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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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NARRATOR: A body is discovered after a rollover wreck
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with hardly a scratch on it.
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Amazingly, for a guy that's been rolling
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around inside a pickup truck, he's got
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very little external trauma.
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NARRATOR: Even stranger is what Dr. G finds inside.
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Death was knocking on this man's door.
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NARRATOR: Then, three men start a desert crossing.
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One doesn't make it to the finish.
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He's dead right there and he's only 20.
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20-year-olds shouldn't die.
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NARRATOR: A tragedy that transcends age and nationality,
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revealed by Dr. G's autopsy.
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When you're naked and on my slab,
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I can't tell what your status in life is.
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We're gonna need to find out why you died.
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NARRATOR: Plus, how Dr. G's investigators
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analyze a crime scene.
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I need my investigator to be my eyes and ears.
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NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
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shocking revelations.
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These are the everyday cases of Dr. G, Medical Examiner.
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It's Saturday morning, a day when
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most people are just beginning to wind down for the weekend.
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But in the morgue, business is picking up.
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Well, it's typical Saturday morning
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fare for me, coming in on the weekend, having auto accidents.
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NARRATOR: This morning's challenge
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is a young man found in the cab of his pickup truck
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off the interstate.
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On the police report, it looks like a routine case of death
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behind the wheel.
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But as the morgue team well knows, looks can be deceiving.
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The night before, around 3 AM, a deputy is out on the graveyard
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patrol in central Texas.
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He passes a long trail of twisted metal and broken glass.
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At the end of it, an upended truck.
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He immediately calls for backup.
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Trooper Aurelia Hernandez responds.
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When I arrived at the scene, I saw a white and colored pickup
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overturned on its rooftop in the bar ditch
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and there was a male subject in the pickup.
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NARRATOR: The man appears to be dead at the scene.
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But the proper authority must make it official.
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In this jurisdiction, a Justice of the Peace
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makes the declaration.
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If they make it to the hospital,
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the hospital-- the doctors will determine the cause of death.
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But out in the field, like there on the highway,
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so we have to determine.
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We do get called out.
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NARRATOR: It's a tough outing for Justice Ortiz.
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The victim, 24-year-old Luis Rey,
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is not just another statistic.
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I knew the deceased, when he was young, a young--
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a young kid.
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You know, he used to hang around with my kids.
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In this little town like this, everyone knows everyone.
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And sometimes, it's sad.
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You know, it happens a lot.
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NARRATOR: The local kid grew up to be a father, with three
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children of his own, and landed a well-paying job
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in manufacturing.
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Now, at the scene of his death, the trooper is frustrated
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in her search for clues.
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It was difficult to make an investigation at the time,
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because it was dark.
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But I gathered as much information as I could.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G's in the dark too.
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Anything could have happened to the young father,
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from being run off the road to falling
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asleep behind the wheel.
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She'll now have to see what she can discover with nothing more
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than the body of the victim.
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So we've got a 24-year-old in a pickup truck.
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I need to know why did he leave the roadway?
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Did he fall asleep?
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And then, what kind of trauma caused his death?
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This is really sad.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G's mission, as always,
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is to find the precise cause of death,
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which is often surprising, even in a garden variety car wreck.
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One thing she knows for sure, about 40% of all car fatalities
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are alcohol-related.
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24-year-old man on Friday night leaving the roadway,
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single vehicle accident, that's usually alcohol.
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But I-- you know, I keep an open opinion.
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I am looking for other things.
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NARRATOR: From police reports, Dr. G
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learns that Luis was driving about 65 miles per hour
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and was not wearing a seat belt. This
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is the perfect prescription for massive external trauma.
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There's a lot of injuries that occur with those rollovers
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when you're not seat belted in.
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And they're usually pretty severe.
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He's gonna have multiple injuries.
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I think there-- he's gonna have several reasons to have died.
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NARRATOR: First, she catalogs the trauma by conducting
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a full external exam.
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A lot of our time and energy goes into traffic accidents,
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just documenting the injuries.
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1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
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1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
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He has a little abrasion on the left forehead,
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a little contusion or a bruise on his cheek,
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little-- little mark on his nose,
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linear, superficial lacerations on his back
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with some glass embedded up there.
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NARRATOR: She also notices extensive red
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spotting on his face and chest, a phenomenon
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called a petechiae.
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They're basically burst little capillaries, either in the skin
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or the delicate membranes of the inner aspect of the eyes.
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Just little-- little tiny hemorrhages.
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NARRATOR: Petechiae are the result of a massive increase
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in blood pressure when stress is applied to the chest or neck.
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Dozens or hundreds of tiny blood vessels
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burst, leaving red pinhole marks on the surface of the skin.
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People think, when they read a little bit about forensic,
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oh, if you have petechiae, little burst
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blood vessels in your eyelids, you must've been strangled.
