A contentious postmortem examination

A  postmortem examination, by definition, is the examination of a dead body and is often done as part of crime investigation, especially if the deceased was thought to have died due to foul play or of unnatural causes.

Postmortem examination

A postmortem examination, in virtually all jurisdictions, is performed by any medical doctor, although there are some postmortems that are best performed by specialists in that area. These specialists are called forensic pathologists. The postmortem examination is the gold standard to establish a cause of death but some postmortem examinations have turned out to be contentious.

Pastor’s story

On the morning of September 10, 2017 a 37-year-old, highly connected and prominent pastor and housewife was found unresponsive on her matrimonial bed. She had apparently woken up without any complaints that morning to prepare breakfast for her family, which breakfast she served to the children and then took that for her husband to their bedroom.

Her husband was in the bathroom when the breakfast was served. It was the husband’s story that when he came out of the bathroom, his wife was unresponsive on their bed and failed to answer an incoming phone call from one of her relatives. He answered the call and told the caller that the pastor appeared to be unwell.

The pastor had apparently been well and was due to attend a family function that day and when she did not pick her phone that morning, her relatives got concerned and decided to come to her home. They found her lying unconscious on her bed, facing upwards.  Her husband was present at home and he told them that he did not know what happened to his wife since he was in the bathroom when his wife must have collapsed.

Pastor taken to hospital

The pastor was immediately taken to hospital. In the hospital it was noted that the pastor had no history of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or any other chronic illness. The couple, however, was reported to have had a turbulent relationship and had earlier filed for divorce.

In the accident and emergency unit, where the pastor was taken, a plaster was strapped on her left elbow, suggesting that an intravenous device must have been inserted there. An Electro-Cardiogram disc was also noted to have been placed on her left upper chest suggesting that she must have received some kind of resuscitation at the emergency unit.

Failed resuscitation

One of her ribs was found to have been fractured and there was some bleeding into the anterior chest muscles and, externally, there were finger nail marks on the anterior chest wall. These findings indicate, without a shadow of doubt, that the pastor was alive when she was brought to hospital and was declared dead after a failed resuscitation. A postmortem examination was then requested for which was carried out by a pathologist but with specialization in anatomical pathology.

Postmortem

The pathologist, at postmortem, noted that the deceased was rather obese and estimated her weight to be about 80 kilogrammes and had finger nail marks on her neck, not unlike those found on her chest and also bleeding in the neck muscles. The pathologist found that the deceased had a full stomach implying her death occurred shortly after she had taken a meal. The doctor apparently also noted two skull fractures. In the doctor’s report the rest of the organs of the body appeared normal. The doctor concluded that the pastor had been killed and had died when her airway and blood vessels in the neck had been obstructed, probably due to strangulation.

The doctor noted in the postmortem report that although the pastor was brought to the hospital when she had already died, her relatives insisted that the doctors resuscitate the patient, which resuscitation was performed for over 30 minutes. To the doctor the rigorous resuscitation was responsible for the fracture of the rib and the bleeding that occurred in the anterior muscles of the chest.

Husband arrested

On September 17, 2017, the police arrested the pastor’s husband, a retired military officer on the suspicion of killing his wife. According to the police the preliminary investigations revealed that the pastor had been strangled to death at her home and the postmortem results indicated that the cause of death was lack of oxygen to all parts of the body, including the brain and the lungs. According to the police the pastor did not succumb to any illness, but rather succumbed to strangulation as she had bruises on the left back side of her head and had blood in the brain with two injuries on the head. The police based their action of arresting the pastor’s husband on the doctor’s postmortem report, history of domestic violence and circumstances of volatility in the night and the morning the pastor died. The husband of the pastor pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder when he was taken to court. He contested the postmortem report and said that one of his in-laws conspired with the medics and some of the investigators in police to pin him on the homicide. Asked about their estranged marriage, the pastor’s husband said that they were just like any other family that had conflicts every now and then. It was earlier reported that the couple was estranged for about three years during which they even filed for divorce in July 2016 but later reconciled and withdrew the case.

Convicted

On March 22, 2018 the husband of the pastor was convicted of the murder of his wife and handed a life sentence and was also ordered to pay substantial sums of money to the brother of the deceased who had sued him for damages on behalf of the family.  The presiding judge advised the husband of the pastor to appeal against the sentence if he was dissatisfied with it.