Ask a former Autopsy Tech Anything

reply to post by greeneyedleo


I read somewhere that the the old school murder scene/crime scene investigators didn't actually need qualifications to be on the job? that is was all pretty much picked up on the job. Is that correct? Those links you posted were pretty interesting, they left me wondering just what the true figure of either crimes going unpunished because of sloppy csi/autopsy work or worse still how many truly innocent people have either been put to death or otherwise died in prison for crimes they didn't commit? I suspect the true figures would make very depressing reading.

To the OP, Was there a lot of political (or other) pressure with any particular cases to get them solved quick or to make sure you found evidence pointing to a certain suspect?

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

I read somewhere that the the old school murder scene/crime scene investigators didn't actually need qualifications to be on the job? that is was all pretty much picked up on the job. Is that correct? Those links you posted were pretty interesting, they left me wondering just what the true figure of either crimes going unpunished because of sloppy csi/autopsy work or worse still how many truly innocent people have either been put to death or otherwise died in prison for crimes they didn't commit? I suspect the true figures would make very depressing reading.

To the OP, Was there a lot of political (or other) pressure with any particular cases to get them solved quick or to make sure you found evidence pointing to a certain suspect?

Well my requirements were knowledge of human anatomy. Able to lift mor than 50 lbs. experience with dead bodies a plus. I also had a forensic background in a toxicology lab prior to body removal.

But they just don't hire anyone.

It took me 5 years to get in.

Everything is on the job training for everyone.

Including the pathologists.

The seasoned techs teach the incoming pathologists how to perform one

Originally posted by Hecate666
....... However it is never spoken about what the technicians are really faced with.
So if you don't mind, could you shed some light on that?


Sorry but TBH these questions keep coming up in my mind and it would be great to get an answer.
Why?
Because I am sooo nosey.

We were faced with decomposing bodies, people murdered in the most brutal ways. Car accidents, plane accidents. Illegal immigrants crossing the boarder. Indians from reservations. (they die like crazy).
OD's every day. Every day.


Decapitations. Burn victims.

Anything.

Everything.

I guess you kinda harden to working on kids and babies.

Lol, That satanist one was funny. What a tit.

15 Mins! Wow, that's much quicker than I thought they'd take, I was thinking more like hours.

Months for blood tests is pretty bad, I'd guess the case needs to be suspicious to get stuff back in 24 hours?

Pipe bomb! Was there much left after that?

Does normal soap and water get rid of the decomp smell?

What did the suspected serial killer die from?

When you say you had a gut feeling about some victims was it because of their wounds or places they were found or because they were all similar kinds of people or just instinct?

The wearing a helmet thing makes sense. Why stay away from Zoloft and similar SSRI's? Do they cause obvious physical changes in the body? or even early death?

Thanks for answering all these questions btw.

Originally posted by Anon77
I guess you kinda harden to working on kids and babies.

Lol, That satanist one was funny. What a tit.

15 Mins! Wow, that's much quicker than I thought they'd take, I was thinking more like hours.

Months for blood tests is pretty bad, I'd guess the case needs to be suspicious to get stuff back in 24 hours?

Pipe bomb! Was there much left after that?

Does normal soap and water get rid of the decomp smell?

What did the suspected serial killer die from?

When you say you had a gut feeling about some victims was it because of their wounds or places they were found or because they were all similar kinds of people or just instinct?

The wearing a helmet thing makes sense. Why stay away from Zoloft and similar SSRI's? Do they cause obvious physical changes in the body? or even early death?

Thanks for answering all these questions btw.

The kids were just the same as anyone else. They are a shell of what they used to be.

You couldn't really think "kid". Just , " let's do this."

It just took me 15 minutes to cut. But from start to finish and depending on the Doc.

1 - 5 hours.

The pipe bomb blew his arms off and he had a giant hole in his chest and abdomen.

Just a regular shower will take it off. I think it's more in our noses than actually on our skin.

The suspected killer was shot.

I had a "gut" for exactly those reasons.

Zoloft seemed to be prevalent in a lot of suicides.

Just seemed Zoloft pushed it that far.

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

To the OP, Was there a lot of political (or other) pressure with any particular cases to get them solved quick or to make sure you found evidence pointing to a certain suspect?

Not on my part.

I did see some shady things though.

Have you ever dealt with any exhumations? Did the job make you think about the way you might die? Did you ever see a ghost or 'felt' that someone/something was there? Do you believe in an afterlife? Is it true that the rubber body bags are cleaned and re-used? Have you ever worked any high profile/widely publicized cases? Did the police ever attend/watch any of the autopsies? If you don't mind me asking, what is the pay for a job like that? I've heard that it's possible that dead bodies can sometimes twitch or make a noise, is that true? How exact can you be about the time of death of someone? How often could no obvious cause of death be determined? was it part of your job to remove pacemakers/false joints etc before the body went onto a funeral home? Was the job stressful? Thanks again for answering all these questions.

