still was, after years.

He's got a--

NARRATOR Dr. G informed Susan that Larry died

from internal injuries sustained in the accident,

but Susan still feels that his bad heart must

have played a role, insisting that Larry

was an exemplary driver.

I could never imagine him having an auto accident,

especially a fatal one.

It was never something I would ever think up for Larry,

because he was the best driver in the world.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The family had a hypothesis that something must

have happened to him, because he was such a good driver,

such a careful driver.

So they truly felt that some natural disease played

a role, or something happened.

NARRATOR Dr. G's ruled that Larry died due to injuries

sustained in the car accident.

However, from the autopsy, she saw heart disease

that could have possibly contributed

to Larry's erratic driving.

I saw heart disease.

He had at least an % narrowing to one

of the coronary arteries that supply

blood and oxygen to the heart.

He had a % narrowing to another major coronary artery.

He had an area of fibrosis in the heart muscle

indicating a previous heart attack.

NARRATOR Susan then confesses to Dr. G

her reasons for wanting to know about his heart.

JAN GARAVAGLIA She definitely had some guilt about him

being in the car that day.

That because of where she was, and the situation, he may not

made that trip if not for her.

NARRATOR Dr. G reassures Susan that she will investigate

further to determine whether or not a heart condition may

have caused Larry's accident.

And just dies.

You just wanted to help her.

You felt her grief.

You felt her loss of love.

At that point, I know I need more information.

I need more pieces of the puzzle to help me put that together.

NARRATOR To learn more about the accident,

Dr. G knows where to go.

The Florida Highway Patrol documents

every available detail of every fatal vehicular

accident in their jurisdiction.

The accident investigation revealed that he was

actually trying to pass a car.

It looked like he went a little bit on to the shoulder

with a different pavement, which caused him to lose control,

caused him to spin.

FRANCINA OGBURN He left skid marks as he left the shoulder.

And you could see where he started to panic,

going out of control, turning to the left,

and leaving these marks on the shoulder.

NARRATOR Based Corporal Ogburn's findings,

Dr. G can tell that Larry was conscious

throughout his accident.

She can now answer Susan's questions

about her husband's heart.

The investigation of the auto accident

does not indicate that natural disease played a role.

NARRATOR Armed with all the facts of the case,

Dr. G can now piece together exactly

what happened to Larry Burkhardt during the tragic accident.

[music playing]

Larry is driving from Vero Beach to his daughter's

house in Orlando to deliver papers for his wife to sign.

According to witnesses, Larry tries to pass another car,

but veers too far to the left onto the median.

FRANCINA OGBURN He re-entered and drove across the two

westbound lanes and then back off onto the north shoulder

where he starts continue to rotate out of control,

leaving a rotation mark.

NARRATOR From the skid marks, Corporal Ogburn

can tell that his car begins to spin,

and that Larry is fighting to regain control.

JAN GARAVAGLIA There's evidence that he's trying to correct,
[ … ]

and there's evidence that he was trying to brake.

NARRATOR Then, the left rear of the car slams into a palm tree."], index ,…}

[glass and metal shatter]

Upon impact, the dashboard rips open Larry's liver, resulting

in severe internal bleeding.

Even if he was a much younger man,

no one is going to be able to survive

a transacted liver like that.

NARRATOR By the time Larry reaches the hospital,

Larry's liver has gushed over a liter of blood.

And he dies, due to the severe internal hemorrhaging.

In the case of Larry Burkhardt, Dr. G comes to the conclusion

that his heart had nothing to do with his death.

Autopsy showed natural disease,

but it didn't play a part in this auto accident.

NARRATOR But she knows that this news will only reinforce

Susan's feelings of guilt, so Dr. G arranges to meet Susan

in person to talk it over.

I really should just be in the journey of getting the facts,

putting the pieces together, getting

the details in what happened.

I ended up, I think, playing another role here.

The minute I met him, when I was , I never left side,

and vise versa.

We talked about blame, and accidents, and things

you just can't control.

You know, accidents are accidents.

That's why they call them accidents.

You can't predict them.

Thank you very much for being--

Oh, thank you.

--the special person in my life when I really needed you.

I mean, through all of these months,

you've been right there.

I really did want to let you know how

much you touched me, because--

just that people could be married so long and so in love.

NARRATOR What seemed like a straightforward auto

fatality has somehow had a singular effect on Dr. G.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I learn something all the time.

Sometimes it's conscious, sometimes it's unconscious.

I mean, certainly being here affects the way I live,

affects the way I live my life.

There is no question about that.

[music playing]

MAN Atlas.