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And it doesn't always mean that.
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It's a mechanism that you can get with anything.
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Like heart failure, we see it, because of the heart
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not pumping enough blood out.
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So the pressure's built up.
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I don't necessarily know the significance of that petechiae,
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until I finish the autopsy.
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NARRATOR: By the end of the external exam,
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Dr. G has inventoried what amounts
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to a collection of minor nicks and cuts, none of which
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could have been fatal.
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Amazingly, for a guy that's been rolling around
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inside a pickup truck, going 65 miles an hour,
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he's gotten very little external trauma.
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We-- we're really seeing very minor stuff.
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NARRATOR: This makes her wonder just
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what she'll find on the inside.
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DR. G (VOICEOVER): I've been fooled before.
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I mean, certainly, you know, I get
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a lot of accidents with a little external trauma
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and then massive internal trauma.
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I was pretty sure there'd still be some pretty horrific things
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internally.
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NARRATOR: Coming up next, horrific things indeed.
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Oh my god.
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NARRATOR: But nothing like what Dr. G expected.
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He's got kidney cancer.
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He's got an adrenal renal cell carcinoma of his kidney.
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NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
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It's the morning after another fatal Friday
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night in Dr. G's morgue.
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She performs the standard Y incision
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on a late night traffic victim.
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24-year-old Luis Ray had died in a rollover accident, in which
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he had not been wearing a seat belt.
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But strangely, the body shows few signs of external trauma.
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Sometimes I see horrific things with auto accidents.
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I mean, the-- the scalp off and the brains coming out.
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I mean, it's really obviously, as soon as you see a person,
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why they died.
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NARRATOR: Now, more technicians draw blood, urine, and eye
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fluid for toxicology testing.
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As she prepares to open the rib cage, Dr. G expects the worst.
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This will be interesting.
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I'm expecting some significant internal injuries, particularly
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since he's dead at the scene.
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I expect upper abdominal trauma, some lacerated liver, lot
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of blood collecting in the abdominal cavity,
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a lot of broken ribs, possibly punctured lungs, and maybe
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some trauma to the heart.
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NARRATOR: But when she finishes opening the chest,
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she finds nothing of the kind.
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DR. G (VOICEOVER): Well, first thing
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I notice when I open him up is there's no blood anywhere.
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And there's no blood in any of his pleural cavities
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where his lungs sit.
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There's no blood around his heart.
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All his organs look pretty good.
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NARRATOR: The man doesn't have so much as a cracked rib.
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So far, there is not a shred of evidence
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as to what killed Luis Ray.
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I'm a bit surprised there's no trauma, really none at all,
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internally.
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I am a bit surprised.
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So far, nothing.
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Still a mystery.
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NARRATOR: There's one last likely place to check, the part
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of the body most likely to sustain
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deadly injury in a car wreck.
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So we're ruling out the chest and abdominal.
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Well, he doesn't have chest and abdomen.
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So it's probably has head.
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I've seen cases where they roll many times,
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they're fine below the neck.
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And then, they've got severe head
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injuries or upper neck injury.
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Maybe the brain got jostled inside the skull
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and we have closed head injuries.
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I get my assistant to open the skull.
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And we take-- and I take the skull cap off.
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And there is no trauma.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G now faces a conundrum.
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A man is found dead in a truck after a high speed
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rollover accident, but inexplicably he
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seems to be unscathed.
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DR. G (VOICEOVER): So now, we've got some problems,
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because I am left with no chest hemorrhage,
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no neck hemorrhage, no abdominal hemorrhage, and no head trauma.
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So no trauma anywhere in this man.
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So what happened to him?
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NARRATOR: The State Highway Patrol
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has waited for daylight to complete
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their own investigation.
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I went back out the next day to see
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if I had missed anything.
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NARRATOR: There should be evidence at the scene
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if there was another vehicle involved
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or some form of foul play.
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But what bothers the trooper is what she doesn't find.
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There were no additional car parts to suggest a collision
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with another vehicle.
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Nor is there rubber on the road, the usual sign of braking
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or swerving to avoid an accident.
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There was no skid marks on the roadway.
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The subject never took evasive action.
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NARRATOR: The officer offers her own working theory.
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I concluded that the subject fell asleep at the wheel
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and he never braked to avoid, you know,
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going onto the bar ditch.
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NARRATOR: But Dr. G has her own ideas.
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Without the braking, it tells me
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that there's something wrong with him that caused
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this accident, whether he fell asleep or he was intoxicated
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or he had some natural disease.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G now has to consider the possibility
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that Luis Rey died of natural causes
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and even that he could've been dead
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before the truck left the road.
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There's a lot of really weird, out there kind
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of things that could happen.
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I just need to do the autopsy to find out.