I see your previous answer about shady things, any examples of that sort of stuff?

Originally posted by Anon77
Have you ever dealt with any exhumations? Did the job make you think about the way you might die? Did you ever see a ghost or 'felt' that someone/something was there? Do you believe in an afterlife? Is it true that the rubber body bags are cleaned and re-used? Have you ever worked any high profile/widely publicized cases? Did the police ever attend/watch any of the autopsies? If you don't mind me asking, what is the pay for a job like that? I've heard that it's possible that dead bodies can sometimes twitch or make a noise, is that true? How exact can you be about the time of death of someone? How often could no obvious cause of death be determined? was it part of your job to remove pacemakers/false joints etc before the body went onto a funeral home? Was the job stressful? Thanks again for answering all these questions.

I see your previous answer about shady things, any examples of that sort of stuff?

edit on 8/4/12 by Anon77 because: (no reason given)

A couple of exhumed cases.

One I recall that came all the way from Argentina.

He smelled like frozen pizza.

Thoughts of the way I might die was there.

But more than anything, thoughts if survival and living a fuller life.

Ghosts?

Yup.

Just doors opening. Crypts moving on there own. They were on a elevator type.
X-ray machine switch flipping on.

I believe in the after life.

The only time we re-used the bags were during 9/11.

We sent our supply up to New York, thinking it was worse than it was.

High profile?

Yes. Google "Cody Posey"

Police only attended when it was a homicide.

I never saw a body move.

Bodies do burp and fart and moan. It's air.

Although, I may have cut a live person.

Pay is ok. It depends where you work.

I get paid more now just watching people sleep.

Yeah, I removed pacemakers, joints, penis implants, breast implants artificial eyes.

It depends on the temperature. You can go south pretty quick in the desert.

So it's hard to determine time of death in those cases.

But we would go by when the person was last seen alive and the like.

To help narrow it down.

It was rare that we couldn't find a cause of death.

Shady stuff?

So many.

Drugs being taken from the evidence room.

Lying cops.

I saw a whole chest plate thrown in the trash.

I saw a missle get "lost".

reply to post by Frankenchrist


Argentina! How come they brought him all the way back to the US? Smelt like frozen pizza, really? Speaking of smells is it true cyanide victims smell of bitter almonds? Have you dealt with many deliberate poisoning cases? The ghosts stuff you said is really interesting. Did that not kinda freak you out a bit? Did you see any ghosts? if you did were any of them recognizable as the people you'd worked on? Did you ever work on anyone you knew or were related too? I read about the Cody Posey case, Did you believe his story of the abuse and stuff? Kinda amazing that he got only 5 years in prison for 3 murders, I'll bet the victims remaining family weren't to pleased with that. Did you work on all 3 victims? penis implants. woah! stuff being taken from evidence! By cops? or other employees in your place? Did the missing stuff ever have an effect on the cases in court? like maybe miscarriages of justice? Not surprised about the lying cops bit. You gotta excuse my ignorance here but what do you mean by 'chest plate' and 'missle'?

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by Frankenchrist

 

Argentina! How come they brought him all the way back to the US? Smelt like frozen pizza, really? Speaking of smells is it true cyanide victims smell of bitter almonds? Have you dealt with many deliberate poisoning cases? The ghosts stuff you said is really interesting.

Did that not kinda freak you out a bit? Did you see any ghosts? if you did were any of them recognizable as the people you'd worked on? Did you ever work on anyone you knew or were related too? I read about the Cody Posey case, Did you believe his story of the abuse and stuff? Kinda amazing that he got only 5 years in prison for 3 murders, I'll bet the victims remaining family weren't to pleased with that. Did you work on all 3 victims? penis implants.

woah! stuff being taken from evidence! By cops? or other employees in your place? Did the missing stuff ever have an effect on the cases in court? like maybe miscarriages of justice? Not surprised about the lying cops bit. You gotta excuse my ignorance here but what do you mean by 'chest plate' and 'missle'?

Yup. Argentina.

He was an American tourist.

He fell out of his hotel balconey.

They buried him. They shouldn't have.

His family brought him back.

He also had what looked like cat litter all over him.

One cyanide case. The pathologist is the one who smelled almonds.

When I got weirded out was when I was dropping a body off at 2 in the morning and I was alone.

I heard someone walking down the hall, but there was nobody there.

I didn't see any "spirits". Just heard noises and saw things move.

Nobody I recognized.

Although people I knew came through.

The Cody Posey case.

I worked on his step-mom.

From what I hear from inside sources. He'll prolly kill again.

I never saw a cop take anything from our evidence room.

Just saw a brick of weed get smaller and smaller.

Just about everyone there smoked weed.

