Sunday, June 29, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATIONS: 'No good way to get rid of body'

Divers search Monday for body parts in the pond at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO Perry Monroe Clarence Elliott Convicted of the February 1996 murder of his wife Gregory Michael Stiegler Margaret Rudin, right, confers in court with attorney John Momot. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

From fresh corpses to the most badly decomposed bodies, forensic scientists strive to answer three key questions: who is the victim, when did he die and how did he die?

Many advances in that field can be traced to the famed "Body Farm," located at the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Center.

There, scientists have placed dozens of donated corpses underwater, in car trunks, in shallow graves and in numerous other places to study how the human body decomposes.

Dr. Murray Marks, a forensic anthropologist at the Body Farm, spoke with the Review-Journal recently about how bodies decay in different conditions and the impact that has on solving murders.

DISMEMBERING

Analysis: When murder victims are dismembered, investigators often don't recover all the body parts. But because of DNA testing and other strategies, they often can still make an identification. "Scars and other things can be rather distinctive," Marks said. Authorities also can advance a case by examining how the body was dismembered. "We may not find the skull, but if we have the torso it was attached to, we have experts in saw marks," Marks said. "These forensic anthropologists can look at it and figure out what kind of saw was used."

Case: Perry Monroe is accused of killing Ladonna Milam while she worked at the Hacienda last weekend and dismembering her body. On Monday, a human torso, legs and arms were found in a fishing pond in Boulder City. Jerry Milam told police his wife had a surgery scar on her abdomen similar to that found on the victim. Police are awaiting the results of DNA testing. Police did not specify the body parts found in Monroe's car when he was arrested in California, but said some some parts were still missing. Packages for a hacksaw and hacksaw blade were found in a trash can in Monroe's hotel room.

DUMPING

Analysis: The desert that surrounds Las Vegas has long been a favorite dumping ground for killers. These bodies, which hikers and others often stumble upon, rot rapidly. "When we have bodies in direct sunlight in a dry climate, then you start to get desiccation, drying or mummifying very quickly," Marks said. That makes it difficult for authorities to determine identity. But even when all soft tissue is gone, forensic experts still can make identifications through DNA analysis of bones and comparison of teeth and dental records.

Case: Clarence Elliot shot his wife to death in February 1996 and dumped her body off a 10-foot cliff in Red Rock Canyon. He reported Barbara Turner-Elliot missing the next day, and in May 1996 her skeletal remains were discovered and identified through dental records. Jurors waded through mounds of circumstantial evidence, including a bullet bearing Turner-Elliot's tissue that was found in the killer's car, before convicting Elliot of his wife's murder.

BURYING

Analysis: A buried body decomposes about six to seven times slower than a body dumped above ground, Marks said. This improves the chances investigators will determine identity, time of death and cause of death. Almost all buried bodies are found in very shallow graves that are easily discovered. Veteran homicide investigators say this is because killers do not appreciate the time and labor involved in digging a grave large enough to accommodate a human body. "Nobody digs a hole 6 feet in the ground to bury a murder victim," said Lt. Wayne Petersen, who commanded the homicide unit from 1996 to 2001. "Thank goodness criminals are lazy."

Case: In May 2002, police investigated a foul odor at a Las Vegas apartment that had until recently been shared by Gregory Michael Stiegler and Robert Wilson, both of whom had disappeared. Investigators focused on an odd concrete slab less than 2 inches thick. "It was this definite bump under the stairwell and then when they would step on it, it would give a little," said homicide Sgt. Rocky Alby. "When they punched a hole through it, that special aroma of death came out." They found Wilson's body underneath. In November, police arrested Stiegler in Arizona and interviewed him. "They had gotten into an argument over rent," Alby said. "He hit him with a hammer and beat him." Stiegler is awaiting a murder trial.

STASHING

Analysis: When a body is hidden indoors, such as in a closet or in an attic, its rate of decomposition is usually most affected by the surrounding temperature. Experts say the body will typically decompose faster than one buried underground, but much slower than a corpse left outside. "The body still quickly deteriorates, complicating identification issues," Marks said. "When you get two to three days postmortem, you can't show it to a next of kin for an ID anymore."

Case: In August 1998, Patricia Margello was strangled, tied up, wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed in an air conditioning duct at the Del Mar, a Las Vegas Boulevard motel that rents rooms for $10 an hour. Prosecutors alleged the stepfather of an heir to the du Pont family fortune hatched a plot to have Margello killed by hitmen. "She was dating the du Pont heir, and the family didn't like it," said Lt. Wayne Petersen, former commander of the homicide unit. "The stepfather decided he would take her out of the picture." Although Margello's body was kept cool in the air conditioning duct, maintenance workers still smelled the odor of death three days later. Four people were eventually sent to prison in the murder-for-hire plot.

BURNING

Analysis: Forensic pathologists examine soft tissue in determining a person's identity and how they died. But when flames consume all flesh and organs, they are often left with little to work with. "When you burn a body, you can get rid of bullet trauma and sharp force wounds. They can be kind of obliterated along with the soft tissue," Marks said. This necessitates the expertise of a forensic anthropologist. Such experts can often determine a cause of death through examination of skeletal remains. If the teeth are recovered, an identification is typically easily made through dental records.

Case: After millionaire Ron Rudin was killed at his Las Vegas home in 1994, his body was decapitated and placed in an antique trunk which then was taken to Nelson's Landing on the Colorado River and set on fire. Rudin's remains were badly charred when they were found by fishermen a month later and could not be identified through DNA. But medical examiners were able to identify the corpse through dental records. Also, experts concluded the skull bore evidence of gunshot wounds. And prosecutors sought to link charred remnants of the distinctive trunk to a similar item a man said he sold to the victim's wife, Margaret Rudin. She was found guilty of murder and is serving a sentence of life in prison.

SUBMERGING

Analysis: A body decomposing underwater decays three to four times slower than one left in direct sunlight. Many of the corpses that have been found in Lake Mead over the years had been weighted down with rocks, bricks or other items. But the bodies almost always rise eventually. Experts say this is because powerful gases collect in the corpses' digestive systems, pushing the bodies to the surface. "When somebody drowns and they can't find them, they say, `Wait a few days, because they'll turn up back at the surface,' " Marks said. "You can weight somebody down incredibly, but they'll still float up."

Case: Darius Kavalyauskas was found floating about 8 feet from Lake Mead's shoreline on the afternoon of Aug. 4, 1995. The coroner ruled that someone had forcibly drowned the 24-year-old Russian immigrant. A gym bag with 90 pounds of rocks inside was strapped to the body and initially sunk it, but Kavalyauskas still floated up within days of his slaying. The case remains unsolved, but investigators have cracked numerous other cases in which bodies have been dumped in the lake.