Stay ConnectedJoin Joseph Scott Morgan every week as he explores a world that not many have had a chance to visit, the realm of death. Jo Scott will lead listeners on a journey through the blood soaked death scenes of America and then into the autopsy room to fully understand the science behind each case. Jo Scott is one America’s leading experts on applied forensics and is regularly featured on ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’, ‘The Piketon Massacre’, Court TV and more.
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Anjette and Ben Lyles are a young married couple with two children. Ben is a WW2 veteran and together he and Anjette work in his family restaurant in Macon, Georgia. When Ben sells the restaurant for below market value to settle a gambling debt, Anjette is furious. A few months after selling the restaurant, Ben gets very sick, very fast, and dies without doctors figuring out what killed him. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the death of Ben Lyles as well as Anjette's new husband, Buddy Gabbert, Anjette's first mother-in-law, Julia Lyles, and Anjette's daughter, Marcia. Joe explains how Anjette Lyles got away with murder, at first, and what led to her ultimate arrest, conviction, and death sentence.
Transcript Highlights
00:00.21 Introduction
02:09.23 Eating at Hospital cafeteria
05:02.11 Ben Lyles sells restaurant to settle gambling debt, Anjette is furious
06:45.30 Ben Lyles dies, doctors don't know why
09:21.66 Diagnosis by symptoms
14:43.53 Ben's mother worked at Restaurant
18:26.54 Anjette buys the restaurant
20:01.78 Anjette marries Buddy Gabbert
25:07.03 Doctors not looking for arsenic
30:08.42 Symptoms were miserable, Buddy dies
35:32.05 Anjette seen lighting black candle and talking to it
40:00.01 Coroner's Inquest
44:51.91 Coroner gets anonymous letter about Anjette using arsenic ant poison to kill
50:09.65 One month after Marcia dies, Anjette is arrested, charged with murder
51:25.26 Sentenced to death. Sentence commuted to life in prison
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Joseph Scott Morgan gives a "Live" presentation of what happened at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho the night four students were murdered. Breaking down the forensic evidence that exists as well as items that have been destroyed, including the crime scene and all of this on stage in front of a live audience at CrimeCon UK 2025
Transcribe Highlights
00:01.36 Introduction
04:06.06 Blood seen on back of house
08:00.55 KA-BAR Knife
11:48.76 Event took between 6 and 12 minutes
15:19.56 Moscow, Idaho, small town
20:00.53 House is complex
25:11.72 Kohberger car cleaning
30:08.31 Kohberger watching Joe Scott
35:44.67 House torn down
38:17.26 Conclusion
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Imagine a very large, very old, decomissioned sewage tank buried underneath the grounds of a long since demolished home for unwed mothers that may contain the remains of nearly 800 babies and small children. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the story of the "Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home" in Tuam, Ireland....providing shelter for young women from 1925 until it closed in 1961. Nearly 800 children died at the facility run by Nuns but there are only one or two actual burial records, the rest may have been tossed into an old septic tank buried on the property and turned into a mass unmarked grave. Professor Morgan explains how the tank would have been tested, the condition of the remains, and the daunting task to identify and properly bury the children who were tossed away like rubbish.
Transcribe Highlights
00:05.83 Introduction "Bon Secours" means "Safe Harbor"
03:23.12 Homes for "single mothers"
05:00.85 Historian research indicates nearly 800 babies died, only one burial record
09:59.19 Death certificates were found
14:43.31 Bones sticking up from ground
20:12.78 Description of septic type system used at the time
25:09.84 Opening on top referred to as a "Thief Hatch"
30:07.44 The nuns are not the only ones responsible
35:02.15 Using methane probes in very small area
40:04.25 Permission has been give for full excavation
44:36.01 Need help with DNA and identifying the remains. Conclusion
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At 3:42 a.m. on February 17, 1970, Green Beret Doctor Jeffrey MacDonald makes an emergency phone call from his base housing at 544 Castle Drive at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The dispatcher hears the faint message, a call for help, "Stabbing! Hurry!" Inside the residence, MacDonald's wife, Colette, 26, and five months pregnant, lies dead on the floor of the master bedroom, their daughters, Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2, are found dead in their respective beds. Jeffrey MacDonald suffered minor injuries, compared to his wife and daughters. MacDonald claims 4 hippies, 3 men and a woman, came into his home, killed his family and knocked him unconscious. MacDonald says the woman with long blond hair was wearing a white floppy hat and holding a candle while chanting "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs." The case has been turned into books, movies, articles, and lawsuits. MacDonald was convicted for the murder of his wife and daughters and sentenced to life in prison. Jeffrey MacDonald claims he was wrongly convicted and has never wavered from his claims that hippies murdered his wife and daughters. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the case and the injuries suffered by Colette, Kimberley, Kristen, and Jeffrey Macdonald, and compare the forensic facts to the story told by the one person who survived.
