07x06 - Fatal Encounters

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR A -year-old man is rushed to the ER

with a mysterious illness.

He's got this skin disease that's expanding

in front of their very eyes.

And within hours, he's dead.

NARRATOR Now Dr. G is forced to consider

a catastrophic possibility.

It's one of those things that t*rrorists

could use to wipe out a large part of the population.

Like, wow.

NARRATOR Then, when a man answers a knock at the door,

he's sh*t dead in cold blood.

There's no rhyme or reason to this world sometimes.

NARRATOR And police are counting on Dr. G

to help them track down the perpetrator

before it's too late.

Everyone in the system is working so this k*ller

is no longer out on the street.

[theme music]

NARRATOR Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,

shocking revelations--

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

It's after closing time at the District morgue,

and Dr. G is finishing up some paperwork from the day's cases,

when she receives a surprise call from a doctor in the ICU

at a local hospital.

I remember distinctly.

It's about o'clock at night.

[inaudible] that certainly doesn't happen every day.

It looks like it's--

NARRATOR He informs Dr. G that one of his patients

has just d*ed mysteriously less than

hours after being admitted.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to get a diagnosis,

and they really felt that this needed

to be diagnosed because it k*lled him so quickly.

He was worried that this was a public health concern.

And now they're asking, could I do the autopsy?

I am worrying.

Most of the time, we can come up with an answer,

but sometimes we don't.

But I like a mystery.

NARRATOR It all started about a day earlier, shortly

after -year-old Johnny Tran arrived in Orlando

on a flight from Los Angeles.

He'd been looking forward to spending

a long weekend with friends.

JAN GARAVAGLIA As soon as he got off that plane

and he met his friends, they realized that something

is clearly wrong with him.

He had a cough, and he was getting

rapidly short of breath.

His friends realized that he was very sick.

NARRATOR They rush Johnny to a nearby hospital,

but his condition continues to deteriorate rapidly.

Within an hour or two of him coming to the emergency room,

he's innovated and on a ventilator.

NARRATOR A team of ER doctors scramble

to find out what's going on.

But it isn't long before a chilling new development stops

them dead in their tracks.

JAN GARAVAGLIA He's got this skin lesion that's going down

his neck onto the upper chest.

He didn't have that when he came in.

His skin disease started expanding

in front of their very eyes.

They put him in an isolation room in the ICU.

But he has a rapid downhill course.

Within less than hours, he's dead.

It's always a tragedy when somebody dies so quickly

and at such a young age.

NARRATOR The -year-old had moved to the United States

from Vietnam just six months earlier.

And when authorities contact his parents back home,

they are absolutely grief stricken.

They're devastated by the news,

and they just wanted to know why he d*ed.

NARRATOR This morning, the atmosphere at the District

morgue is unusually tense.

It is?

I know I'm testifying on it.

I just didn't know.

That's not until November.

Why would it be in my office?

I don't know.

It's not in the file.

I got bigger fish to fry.

This poor fellow is a tragedy.

But he's got everybody on pins and needles

because it might be something infectious.

You know, coming off of an airplane,

immediately getting sick and dying

relatively quickly with this huge rapidly

progressing skin necrosis.

Like, wow.

Do we know anything about this?

Let's get some info, and I'll be right back.

NARRATOR Now it's up to Dr. G and her team

to figure out exactly what happened to Johnny Tran.

And her first order of business is
[ … ]

to review his hospital records.

All right, let's see here.

NARRATOR As she reads through the file,

she notes right away that ER doctors ran a battery of tests

on the -year-old.

When he's in the ER, one of the things

they do is a chest X-ray.

And they could see that he had a bad pneumonia.

NARRATOR Pneumonia could explain his coughing,

but it doesn't account for his strange skin lesions

and extremely rapid decline.

Something else was going on.

He got a lot of symptoms.

NARRATOR Digging deeper into the medical records,

another notation catches Dr. G's attention.

One of Johnny's doctors had come up

with an alarming but plausible theory.

