A Most Terrible Tragedy

Jan Garavaglia

Deadly Adventure

Poison Control

A 48-year-old man is found in motel room hundreds of miles from home with his head blown off by a shotgun. Clues found in the room point to suicide, but an additional shotgun shell and blood inconsistent with the man’s wounds suggest foul play. It is up to Dr. G to piece together this puzzle. Dr. G and forensic technician Gene Conus give a tour of the morgue and explain how certain tools and procedures work. A 66-year-old man is killed in a car accident while driving to his daughter’s house. The man’s wife feels guilty since he was making the drive as a favor to her, but she suspects that his heart condition may have played a role in the crash. Dr. G works to find whether the man would have died from natural causes regardless of the injuries he received in the accident.

Death on the Road

A 43-year-old man’s ex-wife finds him face-down in a hotel bathtub on the morning that they were supposed to embark on a cruise. The ex-wife reports that the man was shivering violently before his apparent drowning. When Dr. G concludes that the man did not drown, she must delve deeper to find the real cause of death. After a night of partying, a 29-year-old man is found dead in bed by his father. A bag of pills and a bottle of liquor are found in the room, but the father insists that his son did not abuse drugs or alcohol. Will Dr. G’s findings bring piece of mind for the grieving parents?

The Mourning After

While at the apartment of a longtime friend, a 24-year-old man is shot in the head. The friend claims they were examining his gun collection when a gun was knocked off the ironing board and went off when it hit the floor. Everyone in the apartment was intoxicated at the time of the shooting. It is up to Dr. G to determine whether this was in an honest mishap or an intentional shooting. Dr. G shares professional insights about the causes of car accident fatalities including speeding, improper use of seatbelts, and intoxication. A 32-year-old man suffers a heart attack at the hospital and dies a week later. The hospital finds traces of amphetamine (also known as speed) in the man’s urine and concludes that the man’s heart attack was due to amphetamine abuse. The man’s mother claims that he would never use illegal drugs. Dr. G must find out whether drug abuse actually played a role in the man’s death.

A Shot in the Dark

A 42-year-old woman dies at a friend’s house. The woman was depressed and abusing prescription drugs. Her supply of pills was depleted when her body was found, so it seems to be a suicide attempt. Dr. G must determine whether the woman’s death was an accident or a suicide. Paramedics respond to a man’s 911 call to find his 55-year-old wife unconscious in a hotel room. The woman inexplicably dies on the way to the hospital. The woman has no medical history, but Dr. G can tell that she was not in good health. There is also a narcotic ulcer on the woman’s foot indicating a bacterial infection. Only Dr. G’s autopsy will reveal what caused the woman to die.

Prescription For Change

After a night of drinking, a 23-year-old man is found dead in a burning car in a parking garage. Since the man was not able to get out of the car, investigators hypothesize that he was dead or unconscious when the fire started. Dr. G and crime scene investigators work to find out how the man died and who or what started the fire. A 58-year-old man suffering from kidney failure dies in the hospital with his ex-wife by his side. The hospital marks the cause of death as kidney disease, but the man’s roommate claims that he was strangled by his ex-wife. Dr. G must either confirm or deny the roommate’s accusations.

Burning Questions

This episode looks at two of Dr. G’s past cases involving domestic abuse. A 30-year old man and his 35-year-old girlfriend are found dead in a car in the parking lot of a church. Both victims were stabbed to death. Dr. G’s autopsy of the female victim shows that she was brutally attacked, and the violent nature of her death suggests a crime of passion. The male victim, who was stabbed in the heart, has additional injuries that suggest suicide. Was this a murder-suicide, or was a third party involved? A 50-year-old sheriff’s deputy is shot in the head by his girlfriend. The woman claims self defense, but everyone who knew the man claims that he was not a violent person. The couple had a rocky relationship, and they had been known to threaten each other with guns. Can Dr. G determine whether or not the shooting was really self defense?

A Fatal Attraction

An overturned pickup truck is discovered by the side of the highway with a deceased 24-year-old man inside. The victim was not wearing his seatbelt, but the external trauma does not seem fatal. Dr. G expects to find serious internal injuries, but is surprised by the results of her autopsy. In the Texas desert north of the Mexican border, two men flag down a motorist and flee after leading him to the decaying body of a 20-year-old man. No suspicious items on are found on the body other than a bag of an illegal drug called dipyrone from Mexico. Other belongings found with the victim indicate that he was on a hiking trip in the desert. Dr. G must find out whether or not the man met with foul play. Also, a look at the techniques and routines of Dr. G’s medical investigators.

