The Soothville Murders.

Chapter 2: The autopsy

Chapter 2: The autopsy.

When the detectives had finished processing the church for evidence, they returned back to the combined police chamber and forensics laboratory in Marristown. The first car to reach the building, entered the back entrance and Albert Stone and Frank Baker exited the vehicle. With them, they rolled a stretcher. On this stretcher there was a black body bag. In this bag, the body of fourteen years old Thaddeus Jasper Dale lay. The body was brutally beaten, stabbed multiple times and a few body parts had been dismembered. The two detectives brought the stretcher with them into an elevator and went down to the basement, into Dr Stone's domain. They lifted the bag onto a table, where they opened it and let the body out of it. 

One of Dr Stone's interns appeared, and he was clearly shaken when he saw the body. The intern's name was Neil Johnathon, and he was a workaholic. Dr Stone knew that he was having troubles with his family because he worked to much, but even when he offered the intern to go home early, the man would refuse. Johnathon gathered the equipment Baker had seen Stone use so many times before. Scalpels, magnifying glasses, jars and containers, tweezers and a little flashlight. He also found a tape recorder Dr Stone would use during the examination of the body, this could later be used in the police's advantage in court. 

"Poor boy," Albert Stone said, and Baker knew he meant it. The room was completely silent, with Baker observing each and every move while Johnathon looked away as much as possible, because he thought it was too gross. Baker noticed that Dr Stone hadn't turned on the CD yet, either. It was truly a case out of the ordinary. Of course, Stone wasn't used to having dead kids on his table, but the fact that the killer probably was a serial killer, made it even more important to stay serious and to catch the murderer as soon as possible. 

Without having to say a word, the three men started simultaneously to undress the body. There weren't very many clothes left on it, just the sweater, the shirt and to black socks. The pants was never found, neither were his boxer shorts. 

"This is doctor Albert Stone with intern doctor Neil Johnathon and detective Frank Baker," The doctor  said loudly after turning on the recorder. "We are performing the post mortem autopsy on murdered fourteen years old Thaddeus Jasper Dale. He was found bound and lifted into the air in Soothville Baptist Church the third of December, 2011. I have removed his clothes. These were a white shirt, a gray and black striped sweater, and a pair of black socks. These clothes will be further examined by technicians in the Forensics Lab." 

Neil put the clothes in a white box and labeled it "Clothes - T.J. Dale." Frank Baker knew that it would probably be Bertha Daniels from Scotland that would perform the examination. 

"This boy must have gone through a lot of pain," Dr Stone said with compassion in his voice. Baker wasn't used to hear that either. "When I look a the front of the body, I can see multiple signs of different types of violence. The body's eyes have been removed, probably been torn out by hand. He has a wound on his forehead, consistent to a blunt force trauma. His nose is broken, also caused by blunt force trauma. His tongue is cut. A lot of coagulating blood in his mouth."

The doctor had opened the dead boy's mouth, examining the severed tongue. 

"The weapon used on the tongue seems to be a sharp, single-edged knife. The cut was performed while the boy was alive. The boy would have drowned in his own blood, if he hadn't died earlier from whatever ended up being his doom. I guess we'll have to find out.

He moved onto the neck, examining a large, horizontal cut right above the boy's Adam's apple. It was without very much blood, meaning it was not what killed the boy. 

" A cut has been performed on the victim's throat post mortem," Albert said. " The slash sliced aorta in two. But the victim was already dead."

The doctor and the intern went on, looking at the victims abdomen.