Dead Center. Frank J. Daniels
out the window, a far away expression on her face. “As a matter of fact, I used to work with Mark as an outfitter. He would do guides and drop camps. I would cook in the camp. Sometimes Mark would make videos and show them to Texans to get their hunting trip business. But that was a long time ago,” she said with a heavy sigh.
Roberts realized the interview had been lengthy. He told Janice he appreciated her time, shook hands with her and the other women present and returned to his office to report to Lieutenant Finley. There, Roberts awaited the results of the autopsy.
= chapter 6 =
The color of the Colorado River can change from indigo blue to blood red hour to hour or minute to minute, depending upon the nature of upstream runoff. It was blood red that Monday when the autopsy was conducted at the hospital in Montrose. Oddly, both Bruce and Janice knew the pathologist who performed the autopsy. Dr. Tom Canfield is a medical doctor and an experienced forensic pathologist with many years of practice under his belt. Having been a prominent, successful medical doctor in a small western Colorado town for many years has left him with a substantial amount of self-assurance some might mistake for conceit. He keeps a sailing vessel on Blue Mesa Reservoir and on warm summer evenings can be found yachting in a blue blazer while sipping martinis. Dr. Canfield has had significant experience with gunshot wounds. He was Chief of Legal Medicine at the Armed Services Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and retired from the Army Reserves as a Colonel. Janice worked as a psychiatric nurse at Memorial Hospital and Bruce was a laboratory technician at the hospital in Delta, a small town twenty minutes from Montrose. Bruce actually worked under Dr. Canfield in his capacity of laboratory director for both hospitals.
Also present at the autopsy were investigators Bill Booth and Nick Armand. To criminal investigators and certainly to an experienced pathologist like Tom Canfield, autopsies are routine matters and they sometimes joke or make remarks that seem unfeeling to outsiders, but this allows those to whom death is an everyday occurrence to break the tension. Dr. Canfield identified the body by the tag on the body bag as well as by the fact that he personally knew Bruce. “I also know Bruce’s wife, Janice,” he said with a wry smile. “I saw her having a good old time at a hospital party just last spring. She is flighty and prone to mood swings,” he said offering his opinion. Once the body bag was unsealed and unzipped, the clothing was carefully removed, described and examined. Dr. Canfield recorded all details.
Investigator Booth pointed out, “There’s a small copper-colored metal fragment, consistent with a small portion of the jacket of a high-powered rifle bullet, in the clothing on the man’s chest near a large entry wound.” This was just right of midline, nipple high, near the sternum. The bullet traveled across the ribs, fracturing several, and exited under Bruce’s arm. Canfield shook his head. “That wound would not have been immediately fatal. With this wound alone, Bruce could have survived for hours and would have lived had he made it to a hospital within a reasonable amount of time.” When the body was turned over, Canfield saw another entry wound in the lower right back. “This one was nearly immediately fatal,” he noted. Dr. Canfield removed a small lead bullet core from the left lung. There was no exit wound associated with the shot to the back. Because of the three spent shell casings found next to Bruce, there had been some speculation that he may have been wounded by a stray bullet and then fired three shots as a distress signal. Dr. Canfield summarily dispatched such a scenario, “Bruce would not have been able to fire his rifle after his spine was severed by the shot to the back,” he concluded.
Any thoughts that this may have been an accidental shooting or suicide had now evaporated. You are not accidentally shot twice by a high-powered rifle, and you cannot, without great difficulty, shoot yourself in the back with one. Dr. Canfield took photographs of the body. The bullet fragments and clothing were marked, sealed, and forwarded to the Montrose office of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The Autopsy Report made plain the fact that this was murder.
GENERAL EXTERNAL EXAMINATION:
The body is received in a blue pristine body pouch which is zipped shut. Across the zippers of the body pouch are multiple red evidence seals. The seals are intact. There are initials, “NA, 10-15-95.” The intact seals are ruptured and the body pouch opened revealing the body as described below.
IDENTIFICATION:
On the handle of the body bag is identifying tag in the name “John Bruce Dotson” [sic]. There is accompanying paperwork from the Mesa County Coroner’s Office. Additionally, the body is that of an individual personally known to the undersigned.
JEWELRY:
1) On the left wrist is a “Timex Iron Man, 8 Lap” brand triathlon watch showing the correct day and date and essentially the correct time.
2) On the 4th finger of the left hand is a gold-colored metal ring which has the logos of mountains and a single mounted dark crystalline stone therein.
3) A pair of bifocal prescription lenses is present on the face in the appropriate position labeled in part “Acutech 108 with Flexons 4018140.”
CLOTHING:
The body is partially covered with two items of clothing in the body bag.
1) The first is a blue and red, reversible, down-filled vest showing several defects in the outer fabric from which feathers flow.
2) The second item over the body is a multicolored, plaid, hooded, long-sleeved shirt which contains in the left breast pocket a Montrose Sporting Goods license envelope in which is a hunter safety card in the name of Janice K. Morgan as well as a 1995 resident antlered elk license and antlered elk carcass tag in the name of Janice K. Morgan.
The body is further wrapped in a multicolored, plaid, green-red-blue-purple-yellow, lightweight blanket.
The body is clad in multiple layers.
1) The feet are shod in a pair of grayish-brown, 5 D-loop, 2 speed lace, hiking boots, size 11, “Merrell” brand, showing moderate wear.
2) On the upper torso is a gray, hooded sweatshirt-type jacket, size extra-large, “Lee Midway cotton and polyester” zipped-front jacket. The zipper shows a traumatic defect with disruption of both tracks of the zipper and the cloth about it several inches from the top of the front portion of the neck. Additionally there is a traumatic defect in the right lateral aspect of the jacket on approximately the anterior axillary line and a traumatic defect to the right of midline in the back. There is massive blood staining of the jacket. The next layer is a gray in color, “Windridge Mervyn’s” brand, 100% cotton, large size, long sleeve sweatshirt which shows a traumatic defect in the anterior right lateral portion, the anterior lateral and approximately the anterior axillary line and the posterior right portion with massive blood staining over the entire garment. The next layer is a pair of blue, polyester and cotton, “Big Mac” brand bib overalls. In the front chest pocket is a license envelope from Leisure Time Sports in Cedaredge, Colorado, which contains a Colorado hunting license in the name of John B. Dodson with a resident antlered deer license dated 10-13-95. Also present in the pocket is a “Kershaw” brand knife which has one 4-inch, drop point blade in a lock blade configuration in the closed folding knife. The blade appears clean. There is an apparent acute traumatic defect in the chest just to the right of midline and in the right side of the back of the straps. There is marked blood staining of the overalls. The under shorts are a pair of “Hanes,” size 36, 100% cotton. There is marked blood staining of the under shorts which are brief style. The hands are covered in a pair of brown, cloth gloves. There is a moderate amount of vegetable material on the clothing and grass stains on the knees of the bib overalls.
Found on the anterior chest beneath the clothing is an irregular, over folded and disrupted, 7 × 5 × 2 mm portion of copper colored metal consistent with the metal jacket of a hunting bullet.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF TRAUMA:
There are three