We barely have gotten our daughter in the ground and you want to suggest we dig her up again to do what, cut her body up one more time?"
"No sir. I want to be able to see the bruising, to see if there are fist or foot marks on her body. The school is claiming maybe she fell down a staircase after a drinking party. I don't think you want your daughter to have the kind of reputation the school is creating for her, do you sir?"
"What? What the hell are they talking about? My daughter never, ever touched alcohol and never went to any parties where it was being used and abused. It was dangerous from her point of view. If they are saying those things about her by God I want to know the name of the person saying those things so I can personally beat the crap out of him or her."
Jeanne, ever efficient, had gone to the County Attorney's Office and had a set of exhumation documents prepared on the off chance the parents might agree to the disinterment of their daughter. George said to Jeanne, "Did you bring any papers with you which would allow you to have our daughter be taken from her grave?"
"Yes sir, I did in the hope you might agree it needed to be done."
"Give them to me. I will sign them right now. Those sons of bitches at the school are not going to get away with blaming my daughter for this situation." He went to a desk, read the documents quickly and signed them. When he had done so he handed them back to Jeanne and said, "Go find my daughter's murderer Ms. de Leon. Find him, put him in prison, do whatever you need to do. But please don't involve us in this process unless it is absolutely a necessity. Please! My wife is so distraught I fear for her. She does not need another moment of someone reminding her that Marilyn is gone."
Jeanne, knowing she had been dismissed by Mr. Cummings, left their home right away and went directly to the Superior Court in Phoenix. She had told a Deputy County Attorney she might be back with the documents and he had a judge waiting to sign them. The judge, a graduate of A.S.U. law school, had little respect for the Scalian University. He thought they were a bunch of religious fanatics whose "conservative values" were closer to those of the regime of Adolf Hitler than any other leader in history. When Jeanne arrived with the documents there was little conversation. In chambers the judge looked at everything and signed the exhumation order to be carried out within the next three days.
he heard the news...
she had died…
he didn't care ...
it made him smile...
he had picked out another...
it was only a matter of timing...
this time he would kill her...
it would be fun, a new thing...
but not until he had fucked her...
then he could beat her...
then he could kill her...
All these thoughts passed through his mind as he looked at the butt of the girl seated in front of him in the lecture hall. They were both preparing to become law students after graduation from Scalian. She looked sumptuous from behind. He thought about how it would feel to jam himself inside her as he had done so many times with others in the past and he attained an erection for a fleeting moment. It didn't last. It never did until he was in the moment of actually raping one of these bitches he looked at all the time. Yes, she might be the one. He decided to follow her, to see where she lived, whether it was on or off campus, see if she had any roommates, or a boyfriend. He kept a distance. He remained unobtrusive. She knew who he was anyway since they had spoken to each other. She didn't suspect anything was amiss with him.
It took him a while to get all the information he needed for this new exploit. It took him a while to decide what form of device he would use to kill her. It would be lurid, a big deal on the news probably, but he didn't care. There was never any evidence left behind. He was very careful in that respect. His law enforcement classes had made that possible. He knew what he must do to protect himself from discovery.
But this, murder or at least the death of one of his rape victims, was another matter, he thought. He had never studied the law concerning murder because he had never intended to be a murderer. But that all changed with the death of Marilyn Cummings, yes it did.
she lived in a small house...
the neighborhood was dark...
he would be able to park nearby...
yes, yes, it could be done...
he would use the plastic bag...
he would see her eyes that way...
Chapter 3-
The Disinterment and Autopsy
The day after Jeanne received the court order for disinterment of Marilyn Cummings' body she contacted the Maricopa County Coroner's Office. She needed to determine whether they would do an autopsy or whether it would have to be done by an independent source. The MCCO was the place chosen. One of the new docs, a woman, fresh from having passed her boards for both pathology and forensic pathology, was assigned the case. Dr. Samantha (call me Sam) Reynoso drew the case.
Sam had originally grown up in Tucson, Arizona She also had attended the University of Arizona for undergraduate studies and medical school. She worked, as an intern, in the University of Arizona Hospital, renowned for its trauma units all over the world. But it was in the University Hospital oncology unit that included its own renowned pathology lab where Sam began to learn how people live and die. Her internship in pathology led to a residency with the Forensic Center of Tucson, the place where autopsies were performed on all questioned deaths in Tucson. The Forensic Center also did autopsies for more than half the rest of the counties in the state on contract basis.
Upon completion of her residency Sam took a job working as both a pathology assistant and a forensic pathology assistant in the Maricopa County Coroner's Office. She passed her board certifications only a matter of weeks prior to being assigned to the case of Marilyn Cummings.