Transcribe Highlights
00:00:01.45 Introduction
00:00:17.91 Killer on the loose in LA
00:03:06.24 Jeffrey MacDonald story
00:05:26.19 Victim recounting traumatic event
00:09:10.74 MacDonald tells his version of events
00:14:09.09 Four Hippies get on military base housing
00:19:10.31 Tearing down location of homicide
00:24:07.38 Officers explaining crime scene
00:29:36.21 Motive doesn't matter at a crime scene
00:33:55.42 MacDonald was the ONLY threat, he survives
00:38:43.83 Wounds on Colette
00:43:09.00 Comparing injuries suffered by girls and MacDonald
00:48:13.19 Injuries suffered by Kimberly, 5-years-old
00:52:21.98 Conclusion
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A lot of information has come out about the victims in Moscow, Idaho, and the condition of their bodies as well as location and injuries. Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabutt made many public comments in the first days of the investigation that in retrospect might have been misguided, at best. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the case, the evidence, and what was stated as fact early in the investigation that doesn't match up with current facts. Joe Scott Morgan explains the forensics of death, Livor Mortis, Rigor Mortis, as well as PMI, Post Mortem Interval, and how the delay in reporting the bodies could be problematic for the prosecution in the upcoming trial of Brian Kohberger.
Transcribe Highlights
00:00.19 Introduction
01:48.68 Decomposition - PMI
03:32.16 Elderly people are cold when it is hot
07:00.30 Rigor Mortis, Livor Mortis
11:48.60 Environmentally dependent
15:33.11 Stiffening of jaw
19:56.67 Latah County Coroner said Idaho students killed in their sleep
23:19.82 Strength of Rigor Mortis
28:22.59 Using digital turkey thermometer to get body temp from liver
32:54.33 Assuming room temperature
38:11.60 Latah County Coroner told family member about injuries
43:00.35 Removing stomach and collecting contents
49:49.70 Gastric content
53:08.10 Post Mortem lividity
58:25.86 Conclusion
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A Fertility Clinic Bomber's Manifesto Mentions Staged Suicide Murder 1,200 Miles Away. Lars Nelson calls 911 to report the suicide of his girlfriend, Sophie Tinney. He gives the 911 operator a lot of information and is standing outside to talk to police. When officers arrive they notice that 27-year-old Sophie Tinney is dead from what appears to be a gunshot wound. But they aren't sure it is a suicide. It appears she has three bullet wounds to her head. 1200 miles south of Fox Hollow Island Washington is Palm Springs, California, home to a fertility clinic where 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, tries to "live stream" his bombing of the clinic. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack talk about the staged suicide death of Sophie Tinney, her boyfriend, Lars Nelson, as well as Guy Edward Bartkus who left a manifesto behind that mentions the death of Sophie Tinney. The time has come to answer the question; what or who is an "Anti-Natalist"?
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Millions of tourist flock to Paris every year to visit the Louvre or see the Eiffel Tower up close.
While tourists take photos on the city streets, under their feet, lining the walls of nearly two hundred miles of tunnels lie the skeletons of 6 MILLION people. Joseph Scott Morgan recounts his recent visit to the tunnels under the "City of Light" and explains how the area became the final resting place for millions of people.
