So today and yesterday have been interesting for me. Yesterday, Sunday, during the evening Ed and I were called out to Morton Lake, which is near Grandpa Westling's ranch, to a case in which a man had drowned. I can’t talk about the specifics as to how this event occurred but I can say that this was interesting for me because of how things were done. We were called to be there while Search and Rescue had three boats in the water; two running sonar looking for the body, and the other with 4 divers who would go down to search the bottom for the deceased. The search efforts were called off that first night due to darkness. This happened earlier than I expected until I remembered that 20 ft down it gets dark fast!
That next morning we were up at 5am and after loading our vehicles with supplies for the day, we were headed back to Morton Lake. We hooked up to our trailer that is set up to be IC (Incident Command) Center at the scene. Our trailer was blocked in a bit by a dump truck so in this picture you can see Ed, our fearless Dump truck mover :) Erin and Mark were up at 4am to buy supplies and get things ready for the day. Together we drove out to the scene and had divers in the water at around 8am. The man's body was found around 10am.
Now this incident got me thinking as to how the water would affect a body. There are lots of factors that play a role in the rate of decomposition of a body. The temperature of the water will slow down the process, the size of the individual, climate, and so many other different factors. It is a known fact that that during decomposition a body gives off methane which builds up within the body cavity. This gas is not released and it causes the body to eventually float, even if the body has been weighted down by cinder blocks. At least this is what one man at the scene told me. The only question is how long will it take for enough methane to built up to overcome the weight of the body and make the body float to the surface. Another potential problem, in this case at least, was an area where the rock cliff was cut out. This created an underwater cavity where the body, once filled with methane, could have floated up to and gotten caught, so that it would never float to the surface. I wonder if anyone has done tests and kept records of how all these different factors involving water drownings affect human bodies, like the tests they do at the Body Farm in Tennessee?
One event interesting thing happened to me while I was at this scene. I ran into a man on the scene Saturday who came up to me, and before I said anything, asked, “So are you are Dave’s daughter?”. I was not expecting this and answered "yes" with a puzzled look on my face. I then asked him, “And how do you know that?” He smiled and said, “Oh, I’m Speed”. Speed is one of my Grandfather’s best friends so I immediately was able to put two and two together. I laughed and asked him why my Grandpa wasn’t on the scene today and he told me that he had just left having coffee with my Grandpa, who was now on his way to get his car fixed in town. Evidently my Grandpa had told Speed that I would be there with the Coroner so he has inside information, and did not just miraculously remember me from some past event when I was a child. He did impress me though, at least until I got to the bottom of how he knew who I was.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I was sent to take pictures of the scene looking for evidence and I discovered my first piece of evidence. This boggled minds when we were able to identify that the man who drowned may have been pushed into the lake by someone else. What is interesting is that the perpetrator initialed the site, glorifying the crime for his own personal edification. I am only showing you this information because we are for anyone who might recognize this individual for who he is, so we can perform a thorough interrogation. The picture below shows you the evidence that we found 
Beware we don’t know how dangerous this individual is or where his location may be. Obviously, he is not completely right in the mind as he left his initials at the site before leaving the scene. Instead of trying to hide his involvement in this crime, he seems to have advertised it, almost as if the culprit wanted to be caught. Dad, do you recognize them??
No comments:
Post a Comment