Nexus - 0225 - New Times Magazine-pages

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1994's MOST BIZARRE SUICIDE had homicide on his hands. At the 1994 annual awards dinner given "The room on the ninth floor whence the by the American Association for Forensic shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills elderly man and his wife. They were argu astounded his audience in San Diego with ing and he was threatening her with the the legal complications of a bizarre death. shotgun. He was so upset that, when he Here is the story: pulled the ltrigger, he completely missed his "On 23 March 1994, the medical exam wife and the pellets went through the win iner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and dow, striking Opus. concluded that he died from a shotgun "When one intends to ik~l1 wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-storey build ing intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was inter rupted by a shotgun blast through a win dow, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window-wash ers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this." "Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "a per son who sets out to commit suicide ulti mately succeeds, ev.en though the mecha nism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine storeys below probably would not have changed his mode of death from sui cide to homicide. But the fact that his sui cidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he APRIL - MAY 1995 old coupIDe's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old fady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of this father to use the shotgun threatening[y, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot hi"s mother. The case now becomes one of murder on tne part of the subject A but son for the death of Ronald Opus." kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were hoth .adamant that )J neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shot gun. He had no inten bion to murder her; therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been acciden taHy loaded. "The continuing investigation turned up ~J =r::; i a witness who saw the . . s~·_':"'=J.I. NEXUS·63