Fatal Vision or Fatal Justice - The Case of Jeffrey MacDonald

Ana Walshe, a property manager for Tishman Speyer, goes missing January 1, 2023. She is reported missing by her employer and by her husband Brian Walshe. Her husband is arrested on January 8th and charged with misleading the police investigation. Police then obtained a search warrant to the couple’s home where in the basement they find a damaged and bloody knife. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the timeline of Ana’s disappearance, the bloody knife found in the basement, the logistics of dismembering a body, looking at suspects deviating from their behavior, and much more.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Background and overview of the case 2:45 - The disappearance timeline 4:20 - Bloody knife in the basement 7:20 -  Evidence found from blood 10:40 - The husband and tracking his moves 14:20 - Hacksaw 15:20 - Dismembering a body 18:45 - Determining the search radius for a missing body 23:00 - Suspects deviating from their regular behaviors 26:20 - Investigators relying on intuition 28:20 - Death threats 29:45 - OutroSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7 Feb 202330min

On the evening of February 16th, 2022 Jared Bridegan is dropping off his daughter at his ex-wife’s home. On the drive over he has to stop because there’s a tire in the middle of the road and he cannot go around it. He steps out of the car to go and move it whereupon he is shot multiple times. Henry Tenon has been charged with Bridegan’s murder. His only known connection to Bridegan is that he is a former tenant of a property owned by Bridegan’s ex-wifes current husband. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the longevity and complexity of this case, the logistics of the shooting itself, the charges against the suspect, the evidence found from the tire and shell casings, and much more.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Background and overview of the case 3:25 - The logistics of the shooting 6:25 - Charges against the suspect 10:00 - Tenon’s truck  11:15 - Evidence from the tire 13:15 - Car rims and fingerprints 15:40 - Planning and pre-meditation 20:20 - The choke point and Florida climate  24:55 - Shell casings 30:15 - Video surveillance and tracking down the owner of the blue truck 32:45 - The longevity and complexity of this case 35:00 - OutroSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

31 Jan 202334min

South Carolina lawyer, Alex Murdaugh, is currently facing trial for the murder of his wife and son. Due to the gruesome nature of the crime, people have begun to look extensively into the family’s history and background and in doing that have found connections with them and other deaths that had been initially ruled as accidents or deaths from natural causes. However, upon further investigation it seems that there may be something much darker at play.  In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and special guest co-host  Dave Mack discuss the Murdaugh family history and background, the various victims of this family, the injuries each of them sustained, how you marry anecdotal evidence with physical evidence, and much more.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 2:30 - Background and overview of case 6:50 - The 911 call 9:50 - Victims were shot with different weapons 11:40 - Injuries sustained by Paul 15:05 - Differences ammunition makes in injuries 19:10 - Gloria Satterfield 21:20 - What happened the day that Gloria Satterfield died? 25:00 - Tying together anecdotal evidence and physical evidence 28:20 - Steven Smith 31:20 - Steven’s injuries 35:30 - Using a car as a weapon 37:00 - How are the Murdaugh’s connected to Steven’s death? 38:30 - Mallory Beach 42:45 - How Mallory’s death shined a light on the Murdaugh family 44:35 - OutroSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Jan 202345min

Sasha Krause, a Mennonite school teacher in New Mexico, goes missing on January 18th, 2020. About a month later a camper goes out to Sunset Crater Visitor Center, an area 20 miles outside of Flagstaff Arizona, to gather firewood and stumbles upon a body near her campsite. After an autopsy, they identify this body as Sasha Krause. Another month later, Mark Gooch, a U.S. Air Force member is arrested for her murder. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the significance of how the victim’s body was found, the clothing that was missing, the temperature, and the connection between the victim and the suspect.    Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 1:25 - Background and overview of case 4:50 - Where did the investigators start? 7:40 - Setting up a timeline 9:30 - Discovering Sasha Krause’s body 10:50 - Processing the crime scene 12:35 - Drag marks 17:15 - Body position + temperature 24:30 - Finding a suspect: Mark Gooch 27:25 - Putting the evidence together  28:45 - Significance of missing clothing and lack of DNA evidence 30:50 - Fingerprints 34:05 - Gooch makes an effort to hide his movements from that night 37:10 - Wrap upSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Jan 202338min

