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“I see there are bruises and marks on the victim’s neck,” Valerie said, thinking back to the tree with a broken branch and her theory that the victim had been hung first, but only until she was unconscious.
“Yes,” said Larry Birkin. “But it wasn’t what killed her.”
“I take it that it was these wounds in the woman’s chest?”
Larry Birkin nodded.
“Loss of blood, massive hemorrhages from these two cuts. Deep enough to slice into the heart.”
“Did you find anything else of interest about the victim?” Valerie asked.
“Not really,” Larry Birkin answered. “Only that I think she must have regained consciousness after being strangled.”
“Why do you say that?” Sheriff Carter finally asked, joining the conversation after looking at the victim’s body with a pained expression in his eyes.
“Here,” Birkin said, pulling back the lips of the mouth.
Valerie could see deep cuts on the inside of the bottom lip.
“She bit her bottom lip when in pain,” Valerie observed out loud. “But that could have happened during the struggle before she was cut?”
“It’s possible,” Larry Birkin said. “But if you look at the inside of her hands here, she also has nail marks on her palms. She was able to draw blood. I’d say that was a reaction to intense pain.”
“Tell me Doctor,” Valerie continued. “Has anything about the victim’s appearance stood out to you? Something that perhaps a serial killer might latch onto?”
“You mean like a profile that he has?” Birkin asked.
For all the man’s difficult ways, he did seem to be at least informed about serial killers often having a certaintypeof victim.
“I’d say,” Larry Birkin said, “that there is nothing to connect the three victims in terms of their genders, their ages, their race, or their appearance in any way.”
Valerie’s heart sank. She looked up at Sheriff Carter. “This makes things a lot more difficult,” she said shaking her head.
Valerie pulled the sheet back up over the woman’s body, gently resting it over her head.
She moved to the next metal slab and white sheet. Pulling it back, she saw a man with dark skin in his thirties. The tag on his toe read, "Mark Jacobsen". Instantly, she saw some of the similarities between how the killer had gone about his business.
“Mr. Jacobsen was hung or strangled first,” Valerie said. “Here on his wrists, it’s not as pronounced, but it looks like there’s a cord burn as though he was bound.”
Valerie almost hoped that she would find a cryptic tattoo on the man that was similar to that of the third victim, but there was no such marking. There was nothing to latch onto as a lead.
Looking at the trunk of the body, there was a deep wound in the man’s side.
“I take it this is what he died from?” Valerie asked.
“Yes,” Larry Birkin answered. “He was pierced by something in his side, and the blade cut up and through into his liver. He bled out. But he probably went into shock pretty quickly before he died.”
“Did all three victims die quickly?” Sheriff Carter asked.
“Yes, they did,” Larry Birkin answered. “At least once the final wounds were made. Each one bled out, massively.”
Valerie hoped that the last body on the metal slabs would give her something to follow as a lead.
She pulled the sheet back to reveal a woman in her sixties or seventies.
"She's been identified as Greta Young," Birkin said in an impatient voice.
“I see the same strangulation marks,” Valerie pointed out. “But I don’t see any wound?” She said to the coroner.