He was worried that this was anthr*x.

anthr*x was a bacterial disease,

and usually, it's spread through contact with soil

or hides of certain animals.

And it's very, very rare to see this in the United States.

JAN GARAVAGLIA This is not something we normally see,

but he had a rapid death and he's got skin lesions.

So that kind of fits this fellow.

NARRATOR With this new finding in play,

Dr. G knows that there's a lot at stake.

If the -year-old d*ed from anthr*x poisoning,

an untold number of others could be at risk.

It's one of those diseases that you worry

about as a w*apon of mass destruction, as a way

that t*rrorists could use to wipe out

a large part of the population.

NARRATOR In fact, back in , a t*rror1st

sent several packages containing a powdered form of anthr*x

through the US Postal Service.

The bacteria made people sick and ended up k*lling five.

I don't have anything.

NARRATOR Now Dr. F wonders if Johnny

could be the first victim in another terror att*ck.

Is this some kind of t*rror1st bioterrorism?

And he's the first case that we're seeing.

I mean, who knows?

We really needed a look at him.

NARRATOR Dr. G informs her chief medical investigator,

Steve Hanson, that a body needs to be

retrieved from the hospital.

As with all cases where there's a possibility of contagion,

he must follow strict safety guidelines

to protect himself and others from any risk of exposure.

Nobody ever handles a body, be it

the investigators or transport service,

without wearing gloves.

If it's appropriate, they'll wear gowns and masks.

Our transport people will put the body in a body bag,

seal it, bring it into here, and we will get the body

into refrigeration as soon as we can

because that's going to help mitigate

the potential of exposure.

NARRATOR Back in the morgue, the entire staff will be taking

preventative measures as well.

We're definitely going to take precautions.

First of all, I'm going to limit who's in that room with me.

I will ask which tech wants to volunteer for the job.

OK, Tom.

Are you ready?

TOM Yep.

JAN GARAVAGLIA I will make sure we're gown head to toe.

We've got the face shield.

We've got the N masks.

So we're going to need sterile stuff.

We get a game plan on how we're going

to limit any type of spray or any type of splashing.

Better safe than sorry.

All right, let's see.

Oh, boy.

Brother, he looks sick.

He looks thin, almost debilitated.

Oh, he's a skinny little kid.

OK.

Let's see what's going on here.

NARRATOR Dr. G's first priority is

to examine the unusual lesions on Johnny's neck.

Wow, this is a sick, sick [inaudible]..

It was one of the more disturbing things

I've seen on an external exam.

This guy's got problems.

Oh, boy.

Something terrible is going on here.

That is just nasty looking.

NARRATOR Dr. G is reeling from the gruesome sight

of skin lesions on -year-old Johnny Tran's neck.

I've never seen anything quite like that.

Let's see-- oozing.

Let's see what it's oozing.

He clearly has some type of rapidly

developing skin infection across the neck

and onto the upper chest.

You get the sides of the neck, too?

Did you get this?
[ … ]

Yep.

My question is, what's causing this?

Maybe this is anthr*x.

NARRATOR Sores on the skin are one of the telltale signs

of anthr*x.

But as she examines the lesions more closely,

she isn't entirely convinced.

JAN GARAVAGLIA With anthr*x, you would expect

a black [inaudible] scab on it.

He had more of a red ulcerated lesion.

So it doesn't look like anthr*x.

But I can't say for sure till I get inside.

NARRATOR Dr. G collects tissue samples from the lesions

to send to the lab for analysis.

The results could shed light on what was

causing Johnny's skin necrosis.

We don't know what that's going to be.

But we certainly need to culture it.

NARRATOR In the meantime, she continues

scouring Johnny's body for anything out of the ordinary.

And right away, something odd catches her eye.

He's got these large lymph nodes.

NARRATOR Lymph nodes are usually tiny rounded glands

found throughout the body and vital to the proper functioning

of the immune system.

He had almost a lumpy, bumpy neck.

It was quite a sight.

What is causing them?

I'm not going to have this answer by just

looking externally on him.

We'll see what the internal shows.