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NARRATOR: She recalls that among the laundry
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list of superficial wounds was a cut on the forehead.
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And beneath it, a hematoma.
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When I saw the hematoma, or collection of blood
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in his scalp, I knew at least his heart
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was pumping during the accident, that he wasn't dead
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prior to the accident.
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NARRATOR: That is he wasn't dead yet.
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But could an underlying condition
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have triggered the accident and been
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the ultimate cause of death?
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The autopsy continues with Dr. G examining
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and measuring the organs, one of which is in a shocking state.
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That's interesting.
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NARRATOR: On his left kidney is a sizable tumor,
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one that a young man shouldn't have.
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He's got kidney cancer.
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He's got adrenal cell carcinoma of his kidney.
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And it was about two inches, about 5 centimeters, in size.
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That's very unusual for a 24-year-old.
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That's a cancer that you see, well, typically, in men,
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50, 60, 70-year-old men.
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NARRATOR: But kidney cancer is generally a slow killer.
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And Luis had died suddenly.
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Based on the progression of the disease,
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Dr. G rules out the condition as a possible cause
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of the accident.
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There's probably not a good reason for him to become
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unconscious because of that.
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NARRATOR: The next organ she checks reveals
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an even bigger surprise.
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This is a huge heart.
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He has a tremendously enlarged heart, very thickened wall.
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This is [INAUDIBLE].
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It looks like a cardiomyopathy.
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It's a disease of the muscle of the heart, usually--
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probably genetic.
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NARRATOR: The full name of the condition
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is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
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Normally, the walls of the heart are thin and pliable.
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But the muscles surrounding Luis' left ventricle
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is abnormally thick, often reducing the volume of blood
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ejected with each contraction.
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It's a defect that places him at risk
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of severe cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest.
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During a spell of arrhythmia, the heart
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can beat dangerously slow, fast, or a combination of both.
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Eventually, you can die suddenly from it.
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You shouldn't have a heart that weighs 630 grams.
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And it shouldn't have that left ventricle as thick as-- almost
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2 centimeters thick.
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And so he definitely has some problems.
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NARRATOR: Was it a heart attack and not
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a highway wreck that put this young man in the morgue?
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Coming up next, Dr. G confirms that Luis Ray
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was a medical time bomb bound down accident alley.
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Which disease, if any, got to him first?
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This guy was running away from the grim reaper,
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because one of those was eventually gonna get him.
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NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
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Tox is here.
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I'll be right back.
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Hey, Rhonda.
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NARRATOR: At 9 AM, the toxicology
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report of 24-year-old Luis Ray arrives at the morgue.
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With the autopsy complete, Dr. G has surprisingly
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found none of the major trauma typically
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associated with a violent rollover auto accident.
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Now, she's trying to determine which
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of Luis' growing list of natural ailments
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might have ultimately taken his life?
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Perhaps the toxicology report will
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confirm everyone's original hypothesis
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and solve the mystery.
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Thought she would find that the subject
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had been consuming alcohol at the time of the accident.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G scans the report for the line item for alcohol.
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It reads negative.
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But for an illegal substance, the reading is positive.
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It's cocaine.
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And unlike alcohol, whose effects
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depend on its level in the blood, any amount of cocaine
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can be toxic.
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Cocaine is pretty unpredictable.
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You can die with really low levels.
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You could have the same level one week
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and then that same level the following week could kill you.
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NARRATOR: And in the case of Luis Ray,
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cocaine could be particularly dangerous.
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I'll tell you, a guy with a big heart,
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with a cardiomyopathy, the last thing he needs is cocaine.
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Because cocaine is arrhythmogenic
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in and of itself, meaning it could
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precipitate heart arrhythmias.
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The guy's already got a heart that
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could have an arrhythmia at any time and he's taking cocaine.
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It's a shame he didn't notice.
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NARRATOR: There is a strong possibility
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that the cocaine induced an attack of arrhythmia.
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But that attack was probably not fatal.
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I'm gonna be a little suspect that I an-- an arrhythmia--
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sudden arrhythmia probably isn't gonna be his cause of death.
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NARRATOR: Still, even a nonlethal arrhythmia
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could've easily caused Luis to lose
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consciousness behind the wheel.
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A heart condition aggravated by cocaine use.
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Dr. G may have zeroed in on a cause for the accident,
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though not for the death itself.
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But knowing what she knows now, she
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revisits her autopsy findings.
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I go back to the very-- one of the very first things I saw,
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the petechiae.
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NARRATOR: Petechiae is the classic symptom that the victim
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has been choked to death.
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In the course of the rollover accident,
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could Lewis have somehow been strangled?
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At the time they brought the body
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in with my investigative report, they had hinted that his body
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was in a strange position.
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I really had to reconfirm that.
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NARRATOR: Unfortunately, there are
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no photographs of the wreck.
