Every death is a mystery. Sometimes the mystery is solved based on the prognosis of an attending physician. However, a prognosis is a guess, nothing more. All deaths require a certificate stating the cause. When no physician is willing to guess - and in some specific situations
required by law - the death becomes a Coroner's case. Now it is the Coroner's turn to guess. Should they perform an autopsy or not?
Read the case of
"Blood suckers loose in Newport Beach", a scene where the police worried that Charles Manson had escaped from prison, but the Coroner's deputy thought otherwise. The autopsy settled the issue. The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the entrance hall was a very pungent, very sour odor. The stink, I would learn, was one part stale cigarette smoke, one part stale booze, and the dominate part, the familiar acrid odor of drying blood.
And also, read the case of
"How Do You Stomach This Job?".