You want iodine or alcohol or anything?

That's OK. I'll just got for a--

Gimmie, oh, like, you just give me the sterile scalpel.

NARRATOR Dr. G makes the standard Y

incision across Johnny's chest.

JAN GARAVAGLIA When I open the body,

I look for anything that could help me explain

how he got into this state.

NARRATOR Based on Johnny's diagnosis of pneumonia,

her first stop is the lungs.

He's got a bad pneumonia.

I can already feel it.

So we know his lungs are going to be bad when I get there.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Lots of adhesions.

I have seen bad lungs in my life,

but I have not seen lungs this bad.

NARRATOR In fact, Johnny's lungs are so severely damaged

that instead of floating freely within the chest cavity,

they have actually become stuck to the chest wall.

You know what the problem is?

It's not so much the adhesion as his lung

is disintegrating every time you touch it.

I couldn't get the left lung out in one piece

because it was so necrotic.

This guy's lungs are really bad.

This wasn't a typical pneumonia.

NARRATOR But as with the lesions on Johnny's neck,

Dr. G knows that this type of lung damage

could not have been caused by anthr*x.

With anthr*x, we're expecting to see

hemorrhage in the mediastinum, that area

between the two lungs.

But you don't see anything in the lungs.

So clearly, this wasn't anthr*x.

Whoa, look at that.

But I do see something very odd.

Do you see these? - Oh, geez.

Gosh.

His lungs have areas of little white spots all over.

NARRATOR These white spots are a telltale sign

of something both lethal and highly contagious.

That's not good.

I really strongly suspected what this was.

That lung pretty much gave it away for me.

Oh, wow, his neck is stiff.

NARRATOR Dr. G believes that what she has just discovered

in the lungs of -year-old Johnny Tran

holds the key to the case.

Those little white speckles in the lungs gave it away.

I've never seen it that bad.

I am pretty sure it looks like tuberculosis.

NARRATOR Tuberculosis, or TB, is

a deadly and extremely contagious

disease that is spread through the air.

You know, TB is probably the number one infectious disease

k*ller in the world.

We don't have a very high rate of TB in the United States.

Some countries, it's rampant.

NARRATOR And despite the lower incidence rate in the United

States, Dr. G is beginning to suspect that Johnny

may have contracted TB.

But TB didn't explain everything.

We still have the skin lesion, which doesn't fit with TB.

So I really think something else is going on here.

NARRATOR She sends the cultures of the skin lesions and lung

tissue off to the lab to test for TB

and any other bacterial, fungal, or viral infections.

Now all Dr. G can do is wait for the results of the lab work
[ … ]

and hope that it can help her put the pieces of this puzzle

together.

So I was interested to see what the cultures would show.

I can't wait to figure out what's going on.

NARRATOR One week later, Johnny's lab

results are finally delivered to the District morgue.

Now Dr. G is pinning her last hopes on Johnny's cultures.

And the culture has confirmed that it was a tuberculosis.

But when she reviews the cultures of his skin lesions,

they reveal something completely unexpected,

something that finally solves the mysterious death

of Johnny Tran.

He really had the double whammy.

It was just fascinating to put these pieces of the puzzle

together.

NARRATOR Dr. G has just reviewed

the bacterial cultures of the skin lesions and lungs

of -year-old Johnny Tran.

And they contain a vital clue that finally makes

sense out of his sudden death.

Once I get everything back, you know, things start

really falling into place.

NARRATOR On September the st, Johnny Tran arrived at Orlando

International Airport.

He's looking forward to being reunited with some old friends,

but he's also been struggling to ignore some troubling symptoms."], index ,…}

He was ill.

He's losing weight, slowly getting more debilitated.

NARRATOR The primary culprit--

tuberculosis.

It was probably breathed in when he was in Vietnam.

This guy had probably been infected for years.

For most people, they can get what's called a latent disease,

and it's living dormant in your body.

NARRATOR All the while, Johnny's immune system

has been suppressing the infection.

But eventually, it can no longer fight it off.

Over probably a period of months,

it became active tuberculosis.