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I would've liked a picture.
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I would've liked to have been there to see it.
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It's not a perfect world.
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I have to take the word of the first responding officer.
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NARRATOR: Fortunately, the trooper
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was very clear on this detail in her final report.
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The memorable aspect of this case
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was actually the position of the subject,
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because I had never worked an accident
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involving a subject coming to rest in that position.
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DR. G (VOICEOVER): His body was very contorted.
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His face was pressed up against a seat.
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Working with the police findings to recreate the exact position
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of the body in the overturned trunk,
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Dr. G finally hits on a potential killer.
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It's something called positional asphyxia.
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Positional is the position of your body.
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And asphyxia means you're not getting enough oxygen.
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And you're not getting enough oxygen, because your body is
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in a position that it can't breathe, whether it's trapped
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and the chest can't expand or it's
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blocking your nose and mouth.
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In this case, I think it's a combination.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G's ruling on the ultimate cause
00:19:33
of death, a form of suffocation called positional asphyxia.
00:19:41
Now, she can see how a deadly succession of natural disease,
00:19:45
poor choices, and a twist of fate
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led directly to Luis Ray's tragic end
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on a lonely stretch of Texas highway.
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Luis used cocaine sometime before climbing into his truck
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and driving home.
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He is unaware that he suffers from a congenital heart
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condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
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The drug helps to trigger the onset of cardiac arrhythmia.
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DR. G (VOICEOVER): His heart starts
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going into abnormal beat, maybe beating too fast.
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It's not enough to kill him, but it's
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enough to maybe temporarily cause
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the blood pressure to go down.
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He doesn't get enough blood to his brain
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and he maybe passes out.
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NARRATOR: Pilotless, the truck drifts across the highway
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and over the shoulder, until he jumps a block of cement.
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It went airborne, completely flipped.
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And those pickups were pretty-- pretty good such trucks.
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And he landed on his roof, upside down.
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And he kind of skidded for about, I'd say,
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50 to 80 yards from when he hit.
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NARRATOR: Although he's not buckled in,
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Luis miraculously survived the crash with no more
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than a few scratches.
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So far, his luck has been extraordinary,
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but it's about to run out.
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He's still unconscious and contorted
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in a position in which his airway was closed
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and his chest constricted from being able to inflate.
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He couldn't get enough oxygen, because he
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no longer could breathe.
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He couldn't expand his chest or get oxygen
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from the position of his mouth.
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And he couldn't move, because he was entrapped in there.
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He dies from that lack of oxygen in that he can't breathe,
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because of the position of his body.
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NARRATOR: Every Saturday in a big city morgue
00:21:54
brings another round of traffic fatalities
00:21:57
from the night before.
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The sheer volume would be numbing, if it were
00:22:01
not for the attendant tragedy.
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But death is never strictly routine,
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as in the mysterious, multi-layered case of Luis Rey.
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Death was knocking on this man's door with his heart,
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with him using cocaine with his heart,
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with his tumor that was gonna get him.
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I mean, the poor guy.
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The fact that he's only 24 and he's already
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got a cancer in his kidneys, he's
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got a horrible cardiomyopathy, he's taking cocaine,
00:22:30
the only thing this man avoided was bad internal injuries.
00:22:35
And then, he gets crushed by his truck.
00:22:36
I mean, this guy was running away from the grim reaper,
00:22:38
because one of those was eventually gonna get him.
00:22:44
NARRATOR: Coming up next, Dr. G investigates
00:22:47
the death of a young man found dead in the Texan desert.
00:22:51
We did get a lot of drug-related
00:22:53
deaths out of Webb County.
00:22:54
And they usually have 15 bullet holes in them.
00:22:58
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:23:17
In Dr. G's morgue, autopsy is biography.
00:23:21
So stab wound.
00:23:22
So we got autopsy on that.
00:23:24
NARRATOR: Each body tells an intriguing story
00:23:26
of a life fully lived or tragically cut short,
00:23:32
of the famous or the unknown.
00:23:35
But they don't use drugs.
00:23:37
NARRATOR: This is one place where everyone
00:23:40
gets the A-list treatment.
00:23:42
DR. G (VOICEOVER): When you're naked and on my slab,
00:23:44
I can't tell what your status in life was.
00:23:47
I don't care what your nationality is.
00:23:49
If you have died in the jurisdiction that I cover for,
00:23:53
we-- we're gonna need to find out why you died.
00:23:56
We-- we're gonna need to find out that foul play did not
00:23:58
come your way.
00:24:06
NARRATOR: In the sun-drenched badlands
00:24:07
of Texas, near the Mexican border,
00:24:11
three young men are on foot.
00:24:13
This area sees more than its share of untimely death.
00:24:17
Indeed, one of the three will not
00:24:19
reach their destination alive.
