Who: Simon Tam What: Post-autopsy speculation When: After the body is taken to the infirmary/post-autopsy (backdated) Where: Simon's office at the infirmary Warnings: PGish Status: Complete
Simon looked at the notes. The victim was a complete unknown, and the doctor felt like he could do nothing. There were no identifying traits, and the lack of a DNA database made doing such searches impossible. He could run rudimentary tests on the blood and organs, but they showed nothing really out of the ordinary. The victim, John Doe as he was called, had died by strangulation.
Dr. Tam had worked with Dr. Brennan, who really had no business being at an autopsy, to see if any more could be found beyond the obvious. They discovered that the ligature marks showed that the victim could not have tied the noose. In fact, Simon didn't see how a man with one broken wrist and what seemed crushed fingers could have tied any noose. Other defensive wounds suggested that the man had been in a fight prior to hanging, possibly a fight for his life. Simon knew he'd fight before letting someone hang him.
No, the man had been killed. Hung up in a tree and left to die. There was no obvious motive because no one knew the victim. At the moment the only remarkable thing about John Doe was that he had been unremarkable. He was an unknown, which made for a mystery. Simon wasn't big on mysteries dealing with death; they usually meant something very unpleasant.