Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!
Chapter 342 - 218: Death Conjecture, Blood Association (Two-in-One)_2

Chapter 342: Chapter 218: Death Conjecture, Blood Association (Two-in-One)_2

Hearing this, envy was the only thing left in the eyes of the two female patrol officers.

Their responses were relatively slow; they hadn’t kept up with several NW expansions, and the assessment requirements for staff without special skills were high, so most ordinary patrol officers weren’t qualified and could only envy others.

...

Tom, this doggy-paddler, was quite unreliable.

He floundered over to the female corpse, struggled for a long while, and ended up gasping for breath, barely avoiding drowning in the swimming pool while clutching the female corpse.

He was indeed quite feeble.

Tom also came to understand what Brian meant at that moment.

FK.

Something felt wrong to the touch!

That the female corpse could still float on the surface, dragging him, covered in technology, was enough to look at, but to touch it was cold and felt no different from silicone.

Seeing this, Brian helplessly threw a rubber inflatable duck from the shore.

With the help of the little duck, Tom managed to bring the female corpse back.

And with them, a nightgown came back too.

Generally, nobody goes into the water dressed in a nightgown, which suggested that the female victim, very likely, had been in a state of merely wearing a nightgown when she unexpectedly fell into the water.

They laid the female corpse at the shore.

Brian pressed his palm on the firm soft flesh exaggeratedly sticking up from the corpse and analyzed, "Her lungs have accumulated water, but not much. There are no signs of blood in her mouth and nose, which suggests that she didn’t struggle much when she entered the water. She might have already been unconscious."

The symptoms of drowning are quite distinct.

This is asphyxial death. In fresh corpses, the whole body’s blood doesn’t coagulate; internal organs show congestion, and there are hemorrhagic spots in the eyelid conjunctiva, mucosa, and serosa, among others.

Apart from these symptoms, most drowning victims can be identified by white or red semi-spherical foam around the mouth and nose, similar to the symptoms seen in pesticide ingestion deaths.

This is because water choking the respiratory tract stimulates copious secretion of protein-containing fluid from the trachea and bronchial mucosa, which then mixes with the liquid in which the victim drowns.

As for the red foam, it indicates that the small vessels in the victim’s bronchial mucosa or alveolar walls ruptured and bled during the process.

These are distinct characteristics of death by drowning.

In rivers or oceans, additional symptoms are evident, like struggle marks, silt between the nails, and water in the lungs.

The most accurate way of identifying drowning is by examining the condition of the lungs.

If there’s water, it means the victim was alive when they entered the water and choked on water before dying.

If there’s no water, it implies post-mortem immersion.

Actually, determining the time of death for bodies found in water is most challenging.

This is usually determined based on the symptoms on the victim’s body surface.

For instance, if the drowning victim had been in the water slightly longer, the body would appear a pale pink color.

This is because the oxyhemoglobin in the blood, under low temperatures, doesn’t easily release oxygen and the water can slightly permeate the skin vessels and combine with hemoglobin, hence light red livor.

During this process, the corpse’s skin also undergoes some changes in properties, including wrinkling, swelling, whitening, etc.; some areas of skin and the outermost layer might even gradually peel off, creating an eerie sight resembling what’s known as drowning hands or feet.

The female corpse in question displayed this condition.

Her lungs had not much accumulated water, her body showed a slight reddish tint, and the hair follicles on the sides of her chest, abdomen, buttocks, upper arms, and outer thighs showed a goosebump-like elevation. The outer layers of skin on her hands and feet were softened and whitened without peeling.

Considering the weather in Los Angeles...

Brian deduced that the female corpse had been thrown into the swimming pool unconscious and had been submerged for over twelve hours.

Tom shook off the water droplets on his body, "Brian, are you saying the victim was unconscious when thrown into the pool and drowned?"

Brian shook his head:

"You might be right, but the victim didn’t die from drowning. She did choke on water, but it wasn’t fatal. Her condition doesn’t resemble typical drowning patterns.

I noticed very small points of hemorrhage in the victim’s eyes.

This symptom is odd, more commonly seen in victims of hanging or falling deaths, which happens due to capillary rupture in the eyes from the blood flowing backward.

I can’t understand why it would appear on this corpse."

As he spoke, he glanced at the surrounding buildings.

Actually, bungee jumping can also cause similar conditions, but the female victim’s body didn’t have those dense clusters of small red spots, obviously not matching that category.

Neither were there any signs of strangulation around her neck.

Falling or jumping into the water might be a possibility.

But the problem is, this villa doesn’t have a suitable place for diving. The swimming pool is plain, without a diving board. Why then does the female corpse show such a condition?

...

Faced with Brian’s explanation, Tom, a former investigator frequently dealing with bodies, could understand Brian’s point, but the two female patrol officers were completely baffled.

They couldn’t grasp what Brian was saying and could only handcuff the African-American middle-aged agent who had already gotten up and cowered in a corner wiping his tears.

Brian was gentle; otherwise, this guy would have been half-dead.

Tom offered his speculation:

"Brian, could it be like this?

The female victim and the murderer were having an argument on that balcony up there, and then she was pushed off by the murderer. Her head hit the water causing the capillary burst in the eyes.

The murderer probably thought the victim would drown in the pool and just walked away. What they didn’t expect was the technology on her body that caused her to remain floating on the water surface, thereby not drowning."

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