00:24:23
The following day, a ranch hand is driving down
00:24:26
a lonely stretch of Highway 44.
00:24:30
Suddenly, two men break through the brush and wave him over.
00:24:37
They tell the driver that they have a friend in distress
00:24:42
and lead the man to a nearby deer hunter's blind.
00:24:48
Inside, he makes a grim discovery, the decaying
00:24:53
body of a young man.
00:24:55
As he calls 911, the two men flee into the surrounding bush.
00:25:00
Presumably, they have something to hide from the authorities.
00:25:07
But there is now no one to tell who this man is or how he died,
00:25:12
questions that will now have to be somehow answered in the San
00:25:16
Antonio morgue of Dr. G.
00:25:19
DR. G (VOICEOVER): Got a 20-year-old gentleman
00:25:21
that was found in a deer blind.
00:25:22
He's coming in from a rural county,
00:25:24
Webb County, which is where Laredo is,
00:25:26
which is on the border of Mexico.
00:25:28
We don't know exactly why he's in a deer blind.
00:25:31
Got a bag for you to check out here.
00:25:34
NARRATOR: In the victim's knapsack,
00:25:35
police find a bag of pills identified as dipyrone.
00:25:40
A Mexican-made pain medication, dipyrone
00:25:43
is banned in the United States.
00:25:46
Its use has been linked to sometimes
00:25:47
fatal health complications.
00:25:51
Other than the pills, there isn't much to go on.
00:25:55
His only possessions are pretty much
00:25:56
the clothes on his back and a little bag
00:25:59
of cookies and a wallet in his back pocket with an ID
00:26:06
from Mexico.
00:26:09
NARRATOR: The identification card gives a name and an age.
00:26:12
Benedicto Ramos was just 20 years old.
00:26:16
The hardest part of these, actually,
00:26:18
is trying to get next of kin.
00:26:20
Somebody knows him.
00:26:22
Somebody's got to let his loved ones know that he's dead.
00:26:26
NARRATOR: One fact is certain, the location where the body was
00:26:29
found, Webb County, one of the harshest,
00:26:32
most dangerous counties in Texas north of the Mexican border.
00:26:36
We have a case coming in from Webb County, you're like, oh.
00:26:39
You cringe.
00:26:40
NARRATOR: This is a region funded by so-called mules
00:26:43
and coyotes, those who transport drugs
00:26:46
and illegal immigrants over the border.
00:26:48
We did get a lot of drug-related
00:26:50
deaths out of Webb County.
00:26:52
And they usually have 15 bullet holes in them.
00:26:54
You don't get shot once in Webb County.
00:26:57
You get shot 20 times.
00:27:00
NARRATOR: But this doesn't have the usual look
00:27:02
of a drug-related death.
00:27:05
DR. G (VOICEOVER): A guy using drugs, a guy running drugs,
00:27:07
doesn't carry a bag of cookies with him.
00:27:10
Doesn't-- doesn't mark the soles of his
00:27:13
tennis shoes black so people can't see him at night.
00:27:18
NARRATOR: Dr. G's formal examination now begins.
00:27:22
As always, she first looks for signs of external trauma.
00:27:27
He is a slight man, 5 foot, 7, 145 pounds.
00:27:31
And he's starting to decompose.
00:27:33
He's starting to get a little bit bloated and a little bit
00:27:35
of skin discoloration.
00:27:38
NARRATOR: The decayed condition of the body
00:27:39
makes for a more difficult examination,
00:27:42
also, an unpleasant one.
00:27:45
I don't mind the smell at all.
00:27:47
But I don't like to smell like the guy.
00:27:51
And I have hairspray on my hair, believe it or not.
00:27:53
And I-- it'll really stick.
00:27:57
So I don't want to smell like him.
00:27:59
So we're gonna try to cover up, so
00:28:01
that it doesn't smell as bad--
00:28:02
for me, so I don't smell as bad.
00:28:04
NARRATOR: As the body begins to decompose,
00:28:07
the internal buildup of gases causes the body to swell.
00:28:11
Chemicals are released, which turn
00:28:12
the skin a blue-green color.
00:28:15
And parasites are starting to consume the tissues.
00:28:18
DR. G (VOICEOVER): He was just early,
00:28:19
like, insect activity, little maggots on his neck,
00:28:23
starting to get some greenish discoloration.
00:28:25
Still could see the skin quite well.
00:28:28
Very tense, firm skin.
00:28:29
That's what you see from the bloating.
00:28:30
That gas has formed from the bacteria in the body
00:28:36
and start bloating it.
00:28:39
NARRATOR: The challenge for Dr. G
00:28:40
is to look past the distortion caused by the decomposition
00:28:44
while checking it for wounds or other signs
00:28:46
of a violent demise.
