Colleen Thomas
Ultrafemme
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2002
- Posts
- 21,545
Urban Myth or not, the irony involved is exquisite 
Very bizarre death......
Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess...This
is an unbelievable twist of fate!!!
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr.
Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-storey building intending to
commit suicide.
He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he
fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast
passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net
had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some
building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus
was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been
successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to
feel that he had a homicide on his hands. In the room on the ninth
floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man
and his wife.
They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a
shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he
completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window
striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B." When confronted
with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and
both said that they thought the shotgun was not loaded.
The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife
with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore
the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, assuming
the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
father would shoot his mother. Since the loader of the gun was aware of
this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull
the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the
ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered
himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt
Very bizarre death......
Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess...This
is an unbelievable twist of fate!!!
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr.
Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-storey building intending to
commit suicide.
He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he
fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast
passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net
had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some
building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus
was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been
successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to
feel that he had a homicide on his hands. In the room on the ninth
floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man
and his wife.
They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a
shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he
completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window
striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B." When confronted
with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and
both said that they thought the shotgun was not loaded.
The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife
with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore
the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, assuming
the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
father would shoot his mother. Since the loader of the gun was aware of
this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull
the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald
Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the
ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered
himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt
.
