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The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
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- It's getting late, officer. - Sheriff, you gotta get down here. - We got an ID on her? - No, sir. No relation to Paul and Carol. - Who's she? - Well, for now, she's a Jane Doe. You got something? - Nothing was stolen. Not a scratch on the outside of the house either. Doesn't look like someone broke in. To me, it looks like they were trying to break out. - Cause of death? - How about we skip this part tonight? - Come on, this one's a soft ball. - Smoke inhalation. - You're telling me that smoke killed Mr. Howard? - Well, damaged nasal passage damaged throat, damaged lungs.. - Damaged lungs, yes. But incompatible with life. - So, you're saying that's not the COD? - I'm saying look before you leap. Where did the police find the body? - Uh, in his kitchen. - House on fire. Front door is 30 feet away yet, he's not trying to get there. Lungs are damaged but airways not denuded nearly enough. - So, he stopped breathing before that fire really got going? - Open him up. Now. Now you see here? Down below the occipital. - A fracture. - That explains the swelling in his brain. - Subdural hematoma. That's what did it. Not the smoke. Everybody has a secret. Some just hide them better than others. - Some people are better at finding them. - You did good. You'll get there. - Nobody's even claimed him yet. He was all alone, that's why he died. - He died because he fell and hit his head. You got plans tonight? - Emma wants to go see a movie at the strand. - I thought they'd closed that place down. - Uh, no, when was the last time you even went to go see a movie, dad? - Uh, she has Alzheimer's and he's building her a house. - The notebook? - Oh, yeah, your mother made me go and see it with her for her birthday. I fell asleep five minutes in. Yeah. Are you alright finishing up? - Yeah. What's up, Tilden? Hematoma. Stanley. Oh. Hey, dad! Stanley got another one. Dad? Jesus Christ! - It's so easy! - How'd you get down here? - The key was in the elevator. - Oh, my god. - I gotta say, this is not what I was expecting. You said it was old but wow. - I thought we were supposed to meet out front. - Well, I got tired of waiting. - Where, where are you going? - I'm having a little look. - Come back. - God, the place just keeps going. - Well, three generations of Tildens keep expanding end up with this state-of-the-art facility. Hey, come on. - What's the rush? - I've been down here all day. - You got to see me at my job, why can't I see you at yours? - You work at a book store. - Are these all people? - Just three tonight. - Can I see one? - Well, no. No. You cannot see one. - Why not? - Because there's... Some things you can't un-see, okay? - Come on, I can handle it. - No. No. And my dad is way too strict. - Try me. So, what'll it be? - Are you serious? - Are you? - Hell yeah. - Pick one. - Not that one. The one next to it. - A body's a body. - Yeah, well, I pick that one. What's that for? - To make sure he's dead. There used to be a time it was hard to tell a comatose person from a dead one. So coroners tied bells to everybody in the morgue. So if they heard a 'ting' they knew somebody down there wasn't quite ready to go. - So, why do you have one? - Well, I'm... I'm a bit of a traditionalist. - Why did you cover his face? - There wasn't much of a face left to cover. Point blank gun shot blast tend to do that. - Who shot him? - Angle of entry suggests he did it to himself. Until we found strychnine in his system and judging by the progress it made through his bloodstream he was already dead by the time somebody blew his face off. - Why would anyone do that? - You sound like your boyfriend. Leave the "why" to the cops and the shrinks. We're just here to find cause of death. No more, no less. - You don't wanna see that. - It's alright. - Look who's easy now. You should have seen the look on your face. - I can't wait to see the look on your face when you're not getting laid tonight. - Whoa, whoa. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Not even if I ply you with popcorn and sourpatch kids? - You're lucky you're cute. How do you get used to that? - You do and you don't. Sheriff? - Where's your dad? - What happened? - Bring her back here, Sheldon. - Dad, if you need me to stay... - oh, don't worry about it. You two go have your fun. - Did you see the look on Burke's face? I mean, he wouldn't be here this late if it wasn't important. - Here we go. - Well, my dad... - There it is. - I can't ditch him. - So you're ditching me again. What's he gonna do when you leave? - You haven't told him yet? - No. It's not that simple. - Wow. - Babe. I'm gonna tell him, okay? Hey, you think I wanna be here? Down there? This isn't my life. I don't wanna be Austin Tilden, the morgue worker. Just, he needs my help right now. - Come on, it's been two years. He can take care of himself. - Come back in a few hours. We'll catch the midnight show, grab a drink at Thornton's.. Two drinks. 