And he went on to develop this terrible disease.

JAN GARAVAGLIA His TB spread through his bloodstream.

It ended up going into his lungs, causing a pneumonia.

NARRATOR Johnny's friends realize

right away that he's extremely ill

and rush him to the emergency room.

They could see that he had a bad pneumonia,

but they didn't know what was going on with him.

NARRATOR Unfortunately, the infection has already

spread into Johnny's lymph nodes,

causing them to become enlarged and inflamed.

The TB keeps growing in those lymph nodes

to the point where they put pressure on the skin

and eventually erode through the skin.

NARRATOR Eventually, the skin becomes

necrotic and dies, which, in turn,

creates open sores on his neck.

And the cultures of the lesions reveal

that a second deadly infection entered his body

through these open wounds.

He didn't have just TB, he had a necrotizing skin infection

from staph aureus bacteria.

Staph aureus, this was a common bacteria that

causes a lot of infections.

NARRATOR And the addition of the staph infection

spells certain and swift disaster.

This staph aureus bacteria is probably the coup de grace,

just the final insult. He was already well on his way

from dying of TB.

That just tipped the boat just a little bit.

That bacteria took hold in his skin,

and then spread through his bloodstream,

and then spread very quickly to his already weakened lungs,

to the point where he has to be intubated,

but his lungs are so necrotic from the TB

that those lungs were well beyond repair.

And he quickly dies.

NARRATOR With the definitive cause of death in hand,

Dr. G immediately reports her findings

to the state health department.

They did a great job tracking down his contacts,

and all of his friends were tested and treated.

NARRATOR Her next call is to Johnny's relatives in Vietnam.

The family was a little flabbergasted.

They are still in shock that he d*ed so quick.

I think the mystery of this case is why this guy

didn't do anything about this.

It's always unbelievable to me the way people

can walk around being so sick and not do anything about it.

It's a totally unnecessary death.

This man could have easily been treated with medication.

Some TB is drug resistant in certain pockets of the world,

but his wasn't.

It's sad that he wasn't listening to his body.

NARRATOR Unexpected deaths are nothing new to Dr. G.

But when a grisly homicide comes into the morgue,

she finds herself facing a whole different set of challenges.

All right, let's see here.

Let's see here.

We have a -year-old unfortunate

fellow dead on his kitchen floor with multiple g*nsh*t wounds.
[ … ]

That is just a shame.

There's no rhyme or reason to this world sometimes.

I don't understand the senseless k*lling.

NARRATOR It's a cool October evening in Orlando, Florida.

Newly divorced Karen Douglas has been

living with her older brother, Keith,

for the past three months.

The two are enjoying a relaxing evening at home,

when suddenly, they're interrupted

by an unexpected knock at their back door.

He goes to answer the door.

She says, all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose.

[g*nf*re]

She hears g*nf*re, multiple g*nf*re.

She ducks for cover, takes off through the front door,

and calls .

EMS is dispatched.

Police are dispatched.

And they find him dead on the kitchen floor

with multiple g*nsh*t wounds.

NARRATOR Police immediately secure the area,

and their first call is to chief medical investigator Steve

Hanson at the District morgue.

They contacted the medical examiner's office

so that an investigator could go out to the scene

and collect as much information as we can.

JAN GARAVAGLIA Now when we have a case like this,

the body is the jurisdiction of the medical examiner.

So the police aren't going to touch

the body until my representative gets there.

NARRATOR Once on the scene, the medical investigator

examines and photographs the body,

while police launch a full scale homicide investigation.

Really, the only thing the police knows

is that this fellow went out to his backdoor,

and g*nshots were heard.

NARRATOR And although the victim's sister, Karen,

is overcome with grief, detectives must question her

in hopes of gleaning any information that

could lead to the perpetrator.

The only thing she provided is that there has been

a dispute between her ex-husband and the decedent, her brother.

NARRATOR According to Karen, there

had been some tension between the two men since the divorce.

But she insists to investigators that her ex-husband

isn't capable of m*rder.

