Chapter 5
At eight a.m. on Tuesday, Dave Mann began his workday at the county medical examiner’s office. His tasks that morning were fueled by coffee because of last night’s interruptions.
A well-respected forensic doctor, Dave had headed up the office for twelve years.
He would start by giving that leg a thorough inspection and trying to come up with a general timeline of when the woman had passed away.
He needed to research cold water decomposition more thoroughly too.
The woman might have died long before she was found on Lake Michigan’s shoreline, and with the high winds and rough waves caused by the storm Sunday night, she could have easily washed ashore from anywhere.
I’ve got my work cut out for me today. What I need to know is if any woman has been reported missing over the last five days in the general Milwaukee area, and that’s a job for the police.
Dave made the call and told the day shift detectives what he needed in order to attempt an ID and come up with a possible age or anything that could bring them closer to learning who the leg belonged to.
In the autopsy room, Dave closely inspected the leg under a high-power magnifying glass. All he had to work with was the right leg. There weren’t any tattoos on it, but the leg did have a surgical scar on the right side of the knee. He noted that and also that the leg was smooth—no hair stubble.
So she shaved her legs the same night she died.
Smooth to the touch except for the water, debris, and fish damage.
The storm Sunday night stirred up the water and washed the limb ashore, but nobody would have gone out in a boat on Sunday with that storm looming.
I’m guessing Friday or Saturday night was her last night among the living.
Thirty minutes later, a call was transferred to the medical examiner’s office phone.
“Dave Mann speaking.”
“Dave, it’s Detective Bill Gavin. After checking the missing persons reports, we found that between Sheboygan and South Milwaukee, only two women were reported missing in the last five days. Does that fit your parameters?”
“Yeah, it’s a good start. What do you have on them? Let’s start with age.”
“Okay. One is twenty-eight, and the other is forty-two.”
“Hmm. Skin looks relatively the same at those ages. How about a surgical scar on the right side of the knee? We only have the right leg.”
“Hang on. Nope, nothing noted unless mentioning it was overlooked. I’ll call the families.”
“Yeah, that’ll help. Also, what cities did they live in? Knowing that and the lake chart showing the wind direction, current, and wave strength during Sunday night’s storm might give us information we can use.”
“Sure. First, the twenty-eight-year-old lived in Cedarburg, not on the water, and the other lived in Milwaukee. We have the marina right there, so easy access to the lake, but there are plenty of marinas at most lakefront cities. I’ll find out about the surgical scar then call you back when I’ve verified a scar or no scar from the families.
After that, I’ll get with the Coast Guard or the right team they can point us to for the storm report. ”
“Thanks. Also, something noteworthy is that I didn’t find a drop of blood in the tissue or muscles of that limb. That in itself is unusual. I’ll go ahead and collect a DNA sample from the bone marrow. We’ll need a profile to compare against the DNA of any missing women.”
“The night shift detectives mentioned that as well. Thanks, Dave, and I’ll get back to you soon.”
Dave ended the call and began the careful preparation to extract DNA from the bone tissue.
First, he had to remove and thoroughly clean a portion of the leg to use.
He didn’t want to destroy the entire leg, so he needed to remove the upper part from the rest of the limb.
That was the detached end anyway. Using a bone saw, Dave took off several inches of leg just below the hip.
He wrapped the rest of the leg and placed it in the refrigerator.
It was time to clean up the sample and extract the bone marrow.
He removed the muscle and tissue to expose the femur.
He cleaned and sterilized the bone then inserted a hollow biopsy needle with a stylet at the hip end of the bone.
Once the needle was deep in the marrow, he removed the stylet, then he inserted a syringe in its place to suck out the marrow.
Dave placed the sample in a sterile container then in a formaldehyde solution for later use.
As he cleaned up his workspace, a call came in—Detective Gavin again with more news. Neither woman who had gone missing had a surgical scar on her right leg.
“That’s unfortunate. It doesn’t sound like this case will be easy to solve. What about the currents from the storm?”
“That comes from the Great Lakes Observing System. They use solar-powered data buoys to collect that information. Apparently, Sunday night’s storm stirred up the water quite a bit with rough waves and strong currents.
Their guess was that the leg could have reached the shoreline from up to ten miles out.
They also said the wind came out of the northeast. The actual spot where she was dumped could be anywhere in the lake and up to ten miles out, especially with that storm hitting the entire coastal area. ”
“Well, I’m not a weather-conditions man, so I don’t know if that actually tells us anything or not. With more investigating into the deterioration, I may be able to tell how long she was in the water. I’m guessing she might have gone in on Friday or Saturday night.”
“Really? How did you come to that conclusion?”
“Her leg was recently shaved. Smooth as silk other than water and fish damage. As far as I know, and I’ll confirm that with my wife, most women shave their legs before going out for the night. Unfortunately, we don’t have clothing to confirm what she might have been doing prior to going overboard.”
Bill groaned. “So the leg doesn’t belong to either of our missing women. I’ll check with all the other counties along the lake. I’ll ask about that surgical scar too.”
“Don’t get tunnel vision, Bill. Just because our victim was dumped in the lake doesn’t mean she lived in that area.”
“True, but whoever dumped her in the lake needed a boat, and it’s our job to find out who that was.”
“Call the marina and ask them to check their security footage for nighttime entry. If the key card was used, then who went through? My own boat is moored there, and they have plenty of cameras.”
“Yeah, they’ll definitely get called this morning. Thanks, Dave, and I’ll pass along what you have so far.”