The forensic pathologist of “Doctor Death” reveals the worst ways to die: “Never trust a rooster”

Roger Byard, who refers to him as “Doctor Death”, has researched some of the most traumatic deaths in Australia.

He has also researched some of the strangest.

The forensic pathologist explained the last episode of Gary Jubelin’s I take murderers Podcast on his baptism of fire in the profession, and was called to investigate the famous “Bodies in barrels” murders of the city of Snowtown during his first week of call.

“One night the head of the crime crime called me … and I was so green,” he said. “I did not realize that when the head of the main crime calls you, it is quite serious.”

Snowtown killings were a series of killers committed by John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyruidon Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999, in Adelaide and the surrounding area. A fourth person, Mark Haydon, was convicted of helping the bodies to have. The trial was one of the longest and most published in Australian legal history, with Byard’s forensic evidence contributing to sentences.

But while Snowtown may have been one of the most advertising cases that Byard has worked, it was not the strangest.

“I have been collecting animals from animals,” Jubelin told Jubelin.

“Deaths of dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel.”

You read it well. Mackerel.

“There was a fishing with the port of Darwin and the sharks were nearby, so this 25 -kilogram mackerel jumped from the water and dragged it,” he recalled.

“The wrong place, the wrong time,” he continued.

But what about the rooster?

“There was a small lady on her back she collected eggs,” she says.

“I understand, the chickens are unpleasant creatures. She went for her, and she had varicose and she only hit her leg.”

Byard explains that he has had several deaths in his desk where people with varicose have experienced minor trauma and have died.

“One of the cases was a scratch of cats,” he said. “People do not realize, and this is the reason why I really publish these things, it is not because it is strange and strange, it is to let people know that if you have a varicose and obtain a small hole, you have to be lying down and put your finger and raise it and survive. [people] They tend to do it by the belly and bleed until death, completely unnecessary dead. “”

“But yes,” add byard, “never trust a rooster.”

And, although the unknown elements of Byard’s work may be the headline, there is a darker trauma that endures.

“No one talks about post -traumatic stress with forensic pathologists and yet every month we go out to scenes,” he said sadly.

“We see dismembered bodies, incinerated bodies. We see children who are starving, vehicle accidents, terrible scenes. And we must immerse ourselves in it, we must describe it in great detail, understand it, then we must present it to a jury and sometimes our credibility attacks while we do it.”

He explained that while his trauma has accumulated with each case he has worked, he also understands that he will not always find the answers.

“When I first started, I thought I would find the causes of all these deaths: I was Gung-ho,” he said.

“And then, while I went later and later, I realized that no I will not find answers all the time. And I will have to sit with the families and say -” I have no idea. “All I can say is that” it was nothing you did. “

“And also, often they just want to meet the person who took care of their baby between the moment they saw the baby last time and when they saw their baby at the funeral home.”