Things somewhat point to this ex-husband, but you know,

at this point, they don't know.

There's really no evidence.

NARRATOR With few clues to go on,

police must consider a number of possible scenarios.

Maybe it was an attempted robbery, which he interrupted.

There's a lot of g*ng activity.

It could be dr*gs.

It could be just a cold blooded random m*rder.

We have to keep all options open.

NARRATOR Unfortunately, at this stage,

only one thing is certain.

A k*ller is on the loose.

And there's no telling where or when he'll strike again.

We need the truth of what really happened.

That's why we do an autopsy.

The whole point is to make sure this k*ller

is no longer out on the street.

NARRATOR The body of -year-old Keith Douglas,

a construction worker gunned down at his home last night,

has just arrived at the District morgue.

Do we have labels on that guy yet?

NARRATOR And police are counting on Dr. G for much more

than just a cause of death.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it

looks like he d*ed from g*nsh*t wounds.

But we need more information than that.

The police need to know what happened

and who did this to this person.

NARRATOR And as with all homicides

that come through her door, the clock is ticking.

The whole point is to make sure this k*ller

is no longer out on the street.

So that's why everyone in the system

is working so this doesn't happen again to someone else.

All right, we're ready, right?

Oh, gosh.

So when I first see him, he's covered in blood.

The thing that strikes you first is that he's got a huge hole

in front of his left ear.

Oh, Lord.

And there appears to be multiple holes in his clothing.

So we've got a lot of holes.

Besides g*nsh*t wounds, I have to look for any other evidence

of trauma.

Are there other signs of struggle?

I'll be looking for trace evidence.

That's why his hands are bagged, so the evidence in his hands

won't be contaminated.

Do you have his X-ray somewhere?

Yes, ma'am.

In the back, OK.

NARRATOR As with all cases involving g*nf*re,

Dr. G orders a full body X-ray.
[ … ]

JAN GARAVAGLIA The police are always hopeful that I

can find b*ll*ts in the body.

So we do x-rays, pretty much head to toe.

Interesting.

And sure enough, he does have projectiles in him.

He's got five.

NARRATOR But this doesn't mean that Keith

was only sh*t five times.

While some b*ll*ts get lodged in the body,

others pass straight through.

Sometimes they exit the body, and they can't be found.

OK, let's see what we're doing over here.

NARRATOR Now Dr. G must determine exactly how

many times Keith was sh*t and analyze

each of the g*nsh*t wounds.

What's the distance between the end

of the barrel and the skin?

What are the angles?

NARRATOR This information could shed light on the circumstances"], index ,…}

surrounding the crime and help police develop

a profile of the k*ller.

What can we tell about those wounds that

might help the investigation?

It's really a puzzle.

Because you really have to figure out

which is the entrance, which is the exit.

NARRATOR An entrance wound is usually small, round,

and surrounded by an area of scraped skin,

while an exit wound is irregular in shape.

But every g*nsh*t wound is just a little bit different.

And there's always exceptions to the rules.

All right, let's see.

You do a lot of diagramming-- where the holes are,

what they look like, what its size is,

and where it's located on the body.

NARRATOR But after a careful examination,

Dr. G is able to isolate each and every one of Keith

Douglas's b*llet wounds.

And the final count is staggering.

At the end of the external, we know that he's got at least .

Why would somebody sh**t somebody times?

NARRATOR At that moment, the autopsy

is interrupted by her chief medical investigator Steve

Hanson.

So during the course of Dr. G's autopsy,

I got a call from the police department.

Told me they found a g*n.

NARRATOR Now Dr. G will need to retrieve the b*ll*ts

from Keith's body so senior firearms examiner and longtime

colleague, Ed Love, can try to match them to the g*n found

near the scene.

Dr. G and I worked a lot of cases together.

I love working with her.

The success rates in IDing a b*llet back to a g*n

actually is very good.

You can't really assume anything.

So now the most important is going

to be recovering those b*ll*ts.

NARRATOR With scalpel in hand, Dr. G makes a standard Y shaped

incision down Keith's torso.

