Twice, No, Three Times Dead?

by Andrea Campbell

When is a nightmare real? When you die two or more times.

Earlier this year, a Caucasian woman named Pamela Harper was found lying face down and unconscious in an alley behind her brother-in-law’s house at 1322 Hunters Cove Drive in Little Rock. Despite the March night chill, she was wearing a thin gown, light underwear and socks. Her right hand clutched a pair of gray sweat pants. It was 6:30 a.m.

MEMS Arrives
According to Detective M. Nelson’s police report, the patrol officers who arrived on scene said that a Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) was called, and vehicle Unit #503 arrived. Two paramedics named Pat Bajorak and Keith Summerman were the first responders, arriving within twenty minutes at approximately 6:40 a.m. The medics did their work and reported that the victim was deceased. The medics remained on the premises for about an hour altogether according to police officer Ronnie Carr. Carr then notified Sgt. Helton. A couple of other detectives, Sgt. O. Jenkins and Detective Haskins, came out to the scene as well.

Interviews
Officers interviewed Jim Ducket, 71, the subject’s brother-in-law who lived at the address. Ducket said that Pamela Harper had called him a little after 1 o’clock in the morning. Ducket added that he thought she had sounded drunk, and that she said she had to get out of the house. Ducket claims he told Harper that she needed to not leave the house but that she should try to go to sleep. She said, “OK,” and ended the call. The next person police spoke to was the deceased’s husband, Tanny Harper, aged 60, who admitted that he and his wife had been drinking the night before and he thought his wife may have taken some pain pills. But Mr. Harper stated that he didn’t know if she’d left the house, and he reported last seeing her around midnight.

On Scene
Detective Nelson reports that he was urgently summoned from another crime scene to join the others at the Harper scene. Nelson reported that Lt. King said there was more going on with the dead body. Nelson arrived around 8:50 a.m.; Detective Haskins filled him in: the first MEMS unit had put a sheet over Ms. Harper before they left. Officers then went back to the body and when they pulled back the sheet, they noticed Ms. Harper had “goose bumps” on her shoulders and back! They observed that her stomach was moving up and down and that air was being exhaled from her mouth. He wrote in his report that they witnessed her taking about ten breaths over a two-minute period. Apparently, the first MEMS ambulance crew had pronounced her dead mistakenly, misdiagnosed rigor mortis. They immediately sought to cover her up and called the MEMS service again.

Second Ambulance Visit
This time MEMS Unit #408 was dispatched to 1322 Hunters Cove Drive at about 9:10 a.m. In the meantime, officers had spoken to the Pulaski County deputy coroner and described what they saw. The second ambulance crew arrived, immediately started CPR and Paramedic Brandi Johnson hooked Ms. Harper up to a heart monitor. Johnson determined that she couldn’t detect any heart rhythm, decided Harper was dead, and over the phone asked a doctor—Dr. Kennedy at Baptist Emergency—to "declare Harper officially dead.” Johnson was heard saying the victim showed signs of lividity and was cold. Harper's death was now logged in at 9:29 a.m., about three hours since she was first discovered. Before she left, Paramedic Johnson took the time to explain to the detective that what she believed he had observed was air leaving Ms. Harper’s lungs after death. The MEMS unit left the scene once again.

Notification
Officer Nelson notified his superior and called Deputy Coroner Patrick McElroy to tell him what had transpired and ask him to respond to the scene. Around 10 that morning, McElroy showed up with Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper and another deputy coroner, Gerone Hobbs. Soon all of them observed Ms. Harper breathe again. She was covered in a blanket and MEMS Unit #133 arrived at 10:27 a.m.; and this time they were advised to take the victim to Baptist Hospital right away. They left around 10:53 a.m., according to the police report.

So let’s get this straight: about three and a half hours after she was first found in the 40-degree March temperature, she was pronounced dead several times and left to chill (literally).

Unfortunately, Ms. Harper died two days later at Little Rock’s Baptist Health Medical Center.

The Official Medical Ruling
Autopsy results determined the death was a suicide as the result of an intentional overdose of the narcotic painkiller Darvocet and alcohol. Hypothermia was a contributing factor in her demise.

The Aftermath
MEMS administrators accepted responsibility for the mistake, but Executive Director Jon Swanson, along with Medical Director Chuck Mason, said that once the two separate crews believed that 52-year-old Pamela Harper was dead, they followed the correct protocols and made decisions accordingly. They also felt that the coroner had portrayed the incident unfairly by criticizing the agency and its employees. Coroner Camper put in his report that paramedics should have followed a hypothermia protocol. Swanson disagreed, saying that paramedics should have done “Pulseless Electrical Activity” had they known Harper was alive. “I don’t know where he got his medical training,” said Mason, a physician and specialist in emergency medicine, said of Camper. “But it wasn’t medical school.”