00:28:49
No indication that he's strangled.
00:28:51
His neck looks pretty good.
00:28:52
I don't see any trauma to the anterior neck.
00:28:55
OK.
00:28:56
This is [INAUDIBLE].
00:29:03
So we don't really see--
00:29:04
I don't see any trauma on him.
00:29:06
NARRATOR: The external exam seems
00:29:08
to rule out death by strangulation, shooting,
00:29:12
or other related injuries.
00:29:13
But sometimes, signs of foul play
00:29:16
can only be discovered during the internal exam.
00:29:19
So we're gonna have to look internal,
00:29:21
look on the inside for trauma.
00:29:23
NARRATOR: Did the elicit dipyrone pills found
00:29:25
in his body cause his death?
00:29:27
Or was there some other danger that befell Benedicto Ramos
00:29:31
in the Texas rangeland, that his two companions somehow escaped?
00:29:36
Even though he's relatively young, from what
00:29:38
we can tell, you know, we--
00:29:40
there are things that can happen to you out there.
00:29:42
Get an infection or just even have some kind
00:29:45
of inherent heart disease.
00:29:53
NARRATOR: Coming up next, the autopsy reveals
00:29:55
what happened to Benedicto.
00:30:02
Something that shouldn't have happened to someone of his age.
00:30:05
He's dead right there and he's only 20.
00:30:06
20-year-olds shouldn't die.
00:30:08
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:30:25
Like a blurred photograph, a partly decomposed body
00:30:28
lies in Dr. G's morgue.
00:30:31
She's looking past the effects of decay
00:30:33
to bring the man's moment of death into sharp focus.
00:30:38
Very green.
00:30:42
NARRATOR: The remains of 20-year-old Benedicto Ramos
00:30:45
were recovered from a hunter's blind near the Mexican border.
00:30:50
It's an area known for drug trafficking and
00:30:52
illegal immigrant crossings.
00:30:55
Will opening up the body reveal the elusive cause of death?
00:31:06
The usual Y incision to expose the internal organs
00:31:09
brings a blast of noxious air.
00:31:13
I was opening him and a rush of gas came out.
00:31:16
Could you hold this up for me, Dave?
00:31:20
He's got some decomp fluid in his pleural cavities.
00:31:23
But pretty much everything else is intact, just a little
00:31:25
softer than I'd normally see.
00:31:34
NARRATOR: Each organ is removed and carefully weighed,
00:31:37
cross-sectioned, and evaluated.
00:31:39
DR. G (VOICEOVER): There's just not much you can see.
00:31:41
I don't see evidence of infection.
00:31:43
And I don't see any natural disease.
00:31:46
NARRATOR: She proceeds to the man's head.
00:31:48
The skull cap is removed.
00:31:50
And the brain inside is inspected for possible
00:31:52
bruising, bruising which might've
00:31:54
been caused by a possible blow to the head or a fall.
00:31:59
There's no trauma on him.
00:32:01
Skull's fined.
00:32:02
His brain's very soft, from the decomposition, but no evidence
00:32:05
of internal trauma.
00:32:07
NARRATOR: So far, all her tests have come up negative.
00:32:10
And Dr. G is positively stumped.
00:32:13
He's dead right there and he's only 20.
00:32:15
20-year-olds shouldn't die.
00:32:19
NARRATOR: Her field investigator has, meanwhile,
00:32:21
had better luck.
00:32:23
He's managed to track down the man's next of kin in Mexico.
00:32:27
The story they tell is a familiar one.
00:32:30
Benedicto Ramos was an otherwise law-abiding young man who chose
00:32:35
to enter America illegally.
00:32:37
These are the poor guys coming in for a better life,
00:32:41
trying to come under the radar, trying
00:32:44
to escape authorities just because they don't want
00:32:46
to be caught and sent back.
00:32:48
They just want a job.
00:32:49
They want to live here.
00:32:51
NARRATOR: This could explain why the dead man's two companions
00:32:54
vanished before police arrived.
00:32:56
They didn't want to be deported as illegal immigrants.
00:33:02
It also helps to account for the pills.
00:33:05
Although banned in the US, dipyrone is a legal pain
00:33:08
medication in Mexico.
00:33:10
And according to the toxicology report,
00:33:13
levels found in his blood were not lethal.
00:33:19
Having ruled out foul play, trauma,
00:33:22
drugs, and natural disease, Dr. G
00:33:25
is left with few alternatives.
00:33:29
But given Benedicto's long journey
00:33:31
on foot in the Texas sun, she now has a hunch what it is.
00:33:35
Just the-- the process of being out there in the heat,
00:33:41
trying to get a-- you know, trying to walk.
00:33:45
He either died from heat stroke or dehydration
00:33:48
or a combination of both.
