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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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 - Outro
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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 up
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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 - Outro
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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 up
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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 victim
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
Work a cold case alongside investigator Sheryl “Mac” McCollum, Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. Every week, Sheryl dives into her cold case files alongside accomplished guests to look for clues into unsolved murders, missing people, and more. This ain’t just a podcast but a war room. Sheryl opens her cold case files, her heart and her little black book! You will quickly realize Zone 7 is not a place but a lifestyle!
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/867-zone-7-with-sheryl-mccollu-106023288/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zone-7-with-sheryl-mccollum/id1660041219
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/39AxkVOTQ9HjcNqykeJHX4
Stitcher/Simplecast: https://www.stitcher.com/show/1048440
Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/zone-7-with-sheryl-mccollum/PC:1001048440
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/60846f0d-334a-4a97-8105-78c07d29aecd/zone-7-with-sheryl-mccollum
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Four University of Idaho students are brutally murdered in their home in Moscow, Idaho on November 13th, 2022. Police suspect that the murders occurred between 3am-4 and their bodies were 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, the DNA evidence that has been collected, details on a vehicle of interest, the odd state of lockdown at the scene of the crime, and more.
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - Reopening the details of this case
1:55 - Description of the vehicle of interest that police are looking for.
7:22 - How do you properly process a vehicle that may be connected to a crime?
10:55 - The volume of evidence collected so far will take some time to go through properly.
12:49 - Types of biological evidence, Blood and DNA, collected on site
16:39 - Other possible biological evidence at the scene
19:43 - How many tests will be run on these individual pieces of evidence?
23:13 - Will running tests on evidence destroy the sample you have collected?
26:04 - Confusion on the details of the weapon involved in the stabbings
29:12 - Joe’s experience with grieving families
31:20 - Items returned to families immediately lose their evidentiary value in most cases
34:56 - Covering your bases as a Medical Legal Death investigator when thinking about the courtroom deposition of your findings.
36:38 - The importance of contextual location
39:56 - Joe Scott’s position on the importance of doing things in the proper order
41:23 - Outro
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Christopher Osborn is found and pronounced dead in his home in Dublin, Ohio on July 18th, 2018, just after 7:30 a.m. He had been shot in the head three times in his sleep. His wife, Holli Osborn, drunkenly calls her father to tell him that her husband is dead. Her father calls the police and shortly thereafter they arrive at the house. After finding two guns next to the bed and seeing the state of Ms. Osborn, they take her into custody and eventually charge her with the murder of her husband.
In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss the state Dr. Osborn was murdered in, gunshot residue, how to assess a crime scene after its been altered, how the location of where Holli’s DNA was found eventually proved she was the perpetrator, and more.
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
1:25 - Background and overview of the case
2:43 - Evidence from the bed
6:23 - In a case like this, what evidence do you start with first?
9:28 - Who arrived at the scene first?
12:20 - Assessing the crime scene after it's been damaged
15:40 - How to tell the difference between something that was part of the crime vs. caused by first responders when they arrived at the scene
19:40 - Does the amount of blood depend on how many times you were shot or where you were shot?
29:20 - Does Dr. Osborn’s physical state (sleeping) factor into his body’s reaction when he was shot?
34:40 - Gunshot residue
40:43 - Are all gun powders the same?
42:30 - Distribution of gunpowder
47:00 - “10 particles”
49:35 - Holli’s DNA being found on the gun and how it was proven that she was the perpetrator
50:50 - Outro
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Katie Baunach is last seen alive on September 29th, 2022, when she tells a friend she is going to her ex-husband's home to pick up some of her belongings. She obtained a restraining order from him the previous month after allegations he had abused one of their children. When police went to investigate the house they detected “signs of a physical struggle” and upon looking further found something much more sinister.
In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss how luminol is used to detect blood, the difficulties of burning a body, non-specific homicidal trauma, “roid rage”, and more.
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
1:25 - Background and overview of the case
2:58 - Moving of the car
5:40 - Using luminol to detect blood
12:13 - Who invented spraying blood with luminol to see it under a black light?
14:30 - The difficulties of burning a body
20:34 - Why did the barrel smell of decay? (check)
22:18 - Moving the body
24:10 - How do you determine the cause of death for a body that had been moved multiple times?
26:50 - Non-specific homicidal trauma
30:02 - Dealing with stress
30:33 - Police find suspicious substances
34:03 - What is “roid rage” and what causes it?
40:45 - Wrap up
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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