11 o'clock, I'm all yours. I promise. And don't, you know, don't smile because a smile means "yes" you know. I know it's in there. Now, you're gonna blow your whole game. - Maybe. - You're hot! - Found her in the basement of the Douglas' place. No ID, no fingerprints in the system. No one has a clue who she is. - I don't suppose you know how she wound up there? Stanley. Damn thing gets meaner by the day. - Alvarez there was working at Paul and Carol's place. My best bet? He killed our Jane Doe. Needed a place to dump the body. Didn't count the Douglas' being home or Paul having a .38. First thing tomorrow, I'll bring him in but for now, she's the priority. - Oh, still, it would have been nice to take a look at the crime scene - I got four people dead and no god damn clue how any of it connects. - Nobody's pissin' in your grits here, Shel. But we do have protocol. - Press is gonna need answers on this in the morning and I got nothing. Now they'll buy a 10-79. I can give them a b and e gone haywire. But what I can't sell is her. - Time frame? - It's gotta be tonight. - Okay. You didn't have to come back. - I know. - This is the autopsy of an unidentified female henceforth known as "Jane Doe." Performing the autopsy will be myself Tommy Tilden, attending coroner. I will be assisted by Austin Tilden certified medical technician. This autopsy will be conducted in four stages beginning with an external evaluation followed by an internal evaluation of the heart and lungs, the digestive organs and finally, the brain. - We've got some beautiful weather here for the next few days. - Subject is in her mid to late 20s. - Appears to be. - Subject appears to be in her mid to late 20s. Caucasian. Skin appears normal. No outwards signs of bleeding or bruising. No scarring, no distinctive external markings. Hair, brown. Eyes.. Grey? - Huh. You don't see clouding like that unless a body's been dead for days. There's no lividity. - No rigor mortis either. When do you think she died? - Well, she's colder than the ambient temperature. - What, conditions at the scene? - Could be confounding factors. - Look how small her waist is. Like it doesn't really fit the rest of her frame. - Could be congenital. We won't know until we open her up. Mark it down on the board. We'll come back to it later. Her wrists and ankles are fractured. - How do you break your wrists and ankles without any outward signs? - Oh, I see it all the time. Simple fractures. - Simple? Uh-uh. Her joints are shattered. What is that? What is it? Dirt? - No, no, this is denser. Heavier. It's... this is peat. Haven't seen this stuff in ages. - It's under her toenails, too. - Yeah. There are trace amounts in the hair. She's covered in it. - Like, maybe she was buried in it? Where do you even find peat? - You buy it at a nursery. But naturally in the ground.. Up north. Not around here. Nasal passages, no sign of inflammation. No fluid and no foreign substances and ear canals are.. Clear. Oh. I hadn't expected that. - Tongue has been... - severed. Crudely. Non surgically. - Well, she could have bitten it off, you know she ods on something, tensed up... - these aren't bite marks. See, striations. Huh? I've seen something like this before about 15 years back. Human trafficking around Norfolk. Two girls hands and feet bound tight to keep them from running. Cut out their tongues for making too much noise... - you think this was some kind of a prostitution thing? - Can't rule it out. Here, she has a molar missing on the lower left side. Take some impressions. - It's definitely some kind of fabric. - Bag it. Send it to the lab. No external seminal fluid present. Give me a swab. Ah, she's torn up inside. There are ridges, grooves in the tissue. - Abrasions? - No. Cuts. Deliberate. - Severed tongue, shattered joints vaginal trauma.. The theory tracks. - We're barely out of the external. We got a ways to go. We'll now proceed with the internal examination starting with the heart and lungs. Help me with the block. - They're not supposed to bleed like that. Right? - I've seen it. But only on a fresh corpse. An hour dead, maybe two. It's caused by a build up of pressure. - What is that? Melanoma maybe? - On the inside? Possible. Let's see what the lab comes back with. Can you hand me the rib cutters? Today? - Shit. - What did you do? - Oh, I got it. - I need you to focus here. - I got it. - Well, you were right. Her waist doesn't fit her frame. It's not congenital. - Then what is it? Well, if you wear one long enough, a corset... - didn't those go out of style a couple of hundred years ago? - The lungs severely blackened. - Wouldn't have taken her for a