00:33:51
NARRATOR: Dehydration is severe fluid loss
00:33:53
through sweating and urination.
00:33:56
If the water is not replenished, sodium and potassium
00:34:00
rise to toxic levels, resulting in cramping,
00:34:03
nausea, debilitating headaches, and, finally, coma.
00:34:08
But death by dehydration is one of the hardest things
00:34:11
to prove during autopsy, because there
00:34:13
is usually little fluid left in the body for testing purposes.
00:34:21
DR. G: The aorta, pulmonary artery, [INAUDIBLE],,
00:34:24
they're all just filled with air.
00:34:25
I can't get any blood.
00:34:27
On a live person, they can easily draw blood and check
00:34:31
for the sodium, check for the blood urea nitrogen
00:34:35
that go-- that can go up with dehydration.
00:34:38
I can't do that in somebody who's dead,
00:34:40
particularly somebody who's starting to decompose.
00:34:44
NARRATOR: Her only resort is to examine the bladder.
00:34:48
Normally, the organ would have some trace of fluid.
00:34:57
But when she looks inside, she finds it bone dry.
00:35:06
This negative finding is key in Dr. G's investigation.
00:35:11
His bladder is empty, then he's
00:35:13
probably running out of water.
00:35:16
We can kind of put it together.
00:35:18
It's probably dehydration in this case,
00:35:20
because of the temperature of when he's crossing
00:35:23
and the fact is that he's got no urine.
00:35:26
NARRATOR: Dr. G is now confident enough in the evidence
00:35:29
to make a ruling.
00:35:31
And the story of the last days of Benedicto Ramos
00:35:34
can finally be replayed.
00:35:47
Benedicto and his two compadres are among the thousands
00:35:51
of poor Mexicans lured northward by the prosperity
00:35:54
of the United States.
00:35:56
Slipping across the border had been relatively easy.
00:35:59
Getting across the unforgiving frontier on foot,
00:36:02
that was very dangerous, even for a young man in good health.
00:36:07
They're coming across the river
00:36:09
and then they're having to walk through these--
00:36:12
through these ranches.
00:36:13
And these ranches are just hundreds
00:36:14
and thousands of acres.
00:36:19
That rural area right along the border
00:36:21
that they got to get across, it doesn't
00:36:22
take long to get dehydrated.
00:36:25
NARRATOR: Every hour that Benedicto
00:36:26
hikes in the triple digit heat, he sweats off 1 to 2 quarts
00:36:31
of fluid.
00:36:33
All three men are dehydrated.
00:36:35
But Benedicto is the first to experience
00:36:37
full blown symptoms, excessive thirst, dizziness, nausea.
00:36:44
As Benedicto loses strength, the three men
00:36:47
come across a deer blind, the only shelter for many miles.
00:36:51
And they thought that would be a good place to sleep probably.
00:36:54
I mean, it sounds good to me.
00:36:55
Probably helped them up there thinking, if he just rested,
00:36:57
he'd be OK.
00:36:59
NARRATOR: But what seems to be a deep sleep is actually a coma.
00:37:04
The little remaining fluid in his body
00:37:06
is being diverted to his most vital organs.
00:37:09
By the time the other two men wake, Benedicto is dead.
00:37:13
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
00:37:17
They flag down a truck to let somebody know what happened,
00:37:20
a last act of kindness for their compadre.
00:37:23
They have some compassion that their buddy's dead and nobody's
00:37:27
gonna find out for a long time.
00:37:30
NARRATOR: This one victim is a voice for many more.
00:37:33
In the year 2004, there were 330 deaths
00:37:38
from exposure in the borderlands,
00:37:40
despite government efforts to dissuade people
00:37:43
from the deadly crossing.
00:37:45
I have the labels.
00:37:47
NARRATOR: Dr. G's morgue is remote from the inner workings
00:37:50
of government agencies.
00:37:51
What she sees are the personal tragedies, the people
00:37:55
like Benedicto Ramos.
00:37:58
DR. G (VOICEOVER): Is there some way
00:37:59
we can get these guys either not to come across
00:38:02
or to help them come across?
00:38:03
But letting them just individually die like this,
00:38:08
it's just really sad.
00:38:10
And it seems like we can come up with some way to prevent this.
00:38:26
NARRATOR: Coming up next, see what it's like to be one of Dr.
00:38:29
G's medical investigators.
00:38:33
Always wash your hands when you get back with a body.
00:38:35
NARRATOR: When "Dr. G, Medical Examiner" continues.
00:38:51
In Orlando, Florida, when a person dies and the death
00:38:54
is under the jurisdiction of the District Nine
00:38:56
medical examiner's office, the first person
00:38:59
dispatched to the scene is the death investigator.
00:39:02
Got a black male, probably been
00:39:04
dead about three or four days.
