After 6000 Autopsies, This Was The Case That Broke Him

Roger, thank you for joining me on True Crime Conversations, and congratulations on your recent retirement.

Was forensic pathology always what you planned to do if you go back to young Roger?

I was gonna be an archeologist, um, but thought when, um, my teenage years, you don't get much money doing that, so maybe I'll do medicine.

Um, and no, I was gonna do, uh, do, um, basically emergency medicine and a qualified general practice.

Was going back to Canada to do emergency medicine, and I was in Belize and I was snorkeling and it was so good.

I stayed a few extra weeks, and when I got back to Canada, no jobs in emergency.

So basically, um, by default, I got into pathology and then into pediatric pathology and then forensic pathology.

So it's been a sort of a s- downhill course really for years.

You mentioned four decades, you have seen so many iterations of your profession.

Has it changed in the way you do your job given the advances in technologies?

It has.

What we're using more often now is, um, i- imaging, CT examinations.

So most forensic facilities have CT, so bodies get CT before an autopsy, which means that you can actually find a cause of death sometimes without even opening the body.

So we're doing a lot more, uh, CT examinations with external examinations.

The external, looking for any injuries or something untoward, and the CT can tell us if there's been a, uh, a rupture of the heart or whether there's been a stroke.

So, uh, that has changed things dramatically.

It also adds to our standard autopsies as well.

So we're-

Because you have to include it as well.

That's, that's exactly right.

So yes, we've, we're being dragged out of the nineteenth century, um, sometimes reluctantly.

But I can imagine being able to use CT and not having to open a body for a family member, like if I had to imagine my loved one being chopped open, to be able to be spared that, like that's a good thing.

Uh, it is a good thing.

Um, it's a good thing for families, for the pathologists for resources.

But I often meet with families and, you know, they, particularly with, uh, babies, they wanna meet the person who...

Roger, thank you for joining me on True Crime Conversations, and congratulations on your recent retirement.

Was forensic pathology always what you planned to do if you go back to young Roger?

I was gonna be an archeologist, um, but thought when, um, my teenage years, you don't get much money doing that, so maybe I'll do medicine.

Um, and no, I was gonna do, uh, do, um, basically emergency medicine and a qualified general practice.

Was going back to Canada to do emergency medicine, and I was in Belize and I was snorkeling and it was so good.

I stayed a few extra weeks, and when I got back to Canada, no jobs in emergency.

So basically, um, by default, I got into pathology and then into pediatric pathology and then forensic pathology.

So it's been a sort of a s- downhill course really for years.

You mentioned four decades, you have seen so many iterations of your profession.

Has it changed in the way you do your job given the advances in technologies?

It has.

What we're using more often now is, um, i- imaging, CT examinations.

So most forensic facilities have CT, so bodies get CT before an autopsy, which means that you can actually find a cause of death sometimes without even opening the body.

So we're doing a lot more, uh, CT examinations with external examinations.

The external, looking for any injuries or something untoward, and the CT can tell us if there's been a, uh, a rupture of the heart or whether there's been a stroke.

So, uh, that has changed things dramatically.

It also adds to our standard autopsies as well.

So we're-

Because you have to include it as well.

That's, that's exactly right.

So yes, we've, we're being dragged out of the nineteenth century, um, sometimes reluctantly.

But I can imagine being able to use CT and not having to open a body for a family member, like if I had to imagine my loved one being chopped open, to be able to be spared that, like that's a good thing.

Uh, it is a good thing.

Um, it's a good thing for families, for the pathologists for resources.

But I often meet with families and, you know, they, particularly with, uh, babies, they wanna meet the person who...