She knows from the X-rays that he

has one b*llet lodged somewhere in his upper chest

cavity near the neck.

See it, that hole?

When I opened up the body, I can see

that the path of the projectile went through the lung,

and there's blood there.

NARRATOR This is a critical finding.

The blood is a sign that Keith's heart

was still pumping at the time that b*llet entered his body.

JAN GARAVAGLIA So he would have still been alive

when he got that g*nsh*t wound.

There it is.

Now when I recover that b*llet, I

find that it's a medium caliber, consistent with maybe a

millimeter.

NARRATOR Dr. G carefully places the b*llet

on an evidence tray and zeros in on the three

located in Keith's hip.

One of those wounds actually goes to the iliac artery.

That's a main artery in the pelvic region,

but there's no blood associated with it.

So he clearly was already dead by the time

he got that g*nsh*t wound.

NARRATOR Gently, she turns Keith on his side

and painstakingly dissects his pelvic bone

to retrieve all three b*ll*ts lodged inside.

When they're embedded in bone like that,

it's very difficult sometimes to retrieve the b*llet,

because you want to cut near the b*llet

to be able to get it out, but you don't

want to scratch it at all.

NARRATOR And as Dr. G carefully pulls them out,

she makes a key discovery.

Well, look at that.

The projectiles I found in the hip

were large calibers, like a .

NARRATOR The presence of two different caliber

b*ll*ts inside the body can only mean one thing.

I have got two different g*ns being fired into this fellow,
[ … ]

two people doing a sh**ting.

NARRATOR This unexpected finding sends the homicide

investigation into overdrive.

It now appears there are not one,

but two K*llers on the loose.

The perpetrators are still out walking around.

They need to be caught.

NARRATOR Police are in the midst

of the full scale m*rder investigation

of -year-old Keith Douglas.

And Dr. G has just uncovered surprising evidence

that promises to turn the case on its head.

Definitely call the police to let them know that there are

two individuals involved in this sh**ting

and two different g*ns.

It could be dr*gs or an angry neighbor.

It could be just a random m*rder.

You just don't know what's going on.

NARRATOR But so far, despite investigators' best efforts,

they haven't come up with any solid leads.

They're up against the clock.

They need to know who did this.

NARRATOR Now, police are depending on Dr. G

more than ever to uncover additional clues

from Keith's body.

So we need to gather as much forensic information as we can.

NARRATOR Dr. G begins the cranial exam

with a careful examination of the g*nsh*t wound

to Keith's head.

See all that soot on there?

Uh-huh.

There's soot and gunpowder all within

that wound, a lot of soot.

Soot deep in the wound and soot on the edge,

a little bit of searing.

Oh, that's nice.

NARRATOR The soot is a telltale sign that one of the K*llers

pressed the muzzle of his g*n directly against Keith's head

as he pulled the trigger--

a clue that offers revealing insight into the perpetrator.

Here, this is clearly a contact wound to the side

of the head on the right side.

Oftentimes when we see a contact wound,

somebody is angry at somebody.

This sounds like a premeditated m*rder to me.

NARRATOR Using an oscillating saw,

morgue technician Tom Hemphill cuts through Keith's skull.

JAN GARAVAGLIA All right.

NARRATOR And as Dr. G steps in to examine the brain,

the metal projectile comes into view.

JAN GARAVAGLIA Yeah, there we go.

That projectile was also a medium caliber,

like a millimeter.

Here, take a nice picture of this.

NARRATOR And based on the severity

of the internal damage, she can tell right away that this

was the sh*t that k*lled him.

The wound to his head clearly k*lled him.

You couldn't survive that wound at all.

NARRATOR As the autopsy comes to a close,

Dr. G relays her findings to homicide detectives.

I can give them the number of wounds in the body, which ones

roughly in an order that occurred,

and I can give them five projectiles, five b*ll*ts.

First thing I received in this case

was the five b*ll*ts from autopsy from Dr. Garavaglia.

And those were in very good condition.