I do know heroin was taken once by a tech.

Nothing on my side that I saw that ruined a case.

But lies from police that made a police shooting look justified.

"missle" = bullet

"chest plate" = front part if the rib cage. Sturnum.

I never worked on anyone I knew.

In those cases.

We were sent home.

When I was doing body removal.

If I hadn't asked for the night off, I would have picked up my cousin.

Fate. I guess.

reply to post by Frankenchrist



Cat litter! Was it stuck to him? Wooo your description of the footsteps in the hall sent a chill down my spine. Don't think I'd want to work there if stuff like that happened often. God damn! lies allowing police to get away with murder basically! I'm guessing you weren't really in a position that allowed you to say something? What did your colleagues say about stuff like that? I mean who ya gonna complain to, the cops!? How on earth did they explain a sternum and bullet going missing? Was the sternum lost because it had a bullet hole in it? Did you have any particularly strange colleagues? Have you ever seen the body worlds exhibition or heard of the Dr Gunther Von Hagens?

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by Frankenchrist

 

Cat litter! Was it stuck to him? Wooo your description of the footsteps in the hall sent a chill down my spine. Don't think I'd want to work there if stuff like that happened often. God damn! lies allowing police to get away with murder basically! I'm guessing you weren't really in a position that allowed you to say something? What did your colleagues say about stuff like that? I mean who ya gonna complain to, the cops!? How on earth did they explain a sternum and bullet going missing? Was the sternum lost because it had a bullet hole in it? Did you have any particularly strange colleagues? Have you ever seen the body worlds exhibition or heard of the Dr Gunther Von Hagens?

The cat litter was poured all over him. My guess is to contain odour.

We would just shrug it off when ghost like things would happen.

Photos of the crime scene just didn't jive with the police side of it.

How can one "lunge" at police while still strapped in their seat belt?

Stuff like that.

Well, as to being in a position to say something to someone? I guess I coulda said something.

But when you are part of a special club, you want to be in that club forever.

I'm not saying I was siding with the police. Far from it.

I just wish the people above me could put 2 and 2 together.

Just like anyplace of business, we had good employees and bad ones.

Or IMHO. One employee.

No one had to explain the missing plate. It wasnt a homicide case. So it was just whatever. It was not discussed.

The missle was more like " what is this? Where is it from? did you see this? I didn't. "

But in that case. It was a tech who found it and was too lazy to document.

I have seen that exhibit. It's cool.

Frankenchrist thank-you very much for a really interesting conversation. (think I've run out of questions for the moment) Excellent thread. If I could give you more than 1 flag and 1 star I would.

Originally posted by Anon77
Frankenchrist thank-you very much for a really interesting conversation. (think I've run out of questions for the moment) Excellent thread. If I could give you more than 1 flag and 1 star I would.

You're welcome.

reply to post by Frankenchrist


I used to do what you did for 8 years, and it sounds like the same state and location. I can relate to what you've said. Drop me a line if you are still on this post. It's difficult to find others who understand...

Originally posted by aquanel
reply to post by Frankenchrist

 

I used to do what you did for 8 years, and it sounds like the same state and location. I can relate to what you've said. Drop me a line if you are still on this post. It's difficult to find others who understand...

Yup. It sure is. My time there was 2003 to 2008.

Did we work together?

Originally posted by aquanel
reply to post by Frankenchrist

 

I used to do what you did for 8 years, and it sounds like the same state and location. I can relate to what you've said. Drop me a line if you are still on this post. It's difficult to find others who understand...

Yup. It sure is. My time there was 2003 to 2008.

Did we work together?

Hey,

Thanks for responding! My time there was 1995 - 1998, before this, did only bones from 1991 - 1993, then donors from 1998 - 2001. So I don't think we know each other. What led me to this blog was that I occasionally do a I-net search for ptsd and the work we used to do. And to my surprise, when I was led to this site, I read you first writing, and I swore it was me who wrote it - I actually had to think for a few minutes before proceeding. It was like someone took the thoughts out of my head and put them on here. No one else could do this except for another who worked there! I'd be more than happy to meet up one day, and see if we can help each other out with what we seem to both be experiencing "after the fact." Just 2 nights ago, I was watching random tv crap, and there was a quick scene of a person in a hospital being rolled on a gurney through the hallway. The body had all the typical surgery stuff on it and had a tube sticking out its mouth. Just the mere fact I saw this sent me into an immediate ptsd-type reaction. I never know when or why this happens, but it does and is very strange. As with you, I really enjoyed the work every single day, loved the intensity of it, etc...but am left with this unforeseeable issue...There is simply nothing out there (that I can find anyway) about this subject and how it affects those that did it. I made a total career change in 2001 after this. I was very close to going to medical school to be "on the other side of the table," from the techs.

Good day to you.


reply to post by Frankenchrist