IDrakula - Bekka Black [11]
EXTERNAL EXAMINATION:
The decedent is initially viewed clad in a dark gray sleeveless T-shirt style top, blue jeans and belt, gray sweat shorts and socks. A right eyebrow piercing with indwelling white metal barbell stud is in place. A navel piercing in white metal is present. The body jewelry is left in place and secured with evidence tape.
The body is that of a well-developed, well-nourished, slender, 5’7”, approximately 120 lbs, White male whose appearance is consistent with an age in the mid-late teens. Muscular rigidity is moderate and symmetric and lividity is completely absent in the cool body; the body is strikingly pale.
EVIDENCE OF MEDICAL INTERVENTION: NONE
EVIDENCE OF INJURY: PUNCTURE WOUNDS OF NECK: On the left lateral neck at a point 8” below the top of the head and 2 1/2” to the left of the midline, situated in the mid-region of the anterior border of the left sternomastoid muscle, there are two circular, punctate defects approximately 1/4” in diameter. The wounds are symmetric, identical in appearance; it cannot be determined whether the wounding implement consists of a weapon with a double tip, such as a barbecue fork, or whether the injuries represent two separate wounds with a single-tipped weapon with a slender, pointed weapon, such as an ice pick.
A near-bloodless wound track is noted extending into the soft tissues of the neck for a total depth of approximately 1”, penetrating both the internal and external jugular veins on the left side of the neck; there are multiple overlapping defects in both veins, suggesting multiple incomplete withdrawals of the weapon before it was thrust back in again.
The surrounding tissues are nearly bloodless, with minimal extravasation of blood. The lack of damage to the tissues and surrounding skin, and the presence of only two defects makes it unlikely that the injury represents an animal bite; however, swabs were taken of the skin surface and submitted for DNA/forensic biology analysis in the customary manner.
The decedent is effectively bloodless; the body has no lividity, and there is no free blood in the vessels, including the aorta and vena cavae. The viscera are strikingly pale, as is the brain, and there is subendocardial hemorrhage in the left ventricular outflow tract and mucosal petechiae in the renal pelvic mucosa, consistent with terminal hypovolemic shock. By X-ray, there is no retained foreign body in the neck. There is no evidence of cardiac air embolism.
From: Mina Murray
To: Jonathan Harker
Subject: Re: I’m so sorry
Sent: June 25 3:52 PM
* * *
Jonathan,
We have started to investigate ourselves. Here is your status report.
Step l: Get autopsy report from one of the victims of the attacks near the cemetery where Lucy and her mother are buried.
Abe got one. Cause of death: massive blood loss. Only wound: two punctures in the neck. Someone or something is puncturing their necks and draining their blood. They are dying from loss of blood.
Step 2: Get into crypt.
I visited Lucy’s father. He’s a mess. First his wife and now his daughter. I sat with him for about an hour. I don’t know if he’ll get through this. I’m going to keep checking in on him. It seemed to help, at least a little, but it’s so hard to see how broken he is now.
He loaned me the key to Lucy’s crypt. I didn’t tell him why I needed it, and he didn’t ask.
Step 3: See if Lucy’s body is still there. I know, it’s crazy, so don’t lecture me.
Abe and I met in front of the crypt, by the marble lamb. It’s where I used to meet Lucy. I went there so many times with her visiting her mother’s grave that I half expected her to show up. But she didn’t.
Just like Lucy used to do, I unlocked that green metal door, and Abe and I stepped in. It was warm and stuffy inside, and it smelled terrible, like death. All the flowers that went in there