smoker. - She could smoke ten packs a day for 30 years wouldn't explain this. - But that's what killed her, right? - No, this amount of lung damage though I'd expect the body to be covered in third degree burns. It's like finding a... A bullet in the brain but with no gunshot wound. Her heart's marked up. Almost like it's been cut. - Well, not just her heart. What do you think that is? Genetic defect? - Probably scar tissue. - Scar tissue? From what? - Imagine all this internal trauma was reflected externally. Shattered ankles and wrists fire-burned lungs, scarred organs. What would she look like? - She'd be mangled. Disfigured beyond recognition but she's not. I mean, how the hell do you even do this? - If you wanna kill someone you shoot them or poison them or drown them. A million easy ways. You don't go to these lengths unless you wanna make them suffer what the... - I'll get it. - So clean. What happened to you? What the hell happened? Are you okay? - Something's in the vent. Thanks. Oh, shit. - Give me a minute. What are you doing? - The drawer.. Must have not closed it all the way. - Stanley was a pain in the ass. But he was your mother's. One of the few things of hers I had left. - Yeah, I miss her, too. - Right. Let's keep going. This is stage three of the autopsy of Jane Doe. Beginning with the stomach and the gastro-intestinal system. - Dad, you can talk to me. - I'm not keeping anything from you. - You just... you put up this act for people... - I'm fine. - Alright. What is that? A flower? - Jimson weed. Paralyzing agent. Probably explains the inflammation on her organs. Hmm. Here's a weird thing. That settles it. She's from up north. - Yeah, but how did she end up here? - One thing at a time. I'm just trying to make sense of all this. - Gusts are now being reported at up to 60 miles per hour. Rain is expected to top three inches within the hour. This one might be a bigger deal than we were led to believe. - Dad, how about we just finish this in the morning? - Burke needs a COD tonight. We're not even close. When we start something, we finish it. You wanna leave.. Leave. - It looks like some kind of shroud. - Hmm. And old. - Stomach acids should have dissolved this thing. I mean, the fact that it's intact at all is amazing. Now see, what is that? Roman numerals? Okay. - These numerals. The order. T and... and this s. It doesn't fit. What are you doing? - Someone pulled out her tooth wrapped it in fabric and forced her to swallow it. - And the drawing? - I don't know. Religious? Possibly, uh, ritualistic? - Well, let's play that one out. Every ritual has its purpose. What mo have we seen so far? - First they bound her. Then they ripped out her tongue, poisoned her paralyzed her forced her to swallow the cloth. Then, uh, the cuts, the internal mutilation, stabs. Then as if that wasn't enough, they burned her. Almost like a human sacrifice - I got to tell you we have serious weather reports coming in from all the monitoring stations across the state. We've got a flash flood warning now in full effect for all of Grantham county. They've got concerns about.. - You can't kill someone this way without leaving a trace on the outside. She doesn't even have a broken nail. - If we could just find out why she was tortured... - down here, if you can't see it touch it, it doesn't matter. - Now, these bodies are not just cods, dad. This happened to her for a reason. - Trust me when I tell you this is not a storm you wanna get caught in, folks. If you're home, stay home. One thing's for sure. You're not going anywhere. - Hey, dad? I think maybe we should get out of here. Help me with this. - Holy shit. - What the fuck? Dad? Dad? - Here! Let's get the fuck out of here. - Come on, come on. - The generator. - There's not enough power. - It's stuck. Help me with this. Help me with this! The old sycamore fell. - Fuck! - The office. The landline. - What the hell was that? - I don't know. Oh, thank god. - Harding county Sheriff Department. - This is Tommy Tilden. It's an emergency. We need help. - Sorry, I've trouble hearing... - put Burke on the line. - This is Burke. - Sheldon, this is Tommy. You better get over here now. - Hello? Tommy, I can scarcely hear you. Your voice is breaking up. - Sheldon! Sheldon, we're trapped down here, godda.. Sheldon, please... - Tommy. - What the fuck is going on? It's her. Everything was fine until Burke wheeled her through that door. - Son... - Until we cut into her. - You're talking about a corpse. - These things we found inside her her injuries, those marks. You can't say she's just a body. We should have left. I wanted to leave. Dad! Oh. - No! Dad! Dad! Dad? - Oh, shit. Oh.. - Oh, my god. Oh, my god. - Careful, careful. Oh, god! Ohh. Help me up. - Yeah. - I'm fine. They were Grey. Her eyes. It had her eyes. - That's what I've been trying to tell you. It's her. - Oh, no, that's not possible. - No, her body those things we found inside, those were impossible. Whatever the hell happened in here.. We are way past possible. It's her. - So, what do we do? Rapid decomp. - Everything we took out of her. That's almost like her body was preserving it. - Must get her to the crematorium. - Fuck it. - Jesus! Behind you, the extinguisher. The pin. Pull the pin. No. The elevator. - Come on. No, no, no, no! Fuck! Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on! Go, dad. Come on. Come on. Emma. Oh, no! Oh, no, no! Oh, my god! Oh, no! No! No! - Oh, my god. - No! Oh, no, no, no! - Austin.. Austin, the elevator. Come on, now. Come on. Come on, son. Fuck! Fuck! - I told her to come back for me. I told her to come back. - No, you didn't do this. You shouldn't be here. All this is my fault. - You couldn't have known. - Yeah. Yeah, that's what everyone told me.. About your mom. You know why I used to call her ray? Ray of sunshine. She thought it was corny as shit. But it stuck. If I'd have known, I would have helped her. You know that, don't you? I mean, she was always so bright. So happy. To think she was carrying around all that pain, all that unhappiness every day. I should've seen it. But I didn't. She had to deal with it alone. All these mistakes.. My mistakes.. And you had to pay for them. - Why hasn't she killed us yet? - Well, it's not for want of trying. - Well, look what she can do.. If she wanted us dead. When we cut into her.. She tried to stop us each time. It's like there's something she doesn't want us to find. - You wanna go back in there? - If we stay here, we're dead. If we could just figure out how she died.. Maybe we can figure out how to stop her. Dad? - Right behind you. Keep moving. Austin? Ah! - Dad? - No! - Dad? Dad. Dad. Come on. Come on. Come on. Okay. Brain... Is normal. - There's got to be something. All her other organs are scarred. - What the fuck? - What is it? - That's why we couldn't find cause of death. - She's still alive. - Alive? We lit her on fire. We took out her heart. - There's something, some energy. Call it what you want, something is keeping her going. - What the.. Leviticus. - Let me see that. Leviticus. Twenty. Twenty seven. - If these are Roman numerals then they'd be.. - "Any man or woman "who consults the spirits of the dead "shall be put to death for they are.." - Dad. Seventeenth century. North east. New England. "They are a witch and their blood shall be on their own heads." It fits. - Witches are a myth. - You can't keep denying. - There were no witches in Salem. They were kids. Young girls. Falsely accused, wrapped up in hysteria one pointing to the next, who pointed to the next but they were all, all innocent. Only... They didn't hang her.. Or burn her at the stake. They tortured her.. Mercilessly. - The ritual. It didn't work. - What if.. What if the ritual, performed on an innocent accidentally created the very thing we're trying to destroy? Everything they did to her. Everything we've done to her. She can feel it. She wants us... To feel it too. That's why she's keeping us alive. This is her revenge. This is her ritual. - But why us? - Why the Douglas'? Why anybody? We're on her path, that's all. We were just stops along the way. Those who survived got rid of her and buried her as far away as possible. - That hasn't stopped her. - Because no one got close enough. No one could see what we have seen. She's still suffering.. And it won't stop. It won't stop until.. - Until what? Dad, until what? - I won't fight you. But please.. Please don't hurt him. Let me help you. - Dad! Dad? No! Dad! Dad. No. - Please.. Please.. Please.. - Tommy! - Austin! Are you there? - Burke? - Anyone there? - Burke. - Austin! Austin! Are you down there? We're sawing down a tree blocking your door. We'll be with you right now, alright. Austin! - I'm here! - Almost there. You'll be alright. Just open up the door now. - It's stuck. - Try again, son. - I can't. It won't. - Should open up now. - It won't. - Should open up. - I'm trying. It's stuck. - Open up. - I can't. - Open up! - I can't. - No obvious signs of forced entry. Looks an awful lot like he... - I've known his family 20 years. Whatever it looks like, that ain't it. - Well, it's going to be another nice one out there. Today's our fourth straight day of sunshine. Looking at a high of 75. Beautiful outdoor weather but remember to use your sunscreen. - What the hell happened here? - What do you want to do with her? - Get her out of here. - Already got a car waiting. There's that, uh, funeral home over in Ruxton. - Get her out of my county. Take her over to VCU. Let ward Lamon deal with her. - Now, baby, listen that was one time. Hell, yes, that's a promise. - And you know what Hebrews chapter four says "the word of god is powerful." |
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