Some other critical comments were bounced back and forth such as: the questionable age of the medic, a reluctance to share information, how likely the victim was to die, and, apparently, animosity was fully lobbied in both directions. The end result is that MEMS issued an apology for the mistakes and the Harper family did not reply to reporters' requests for comments.

“This is nothing to be proud of,” Swanson said. “We have done a thorough, honest and self-criticizing assessment of our performance. The responsibility is ours for the mistakes we made.”

Coroner Camper said he was confident in his report’s accuracy. “It is what it is,” the coroner said. “It’s as right as I could get it. I gave them the benefit of everything we address in the report.”

In Hindsight

MEMS is revising its training and protocols, in particular, Protocol 803 “Withholding/Withdrawal of Life Support.” The new policy adds four criteria for determining whether a person is “obviously dead”: No breathing through an open airway for 30 seconds, no pulse for 30 seconds, no heart sounds for 60 seconds and fixed and dilated pupils with “no neurological response to painful stimuli,” such as a pinch of the skin.

Other Cautions

There is also this: “Caution: Signs of death may be misleading.” Examples given in the manual are that a burn victim may appear dead and that poor hygiene can simulate decomposition.

And that pesky hypothermia? It “may simulate death, and resuscitation should be attempted if time of exposure to cold environment or water has been less than one hour or is unknown.”

According to news reports, Swanson said MEMS gets more than 6,000 calls a month and transports 4,000 people to hospitals. “Maybe only 1 or 2 or 3 percent of our calls are truly to render lifesaving service, to perform in life-threatening situations,” Swanson said. “We know we don’t get a second chance.”

Told that it would seem that ambulance crews got a second and then a third chance in Harper’s case, Swanson sighed deeply and thought about what to say next. "We acknowledge the duty that we have to do the best we can with each patient every time," he said after a pause. "This is an outcome that we regret. Which is why it is so important for us to learn what we can from it, to use it to better offer treatment and care to the people we will serve in the future.”

Source: MEMS criticizes coroner’s report on death Responders Erred in Overdose Case but Findings Unfair to Then, Officials Say by Jacob Quinn Sanders Arkansas Democrat Gazette, June 23, 2010.

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Scene of the Crime: LAPD's Most Famous Exhibit

by Cathy Scott

Los Angeles Police Department authorities recently put on a show--the LAPD's Homicide Exhibit at the California Homicide Investigators Association conference in Las Vegas. And the community came out in droves to view the two-day "Famous Crime Scenes Exhibit."

It offered a unique behind-the-scenes look at the evidence police gather at crime scenes. Police cases ran the gamut from robberies, murders, serial killings, bank hold-ups, high-speed pursuits and hostage situations.

LAPD Homicide Detective Dennis Kilcoyne explained the reasoning behind making an exhibit and taking it on the road.

"Homicide investigators very rarely invite people under the crime scene tape and into the murder scene; this may be as close as some will ever get," he said, to seeing the scene as a detective would.

And so it was for the thousands who stood in line for up to an hour and a half to get in. The evidence of L.A.’s gritty past was more than sobering.

A respectful silence fell over the room as viewers quietly filed in, one by one, during the tour. They looked at evidence, photos, videos, get-away cars, weapons, documents, and autopsy photos. Included was evidence from the Black Dahlia case and Hollywood mob-era contract hits, all on loan from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and LAPD’s evidence vaults.

It showed evidence from the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, who in 1994 was killed after she was repeatedly and brutally stabbed, along with Ron Goldman, in the courtyard of her Brentwood townhouse courtyard. It was almost chilling to see the bloody leather gloves, displayed behind glass, that were made infamous when suspect O.J. Simpson tried on the gloves in court and struggled to get them over his hands.

There were a bullet-riddled police car and similarly ventilated

suspect get-away auto from the notorious North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout.

But perhaps most grisly were evidence and photos from the ritualistic killing at a Benedict Canyon mansion where Charles Manson’s followers murdered five people, included pregnant including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, in the summer of 1969.

Still, it was the Robert F. Kennedy assassination display that seemed to stop people in their tracks. On display was the revolver used to cut down Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel on a June night in 1968.

I toured the site of the killing not long before the historic Ambassador Hotel was razed in 2005 so a public school could be built in its place.

Linda Deutsch, longtime special court correspondent for The Associated Press, led the media tour to some of Los Angeles's more notorious crime scenes. We were taken inside the hotel to the upstairs ballroom where the presidential candidate gave a short speech. We walked the path Kennedy took from the ballroom to the kitchen’s pantry area, where he was gunned down at point-blank range.

The Kennedy evidence exhibit led to controversy. Robert Kennedy’s son protested when he learned it included the torn and bloody shirt, tie and jacket his father was wearing when he was assassinated. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy expressed outrage that his father’s clothing was transported across state lines, from California to Nevada, to be publicly exhibited in Las Vegas.