And in a shocking turn, the Professor finds a skull that appears to have a gunshot wound to the head!
Transcribe Highlights
00:01.76 Introduction
02:26.06 Handrail phobia
05:00.55 Church and alter made from bones
09:48.76 Touring Notre Dame
15:19.56 A mantel made of stone
19:30.53 Bones stacked according to type
25:11.72 WW2 - Nazi's in one place, French resistance in another
30:08.31 Looking for trauma on the bones
35:44.67 Skull showed trauma
38:17.26 Conclusion
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Joseph Scott Morgan puts on his teachers cap and explains Decompositional changes and what really happens in the first minutes, hours, and days after death and tells the story of a rookie cop doing a simple welfare check calls for backup after finding a victim dead in his tv chair. The still wet behind the ears cop thinks the victim was killed with a hatchet, but all of the blood and body fluid appearing on the victims' shirt is not from a hatchet, the man had a heart attack. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack talk about the disintegration of body tissues after death, known as decomposition as well as the two processes of Decomposition and how important these processes will be in the upcoming trial of Bryan Kohberger for the murders of four college students in Idaho.
Transcript Highlights
00:03.14 Introduction
01:34.93 Professor Morgan is ready to teach
04:44.28 Reason for understanding decomposition
09:51.60 Can't always see it, but you can smell it
14:43.12 People dying on toilets
19:01.43 Disintegration, breaking down what is organic
24:31.13 Autolysis and Putrefaction
29:35.64 Body decomposing
34:59.98 Rigor mortis leaves, body becomes flaccid
40:12.40 Toes and fingers dry out
44:32.69 Natural Death looks like a murder
45:35.23 Conclusion
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The death of Ellen Greenberg was initially ruled a homicide, but without warning or explanation, Doctor Marlon Osbourne changed the ruling to suicide. Ellen's parents have spent the last 14 years trying to have it changed back to homicide, or undetermined. The Greenberg's have two civil suits about the case, one headed for the state supreme court later this year, but on the first day of jury selection for the other case, a settlement is reached. Doctor Marlon Osbourne, who conducted the autopsy on Ellen Greenberg as the former assistant medical examiner with the ME's office, signed a sworn verification statement in which he says he now believes Ellen's manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the case and breakdown how this change impacts the case today and in the future.
Transcribe Highlights
00:00:00 Introduction
03:29.50 Dr. Osbourne changes ruling from homicide to suicide
07:23.79 The life of Ellen Greenberg
12:21.71 location of injuries
17:19.04 Joe talks about autopsy
22:22.18 Greenberg had active day, no issues
27:36.97 Classification of "manner of death"
32:45.96 Giving a statement to police
37:06.32 Steps in death investigation
42:48.71 Conclusion
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Part Two of "Manner, Cause, Mechanism of Death", the death rulings of John O'Keefe, Virginia Giuffre, Dana Plato, Heidi Planck and others including one where a burglar is sent to prison for murdering someone who wasn't shot, stabbed, strangled, or even touched by the suspect who was robbing the place, and who will possibly spend the rest of his life in prison. The Karen Read Case is also discussed as to the Manner, Cause, and Mechanism of death of John O'Keefe. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack talk about cases when no body is found but evidence found at the scene is "incompatible with life" and how this is used in an investigation.
Joseph Scott Morgan goes deep into death investigation and what really matters, breaking down the four questions of Death Investigation: How? What? When? Why?
Transcribe Highlights
00:02.88 Introduction
00:56.30 Cause and Effect, Mechanism
05:00.66 Suicide Ruling in overdose death of Dana Plato
09:55.12 Needle still in the arm of overdose victims
15:58.79 Manner of death
19:02.38 Coroner decides to rule overdose deaths as homicides
23:59.02 Elderly Man Dies from heart attack meeting robber in Kitchen - Robber sent to prison
28:03.94 Heidi Planck missing, evidence found is incompatible with life
34:15.80 John O'Keefe Manner of death
39:05.80 Brain expands with no place inside skull to go
41:56.73 Conclusion
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