Detective Jeanne de Leon supervised the unearthing of Marilyn's grave. She saw to it that it was done with great care and concern for the coffin as well as the concrete crypt in which it had been encased. When the coffin was taken from the ground it was taken by hearse from a local mortuary to the Coroner's office. As it happened the driver of the hearse was a proud graduate of the Scalian University and maintained a friendship with the son of the V.P. James Preston. As the driver took the body to the office of the Coroner and having seen and heard some rumors about the situation already, he called Preston's office and left the message that an additional autopsy would be being performed on the Cummings girl. The message came to Manny Freeman just about the time Marilyn's body was delivered to a special autopsy suite set up just for one autopsy. The suite had a large fan to withdraw any odor of decay. It also had a special microphone set up which was voice activated to record the findings Sam made as she performed the tasks required to complete the autopsy.
The body was brought into the building still located in its coffin. Every step of the process from the first piece of sod lifted by the backhoe was photographed. The coffin had remained intact during the disinterment. It was photographed completely from all angles before any of the screws holding the lid down were removed. Then it was photographed again and once more when the screws and then the lid were removed. Her parents had arranged for the mortuary to dress her in one of her favorite outfits. She appeared without any mold or obvious decay on her skin in the areas that could be seen. She was lifted from the coffin and placed on a gurney. The gurney was then wheeled into the autopsy suite where she was photographed again from all angles, still fully clothed and then again as each item of clothing was removed from her body.
Despite the best work of the person who had prepped her for burial bruises on her forehead and the other bony structured areas of her face had begun to show. In addition, the prep man had done nothing to straighten the obviously broken nose. Sam, after photographing her carefully, began to narrate her initial observations of the bruising and the broken nose. On the left side of Marilyn's face in the area of her cheekbone there was what could only be described as the mark of a fist. That too was
carefully photographed, outlined with a marker and photographed again as Sam described its nature.
Jeanne, who had asked to be able to attend the autopsy, asked the doc, "Is it possible this bruise would not have been seen by the first autopsy doc?"
Sam shook her head and said "I cannot give you a definitive answer Jeanne. Bruises can take several days to develop. This one may not have been fully developed when the first autopsy was done. All I can say is the obvious shape of a fist may not have been as clear as it is now."
"Why would it be unclear doc?"
"The bruising may have started to appear but not all of the shape of the bruise formed when the first autopsy was done. It is the best I can tell you Jeanne. Now let's get her clothes off."They rolled her over. The clothes, as always had been cut all the way up the body to make it easier to dress the young girl. As they peeled her clothes off her back side they began to see a whole host of bruises on her back, on her buttocks, in the area of her hamstring muscles on her legs. The bruising was simply everywhere on her back side. It looked like someone had taken an object and beaten her for a long time.
Photographs were made repeatedly of each area of the body which showed bruising. Almost every area of her body had some bruising. And in the middle of her body, on her stomach, on her upper legs, the bruising was horrendous. There were fist marks on her face, it was very evident that her nose was broken, there were fist marks on her chest and stomach area. Her rib cage on both sides of her body appeared as one huge black and blue mark.
Samantha examined each area carefully for any hair or other foreign substance which might have been left by the assailant. But there was nothing. There being no hair or other evidence was due in part to the cleansing of her body by the autopsy team at the hospital. At the hospital they washed her thoroughly before doing the autopsy and again afterward to take away the little bit of blood that could be found on her exterior.
Samantha looked carefully at the area around her anus and the exterior vaginal area. The anal area had some minimal bruising. The vaginal area on the outer lips looked like it had been scraped with a rasp. The inner lips were badly bruised and had several tears and what Sam described as rips in the tissue. There was still blood deep in the opening. But there was no semen nor residue of any semen. As Sam looked at the injuries to Marilyn's vagina Jeanne asked, "What does it look like to you doc?"
Sam interrupted her description of the tearing and bruising to say to Jeanne, "This girl was forcibly raped by a man with a relatively large penis. The bruising in all these sensitive tissues and the tearing of the lips, both outer and inner lips, clearly shows how forcible entry occurred. There is no semen or residue of semen present so he probably wore a condom. The wearing of a condom would indicate a planned event. This man is dangerous and is no doubt already a serial rapist. You need to catch this guy Jeanne. He may well begin to kill all his victims after this one. He is extremely violent."
Sam then went on to roll Marilyn again and observe the vagina and anal areas from the opposite side, photographing as she went. She and Jeanne knew none of the photos of the girl's genitals would be usable in court but they would be usable to help establish the nature of the crime. After finishing the inspection of Marilyn's genital area Sam said to Jeanne, "It is likely that he entered her from behind. The tearing is much more significant in areas where the indication would be forcible entry from the rear, and it includes bruising around the anus."
Sam also asked Jeanne, after rolling Marilyn over, "Do you want me to look at her interior, to repeat the Y incision."
Jeanne had considered this topic carefully before going to the autopsy. She said in return, "Yes, I do. I know the organs will be gone and you cannot learn anything from them. But I want to see all the ribs. I want to see if they removed the rib that was broken at the hospital. I want to see the skin from the inside out and the condition of the ribs vis-a-vis bleeding as a result of the beating this girl took."