00:39:05
NARRATOR: But their work is unlike any TV
00:39:07
drama would portray it.
00:39:10
He is a big dork.
00:39:11
NARRATOR: It's strenuous, tedious,
00:39:14
and can be very unpleasant.
00:39:16
Do I smell Vicks?
00:39:17
You little wussies.
00:39:20
NARRATOR: These are the men, and woman, who makeup Dr. G's
00:39:23
team of Death Investigators.
00:39:28
In the District Nine morgue, there are
00:39:30
eight full time investigators.
00:39:32
Each year, they're involved in at least half
00:39:34
of the 6,000 cases that are handled by the morgue,
00:39:36
about four to five bodies a day.
00:39:38
Just want to let you know, PD's working
00:39:40
a 64-year-old white male.
00:39:42
85-year-old woman that lives by herself in a trailer.
00:39:46
Medical investigators are key to the practice
00:39:50
of forensic pathology.
00:39:52
You have to have somebody else to be helping you.
00:39:54
I need my investigator to be my eyes and ears,
00:39:58
take pictures, and follow up on the information I need.
00:40:01
STEVE HANSON (VOICEOVER): They tell the newspaper people,
00:40:03
you've got to look for the who, what, when, where, how,
00:40:04
and why.
00:40:05
It's the same thing that we're doing.
00:40:07
We're trying to get that information.
00:40:11
NARRATOR: An investigator's number one priority
00:40:13
is to investigate the surroundings and circumstances
00:40:16
of the fatality.
00:40:20
Get out to the scene and first thing
00:40:21
we'll do is check in with the law enforcement official,
00:40:23
be it the patrol officer or the sergeant or the detective.
00:40:27
They'll be able to tell us what the circumstances were,
00:40:29
how the body was discovered.
00:40:31
With most medical examiner's office,
00:40:33
the scene is the jurisdiction of the police.
00:40:37
But the body is our jurisdiction.
00:40:38
They cannot touch the body.
00:40:39
They cannot move the body.
00:40:41
And so they will go there, get the information
00:40:43
of what is known by the police.
00:40:44
And then, we can then examine the body and look for what
00:40:47
kind of trauma there is.
00:40:49
There's no trauma.
00:40:50
He got out of the hospital a month ago.
00:40:51
The manager's the one that called LPD?
00:40:53
Yeah.
00:40:54
DR. G (VOICEOVER): All that information has to be gathered.
00:40:56
Because that helps me figure out why he died.
00:40:59
NARRATOR: An investigator will also record the time of death,
00:41:02
if known, the temperature of the body and air,
00:41:05
as well as the weather.
00:41:07
What they will not do, however, is use any lasers.
00:41:10
Remember, you're talking about two different things now.
00:41:12
We're not CSI.
00:41:13
We're the medical examiner's office.
00:41:15
I guess if we wanted to point to something,
00:41:17
we could use a laser.
00:41:18
But we haven't done that yet.
00:41:29
NARRATOR: Before the body is moved or touched in any way,
00:41:32
an investigator must extensively photograph the body
00:41:35
and its location from multiple angles and distances
00:41:38
to create a permanent visual record of the death scene.
00:41:42
STEVE HANSON (VOICEOVER): What was around the body?
00:41:43
How was the body involved with the scene itself?
00:41:46
Are there factors at the scene that influenced the--
00:41:49
the death?
00:41:50
Are there factors that could've been responsible
00:41:54
for some of the pattern injuries that you're seeing on the body?
00:41:58
NARRATOR: An investigator may take
00:41:59
up to 20 pictures at a scene.
00:42:02
And most investigators now use digital cameras.
00:42:06
Photos are key.
00:42:06
If I've not-- I don't have time--
00:42:08
if I have six bodies in a day, I can't go to six scenes.
00:42:11
And I don't know, oftentimes, how important things are
00:42:15
at the scene until I see the body
00:42:18
and I-- and I examine the body.
00:42:21
Seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
00:42:23
Somebody's got to take that call.
00:42:24
We can't wait til business hours to go pick up a body
00:42:27
and figure out what happened.
00:42:32
Investigations.
00:42:33
Jack speaking.
00:42:34
NARRATOR: But sometimes no matter how much
00:42:36
training or experience, the most difficult challenge
00:42:40
facing the medical investigator can
00:42:42
simply be picking up the phone.
00:42:46
The child is in the backseat?
00:42:51
Been there all day?
00:42:54
Thank you, kind sir.
00:42:58
STEVE HANSON (VOICEOVER): You see this stuff on TV
00:43:00
and you read about it in books and we
00:43:01
deal with it on a daily basis.
00:43:05
And obviously, I've been doing this for a long time,
00:43:08
as well as a lot of the other investigators in our office.
00:43:10
We've learned how to deal with it.
00:43:12
But it's-- it still takes a toll on you.
