NCJ Number
172059
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 42 Issue: 3 Dated: (May 1997) Pages: 519-523
Date Published
1997
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This report describes the means used and the conclusions drawn for an analysis of the mode of a victim's death.
Abstract
Workers at a supermarket in southern California discovered the body of a 27-year-old man at the bottom of the market's sunken loading ramp one morning in early spring of 1990. The local police investigated the scene and determined that the mode of death was due to the rear wheels of an 18-wheel grocery truck when it backed into the ramp for a delivery earlier that morning. The family of the victim filed suit against the supermarket for wrongful death. The authors of this article were hired by the defense to ascertain the mode of the victim's death. They had the police report, scene drawing, and a number of photographs for the analysis. The scene drawing had little use in the reconstruction due to measurement and drawing errors. The police report was written with the erroneous assumption that the truck tires came into direct contact with the victim. The complete autopsy was not performed to confirm the alleged mode of death, although a superficial examination of the body showed a palpable skull with a lateral compression of the head and an abrasion on the upper lip. A careful examination of the photographs of the scene and the victim showed that the victim was dead and in rigor mortis before the truck entered the ramp. The main indicator that the victim was in rigor at the time the grocery truck arrived was that even though the body was pulled directly over the main blood stain, it had to have been arched in rigor to keep most of the pants from becoming bloodied. Of the victim's lower body, only his left knee contacted the blood. The grocery truck arrived and proceeded to back down the ramp. The deceased's bicycle, which must have been lying farther up the ramp, became caught on the truck's undercarriage and was transported down to the victim's location. It was at this point that the truck stopped and apparently drove a short distance forward up the ramp. With the change in direction, the bicycle shifted and a portion of it caught on the back of the victim's jacket. The result was to pull the deceased a short distance up the ramp, with a resulting blood trail. Forward movement was documented not only by the folds in the back of the jacket but also by the deceased's watch. The final movement of the body occurred when the truck again went down the ramp. The bicycle repositioned and released the deceased's jacket at the start of the truck's movement back down the ramp; however, the bicycle remained engaged on the truck's undercarriage, and the bicycle's rear tire wedged onto the concrete surface of the ramp. The spokes of the rear wheel contacted the victim's head and pushed the body as the truck again proceeded down the ramp. The side of the bike's rear tire acted as a squeegee, pushing most of the blood that was initially transported up the ramp with the body down to its original puddle location. The inside of the grocery truck's left rear tire contacted a portion of the blood stain, and the outside left rear tire likely crushed a part of the victim's dark glasses. Distinctive marks in the bloodstain pattern not only document that the body was in rigor during this movement but also shows the body's final movement. 3 figures