Sam agreed those things were necessary and cut straight through the incisions previously sewn up at the hospital. It was evident right away the hospital personnel had not removed the ribs and much to the surprise of Jeanne and Sam, Marilyn's lungs were still in her body.
"What the hell were they thinking?" It was an open question that Sam asked herself both silently and verbally. The lungs had received a substantial amount of the embalming fluid in that process and were still fairly well preserved. When Sam removed the lungs and pleural sacs it was easily understandable why Marilyn had died. There was still a substantial amount of blood packed into the pleural sacs and much of it was located around where the heart would have been.
In the first autopsy the skin had not been pulled back, slowly separated from the rib cages. The docs in the hospital had seen that the heart was stopped and they could see that the blood in the pleural sacs and around the interior of the heart area had caused it to stop by simply not giving it any space in which to beat, the classic form of tamponade. Those docs had received their orders from the administration of the hospital. The orders came in the form of Manny's direction as to findings so there was no need for them to do more.
Sam, very slowly and carefully, peeled the skin away from the ribs. As she did so she began to fold the skin backward toward the sides of Marilyn's poor violated body. As the skin came away from the ribs it became more evident just how severely Marilyn had been beaten by the rapist. There was blood everywhere on the exterior of the rib cages. There were a number of ribs which were cracked and one on the left side which was broken just enough to impinge into an area where it caused a compressed bleeding by an artery. Photographs were taken of all these injuries as well. They might not be useful in a criminal case but most certainly they would be in a civil case if one were brought by Marilyn's parents. And by virtue of the examination it was clear the cause of Marilyn's death was attributable to the beating she suffered at the hands of the rapist.
his plan was working...
she was getting ready for bed...
he knew how to enter the house...
the rest would be as before...
When Sam finished the autopsy she shook her head. Jeanne had obtained a copy of the autopsy done at the hospital. Sam looked at it for a few minutes and shook her head again. She said to Jeanne, "Either these people were totally incompetent as forensic pathologists and committed a gross act of medical malpractice or they had orders from their administration to fake the results and hope the parents would not discover the truth. Tell me what the entire sequence of events was as best you can Jeanne."
Jeanne related the entire sequence of events as she understood it from Sherry and from the little she could glean out of the officer's reports from the Campus Police. When she was finished once again Sam shook her head. Then she said, "You know this didn't have to happen, this girl did not have to die. If they had taken the cuffs off her at any point during the time after she was handcuffed she might have been able to cradle her ribs in a way which would have cut down the interior bleeding to some degree. But with the handcuffs on her she had no way to help herself and the wound remained relatively open where the rib impinged on the artery. Had the rib not stayed in place against the artery she would have died quite quickly in point of fact. But this did not have to happen."
Jeanne asked, "What do you mean in terms of the finding of cause of death?"
"Oh there is absolutely no doubt whatever the cause of death is homicide and the manner of death is blunt force trauma. She did not fall down a stairway. If she had fallen anywhere, she would have significant injuries to the back or sides of her head and there are none of those. She does have some scrape marks on the sides of her head. The scrape marks are more indicative of blows which glanced or slid along her head than they are indicative of her falling and hitting a hard surface with the sides of her head. In addition, there is no injury whatever to the back of her head but for a large wad of hair being missing. It is likely her hair was pulled out as the rapist did his foul deed with her,
holding her by the hair."
"How is it possible to reconcile these two autopsy reports Sam?"
"It isn't Jeanne. But if I were her parents I would be talking to a lawyer just as soon as I got the results. The results will be prepared and signed by tomorrow. You will be entitled to a copy of course since you are the lead detective in this case and I would not be surprised if a copy of your copy made it to the hands of the parents of this girl by tomorrow afternoon. I will also tell you this Jeanne, I intend to file a complaint with the medical board of the State of Arizona. I am going to try and get the licenses of those two docs that worked on this girl revoked. If I cannot get their licenses revoked I might at least be able to make sure they don't practice medicine for a time and have to pay a fine."
"Thank you Sam," Jeanne said, "I will be sure to tell her parents what you have said."
the lock pick worked...
he entered the house in dark...
she was already asleep...
he put the bag on her head...
he pinched her nose, she awoke...
he said roll over, she did...
he tied her hands with twist ties...
he pulled down her panties...
he pulled her bottom upward...
he shoved himself into her...she cried...
he finished...
he rolled her onto her back...
she died as he watched her eyes...
what a thrill...
it gave him another erection...
he covered himself again...
he did her again as a stiff...
it was even better than before...
he did not beat her...
he didn't feel the need to beat her...
no one had seen him enter...
no one saw him leave...
he needed a name...
the campus rapist was inadequate...
The Ghost Page 5
