Murder in the Alley

Chapter Six: M.E. Office

The body of the lodger as he was called was brought in and placed in the morgue waiting to be autopsied. The police gave Sandy the bag which carried his personal effects. She shook her head and sighed, saying to the dead man, “Not sure why you were murdered but we are definitely going to find out what happened.” Quickly going over the notes from the crime scene, she notes that in the bag was his wallet. Spying his driver’s license, she got his full name: Mr. Leonard Sessions. He was 45 years old and not in bad shape. Inside his wallet, she found money in the amount of $1,000.00. His credit cards were also intact. Also contained in the plastic evidence bag were a cellular phone-the latest model Samsung S-series and an awfully expensive coat. Prior to moving on, she attempted to take fingerprints off the coat, wallet, driver’s license, credit card, and cellular phone. She would match them with the fingerprints if any were on the corpse. The process was slow and painstaking as she wanted to not miss any piece of evidence. Following that Sandy pulled out all the pictures taken at the crime scene. From the first entry where they secured the scene to the preliminary search once Officer Vitale was on the scene. Then the pictures he took prior to the rest of the forensics teams’ arrival on the scene.

The parking lot is the first picture followed by the parking lot drive on the way to parking by the front door. There are three of those at different points in the drive. Funny enough Mr. Sessions' door is in one of the photos. He is right in the parking lot. The next set of photos are all different angles of the front door into the hotel lobby. Following that set is the hotel lobby itself from every angle imaginable. The photographer was thorough. He even got several from behind the front desk itself including the state of the front desk. Then they have pictures of the hallway and then back outside to the hotel room. The door pictured is free from fingerprint dust, so she taped that to her board. Then the hotel room itself has photographed all the way around, in closets, bathrooms, draws, and underneath the bed as well as on the top of the bed. Since none of those photographs have any markers, she also taped those to the board. “Aha, I got them” exclaims Sandy. These photographs have the markers with the blood, stains and other items found.

Each of these photographs she attached to the board with tape and then went through the evidence bag going through and assessing each one. First was the bloodstain found on the bed. She walked to the black bag and unzipped it to bring out the blood vials in plastic evidence bags. She matched the bag with the number marked on the back of the photograph. And so, it went all the way until the last blood evidence bag which was inside the bathroom. She found out a woman who was menstruating lived there as well and had for some time. The blood found in what was the baby crib was not of the baby or the mother but of someone else entirely. She made a note to type match it to CODIS. Once all the blood evidence was completed a picture of the people who lived in the room began to take shape. Apparently, three people two adults and one child were there all the time. There was one who was female as she was menstruating. The male was Mr. Sessions, but she did not know the sex of the baby yet. The unknown blood was still a mystery. Searching for the ledger given to Officer Vitale by the hotel management she went to see if anything popped out. Only one name popped out of the list. She appeared every day around 8:00 a.m. seven days of the week. This may have been the unknown blood sample. Making a note, she decided to talk to Steve about it later. Once all the preliminary investigatory information was gone through Sandy was ready to begin the autopsy.

Sandy spoke into the microphone and said, “Autopsy on decedent begins at 2:00 p.m.…”  all the way until she spoke the words, “Autopsy completed.” She took pictures of Mr. Sessions’ body. Specifically, she was looking for bruises, cuts, any identifying marks, birthmarks, tattoos, tooth fillings, fake knees pins, pacemakers…anything that might have a serial number on it to help identify the body. She also took an impression of his teeth to identify his body. While running all that gathered information through and imputing it to the computer, tagging and attaching to the corresponding case files, she got interrupted.

“Hi Sandy. It is Steve. Did you develop the film?”  She said “I’m waiting for it back. As soon as it comes in, I will give you a call Steve. Since I have you though, I have a question. When you questioned those in the area did, they notice anyone?” Steve thought for a while before he responded, “I do not remember off the top of my head but the next day after all the restaurants closed one saw a car back there. We found what we believe to be his car. It is in the impound lot. You can look it over when you are ready.”  Sandy said, “Okay. I ask because some of those preliminary photographs have an unknown person in the hotel room. The only name that corresponds is a woman who came to the hotel every day at 8:00 a.m. and did not leave until 6:30 p.m. I believe that the blood I cannot identify is from that person. It would help me out if you could track her down.”  After telling her he would and talking about their respective mornings including the up-and-coming ball at the Robert Treat Hotel, they ended their conversation and Sandy got back to work.

She continued with her examination and autopsy for the lodger as she designated the decedent. First, she took his clothes and tagged and bagged them. He was wearing a pair of pants and a button white shirt with no tie. He had a suit jacket on with the pants. All had designer labels in them but were well worn. Before bagging, she checked for tears, blood, secretions, hair anything that had been left on the body that might have fallen onto the clothes. Whatever she found she noted on her recording.

She had her co-worker Lulu help her finish her autopsy. They went through everything. The first thing they looked for was the bullet entry and exit wound. Lulu found it. Straight across the chest, it punched a hole through the chest. Ripped clear through his chest, through his entire heart, and ripped outside the other side of his chest. It lodged in his upper arm. Sandy pulled out the bullet. Putting the bullet under the microscope to see if she could read the serial number Lulu could not. Frustrated she tried again and saw faint etchings in the remainder of the impacted bullet. “Aha” yelling to Sandy, “I found the serial number. It is 1.37749. I will follow up on it with the database after we finish here.”  Sandy nodded her head and then she checked his fingernails and hands. What caught her attention in her examination was not the lack of evidence, but it was the lack of evidence from where he was found. He fell and it was near an alley that had not been cleaned in weeks. She expected to find more dirt or something underneath. Come to think of it, she expected also to find even a hint of gasoline because a gas tanker recently lost all its contents near that alley. The police officers and hazmat shut down the area for weeks. No one was happy that year. One business had to close its doors during the whole shut down as they were already behind in their rent and other bills. No one thought much about the spill, but Sandy figured even if it was cleaned up, why not some trace of it. Pressure cleaning. Then later checked his legs, feet around his neck, and face. Isn’t it funny that a man gets shot but no fight seems to have been ensured beforehand or did? He stumbled out of the alley according to an eyewitness statement. Even the homeless person did not see much of a fight. He heard an argument. But he was also drinking and listening to a radio broadcast of a baseball game. It was his favorite team the New York Yankees. Sandy ran his blood work and checked toxicology. The decedent’s blood was normal for a man of his age and did not show any signs of alcohol, drug use, or other dangerous or narcotic substance in his body. Why would he be shot? “Well Mr. Sessions,” said Sandy, “Now the hard work begins. Now we use what you gave us to solve your murder. What can you tell me now?”