Four University of Idaho students are brutally murdered in their home in Moscow, Idaho on November 13th, 2022. Police suspect that the murder took place between 3am-4 and their bodies are discovered by a friend that same morning around noon. Investigators believe that the murder weapon was a knife of some sort. More leads have been uncovered by police and investigators in the past weeks and the hunt is still on for a primary suspect. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard continue discussing the details of this unfolding case following the 19 page affidavit detailing evidence collected so far. Joe and Jackie discuss moving evidence as big as a mattress, the KA-BAR knife sheath and matching up knife inflicted wounds, history of KA-BAR knives, and more. Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 1:45 - Reopening the details of this case - 19-page affidavit dropped over the weekend. 2:30 - Multiple forms of evidence have been recovered including but not limited to  DNA, Cell Phone, CCTV Footage, Footprints, and the Knife Sheath. 4:00 -  What is Touch DNA? 7:32 - Has Blood evidence been found? 9:50 - What volume of DNA is needed to match a suspect from the evidence collected so far? 12:35 - Differentiation in wounds on the victim's bodies. 16:55 - Examining the mattresses that the bodies were found on, what they can reveal to a forensic expert. 21:45 - Proper handling of a piece of evidence as big as a person's mattress. 27:04 -  How do you match up wounds on a victim to a knife that may have been used to inflict those injuries? A KA-BAR knife sheath was found discarded on one of the victim's beds. 31:47 -  Before an Autopsy is conducted you perform an AP and a Lateral X-ray. 35:20 - History of the KA-BAR name and model. 37:07 - A footprint was discovered outside the surviving roommate's door. Investigators matched up the print to a Van skate shoe. 40:39 -  footprints can tell you about how a person walks, what part of the foot they walk on, and the persons gait. 42:00 - OutroSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 Jan 202342min

When Joseph Scott Morgan was on his first date with his wife Kim she asked him what he did for a living. When he responded by telling her that he worked for the Medical Examiner, essentially the coroner, examining dead bodies and performing autopsies, she looked at him with a puzzled expression… We all have aspects of our lives that are unusual, whether it’s our family, our habits, or our jobs. But when we do these things every day, they become so normal to us that we don’t even question them anymore.  In this special episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard go into depth on the touchstone of forensic death investigation: autopsies. They discuss what an autopsy is, who can order one, the different kinds, and how Joe ended up in this unique profession.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 2:07 - What is an autopsy? 4:10 - Who determines when an autopsy is done? Why would you not do one? 7:40 - Can an autopsy be done even if the family doesn’t want it? 9:58 - Gloria Satterfield’s cause of death 12:45 - Are there different kinds of autopsies? 17:55 - Joe’s experience in the autopsy room 18:56 - What is a full autopsy and how long does it take?  26:50 - Can certain autopsies be prioritized? 30:22 - Is an autopsy considered surgery? 34:05 - How did Joseph Scott end up working in a morgue? 38:50 - Seeing bodies in all different kinds of states 41:40 - How does Joe’s family deal with his line of work? 43:45 - Joe’s take on his career 45:21 - Wrap upSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 Jan 202345min

In April of 2019, police are investigating the death of a man named Phillip Pointer, who’s believed to have died of natural causes. When searching his property to confirm this, they stumble across a bucket, inside which they find a severed human foot. Little did they know that this foot would contain answers to a case police had been investigating for three years. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the difficulties of tracking body parts found in different locations, identifying a body, phenotyping, and more.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 1:25 - Background and overview of the case 2:48 - What the police found at the scene 5:00 - What do investigators do to determine if there are any more remains on the property? 8:50 - Figuring out who the foot belongs to 10:50 - Is there a database that tracks body parts and when they are found? 12:55 - Connecting the dots 17:00 - What was the purpose behind the crime? 18:25 - Cause of death and how it was determined 22:45 - Identifying the body parts 26:50 - Identifying tattoos 29:20 - Different types of identification 32:38 - Phenotyping 35:50 - Identifying the victimSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Des 202236min

On March 7, 2019 a man is driving down the road with his children in Las Vegas Valley when they notice a car with a rock thrown through its window. They call the police, and upon further inspection, a body is found in the trunk of the car with blood everywhere. The man is identified to be Dr. Thomas Burchard, a beloved child psychiatrist from Salinas, California. In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the blood patterns, the evidence found inside the car, how many pieces of evidence are gathered from a crime scene, where Dr. Burchard was in his final days, and more.   Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 2:25 - Background and overview of the case 5:12 - Blood patterns 7:15 - Determining the cause of death from blood patterns 12:10 - Gloves found inside the car 16:15 - Arson investigation 18:30 - How many pieces of evidence can be generated from a crime scene? 21:40 - The state the body is found in 25:40 - Tampering with the crime scene 27:30 - How did investigators figure out the victim had been beaten? 33:28 - Discovering where Dr. Burchard was during his final 3 days of life 37:00 - Investigators start to piece together the evidence 39:12 - Transfers of blood, swears, and wipes 42:38 - Wrap up See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Des 202243min