Maxwell Kennedy said he was particularly bothered that his family was denied possession of those items when they requested them. The younger Kennedy's protests made national news that night, after the first day the public was allowed to see it. The next morning, people waited in a line that wrapped around the interior of the Palms casino, where the exhibit was set up in a conference room.

"My request was refused by the district attorney's office," Maxwell Taylor Kennedy told the media. "The District Attorney promised, though, to keep the personal items with care and out of public view."

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck issued a public statement and an apology: "The last thing we want to do is to traumatize a victim's family, and I am very sensitive to that. But at the same time, we want to preserve the history of the city of Los Angeles and improve the quality and understanding about our homicide investigations."

The LAPD pulled the shirt, tie and jacket from the exhibit after the first day.

Based on the response from a member of the Kennedy clan, it is doubtful the displays will go on tour again anytime soon, making the exhibit in Las Vegas a one-time-only viewing.

Photos by Cathy Scott

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Documenting the Crime Scene with A Sketch

by Andrea Campbell

After the first responder cordons off and protects a crime scene, the next step is a documentation of record that lays out the room and the evidence. Reports can be made in many different manners; for example, an investigator can record audio of the scene, take extensive notes, shoot photos or video, and map out the scene. 

Today we are going to talk about sketching.

Investigators need to document all observations of the scene. A sketch will help them to recall locale and evidence. They may make a rather informal first sketch, using any drawing tools, such as pencils, pens, even colored pencils. It probably won’t help to use chalk or charcoal because they smudge unless preserved with a setting spray. This is not a good idea at the scene, since other elements may be sprayed there.

Sketch after the scene has been photographed. This ensures nothing has been moved, kicked or otherwise disturbed. While a “rough” sketch will be difficult for some budding artists, rough is all you need in the beginning. If it's used in a court of law, it can be cleaned up. So go with messy and crude but accurate.

Sketches help clarify what is where in a photograph. A sketch may offer a different perspective, such as a top-down bird's-eye view, an elevation or side view, or a three-dimensional view. Oftentimes an exploded or larger view can accompany any perspective; this view may be a close-up or cross-sectional view of the scene.

What should you document? The physical artifacts, such as furniture, tables, lamps, and so forth, similar to a blueprint; the precise location of weapons, evidence, and the body; even a traffic pattern. Investigators may use this documentation to help with interviews, jog someone’s memory, establish a permanent record of the scene or location, and assist when writing a report. In jury trials, sketches can help answer various questions and aid witnesses, lawyers and judges. If the perpetrator or suspect visited several areas of the house, for example, going from bedroom to bathroom or into the kitchen, the sketch will help to recreate the series of events. With accident scenes, sketches may display distances for a better understanding of the sequence of events. 

*Note: Don’t forget to reference on your crime scene drawing where you were standing.

A final sketch can be made using templates or a computer. It should indicate distances; most art uses a scale of one inch to one foot to ease understanding. The sketch needs a label of the crime, such as Private Residence and Homicide. It needs the name of victim,  location, date and time, case number assigned, and the initials or name of the person who drew it. As with any good map, include a legend so the reader can learn some facts without having to ask. Besides the scale, indicate direction if possible -- north, south, east, west. Try to indicate which way doors open, potentially important elements later on. If you use symbols to represent something, such as a square for a seat or a triangle for an end table, make that known. You may code key elements with the alphabet for clarity. Itemize specific evidence, artifacts and elements. The couch might be where the body was found, making it item “A” or, in a numbered system, “1”. Don’t include clutter that's not relevant. A pile of clothes may not mean anything -- unless it has blood on it. Label a table of measurements with the disclaimer “All measurements are approximate.”

Remember that a bird’s-eye view won’t show the height of items at the scene. If the gun was on top of a cabinet, only an elevation view with measurements will indicate that. A 3-D crime scene is usually the function of a computer rendering, created by a software program.

If the distance markers were established or made by someone else, make note of that for credibility. It's better to anticipate a question than try to answer one if you get blindsided in court.

The National Crime and Investigation Training website has an example of a sketch. See: http://www.ncit.com/Tips Tricks/Sketching/sketching.html

The Crime Scene Sketch has a pdf file of key facts to remember along with tips. (Search Crime Scene Sketch):
http://www.bcps.org/offices/science/secondary/forensic/Crimescene%20Sketch.pdf

Another extremely detailed pdf file, complete with CAD drawing examples and notes on triangulation of measurements, can be picked up here:

http://www.authentegrity.com/download/CrimeScene Diagramming.pdf

One particularly delightful website, created by retired forensic investigator Thomas F. Hanratty, includes crime scene sketches from all Sherlock Holmes cases.

See: http://redbirdstudio.com/CrimeScenes/

An absolutely beautiful rendition, including some top-notch software examples, can be found at: http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/crimelabs/physicalEvidenceHB/Ch4_CrimeSceneSketch.pdf

A commercial site that sells the Smart Draw program: http://www.smartdraw.com/resources/how-to/Crime-Scene-Diagrams

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