So we really had some good firearms evidence to deal with.

NARRATOR Now, it's up to Ed Love to compare these b*ll*ts

to the only g*n they have, a millimeter discovered

near the scene of the crime.

When a b*llet extends down the end of the barrel,

there are unique nicks and imperfections on that barrel

that will impart unique characteristics

on the edge of the b*llet.

So we can look at those individual marks that are left

and match those back to a g*n.

NARRATOR And in this case, it doesn't

take long for him to make a positive firearms match.

The good news was that the projectiles

I recovered from the body actually matched that g*n.

NARRATOR Armed with this information,

investigators begin a search of Florida's g*n database.

And within less than an hour, they have a name.

And guess whose g*n it was?

NARRATOR The millimeter g*n used

to sh**t Keith Douglas is registered to a man named Gary

Hernandez, Karen's ex-husband.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The police got a warrant for the arrest

of the sister's ex-husband.

NARRATOR It doesn't take long to track their suspect down.

And by the end of the day, police have him in custody.

He's going to have some serious questions to answer.

NARRATOR After intense interrogation,

Gary confesses to the sh**ting.

I have no doubt that they got their man.

NARRATOR But when it comes to the identity

of the second sh**t, Hernandez is evasive.

Using the evidence Dr. G discovered at autopsy,

along with the findings from the firearms examination,
[ … ]

police continue to press him on specific details.

They confronted him with all the evidence.

NARRATOR Boxed into a corner, Hernandez ultimately cracks.

And after a week long investigation,

detectives finally learn the truth behind the brutal m*rder

of Keith Douglas.

He gave details of the crime that perfectly matched

what I found at autopsy.

NARRATOR Karen Douglas has been living with her older brother,

Keith, since the recent divorce from her husband

of five years, Gary Hernandez.

And ever since, there's been escalating

tension between the two men.

And it came out that the decedent

had said a derogatory comment to his sister's ex-husband.

That's the reason the ex-husband is mad at the decedent.

NARRATOR In fact, Hernandez is so

mad he decides to put an end to the dispute once and for all.

And on the night of Keith's death, he and a friend

named Mark Edwards come up with a plan.

They come to his back door.

They knock.

The decedent comes, opens the door.

It looks like they probably fired once at his chest

at a distance which is about right for him opening the door

and them being at the doorway.

They continue sh**ting.

He drops.

And then somebody comes up to him

and sh**t him close range in front of his left ear.

NARRATOR This sh*t kills Keith instantly.

But the bloody rampage isn't over yet.

The other fellow, meanwhile, is sh**ting

him more towards his feet.

NARRATOR Three of these b*ll*ts lodge in Keith's hip,

but by this time, he is already dead.

JAN GARAVAGLIA These two perpetrators run out

of the house, and ultimately, within eight days of me

completing the autopsy, they were

arrested and booked for m*rder.

NARRATOR A trial date is set, and both Dr. G and Ed

Love present their evidence to the jury,

I'll testify to my findings, and of course, Ed Love

will testify to his findings of how he matched the projectile

to the specific g*n.

The jury saw fit to convict them,

and each got years in jail.

NARRATOR After the trial, both men appealed their convictions,

but were denied.

In the end, Dr. G and her team at the District morgue

played an integral role in making

sure that justice was served.

The importance of Dr. G can't be overstated.

It is so important that you have a good pathologist

there to do the work and someone that cares about what they do.

So when I was done with my part of the puzzle,

I had a lot of information.

And when Ed was done with his exam,

he had a lot of information.

And it all came together, and these two criminals,

murderers, are off the street.

NARRATOR But for Karen, it's small compensation

for her loss.

JAN GARAVAGLIA The sister is devastated.

I can't imagine what she's going through.

But I think I was able to close that chapter for her.

It is unbelievable how many cases I do because somebody

insults or disses somebody else.

What a stupid reason to k*ll somebody.

Check your emotions.

Nothing is worth k*lling somebody over.

You run the risk of spending either your life

or years in jail.

And I can guarantee you'll be dissed in jail, too.