The Things Men Do

A 35-year-old woman is shot by her husband on a hunting trip. The husband claims it was an accident, but fatalities due to hunting accidents are statistically unlikely. Also making the man look suspicious is the fact that he and his wife were recently in marriage counseling. It’s up to Dr. G to find out whether foul play was involved. Dr. G and her co-workers speculate as to why men are more likely than women to fall victim to accidents resulting from stupidity. A 38-year-old man dies at home two weeks after suffering a severe beating. The man had numerous medical problems including alcoholism and sorosis of the liver. If the man died from complications of the beating, then his death would be considered a homicide. Dr. G must find out whether the man’s death was a result of the attack or brought about by something else.

Truth of the Matter

A 53-year-old Vietnam veteran is taken to the hospital after shooting himself in the head. Eighteen days after surviving the suicide attempt, the man is found dead in the bed at the hospital. An external examination shows that the man had constricted pupils, which means that he could have died from a drug overdose. Dr. G must open the body to see if the man made another attempt to take his own life. Three days after going on a drinking binge, a 32-year-old mother is found dead in her apartment with a white frothy fluid foaming from her mouth. The woman had also recently suffered complications from gastric bypass surgery. Dr. G must find out what caused the young mother’s untimely death.

A 27-year-old mentally challenged man collapses while eating lunch and dies soon afterwards. The family believes he choked while unsupervised, and they wonder if they could have done something to save him. Dr. G hopes to answer their question with her autopsy, and ends up finding something she has never before seen in the history of her career. After disappearing for five days, a 45-year-old man is found decomposing in his unlocked apartment. Ten years earlier, he suffered a severe back injury while doing construction work and has suffered from chronic pain ever since. He was known to abuse alcohol. Syringes, prescription painkillers, and beer bottles were found in the man’s trashcan. Did the man intentionally take his own life? Dr. G must take this body to the “Decomp Room” to get to the bottom of the case.

Paths of Destruction

A woman shoots her abusive husband and claims self-defense. The angle of the gunshot wound and other conflicting details with the woman’s story seem to suggest that she is lying. The woman is indicted and the medical investigation seems to be over. However, the case is later re-opened when witnesses claim the man was very ill near his time of death. Did the man’s wife, or possibly someone else, try to poison the man before he was shot? A 44-year-old diabetic woman is found dead and naked in the trailer of a convicted sex offender. There are no external clues to suggest that the woman was raped or murdered. Dr. G must open the body to see what caused the woman’s death. Was she murdered, did she overdose on drugs, or did she die of natural causes?

Needle in the Haystack

A 34-year-old woman is brought into the morgue with her body covered in a strange rash. She came down with the illness a week before her death and eventually died in the hospital despite being treated with antibiotics. Two weeks before the woman died, she reported being bitten by a stranger who kissed her in a bar and believed that was how she contracted the illness. With a cervical cancer relapse and chicken pox as possible culprits, Dr. G must conduct an internal examination. A 56-year-old man dies after suffering an apparent epileptic seizure in his yard. At first it seems as if the man died of Sudden Unexpected Death In Epilepsy, but Dr. G’s autopsy reveals that epilepsy was not the only condition putting the man’s health at risk.

A Lingering Question

A 39-year-old quadriplegic woman is found dead in a park over 100 feet away from her wheelchair. Marks on the ground indicate that she may have been dragged across the park. It’s up to Dr. G to determine whether the woman was a victim of foul play of if she died of something else. A 50-year-old man dies en route to the hospital. Then man was diabetic and had a bad heart, but he had recently been suffering from back and shoulder aches and a sore throat. Dr. G. must find out whether he died from a long term health problem or complications from his recent ailment.

Kiss of Death?

Dr. G tries to unravel a case in which a quadriplegic woman was found dead in a park, 150 feet away from her motorized wheelchair.

The Desperate Crossing

A young girl collapses and dies while with her family in a wave pool at a theme park, and Dr. G must determine the cause.

Dangerous Forces

Dr. G must determine whether a decomposed body found in a van was murdered, a suicide or a victim of an accidental drug overdose. Another case involves the body of a homeless man found in the back of a car.

Dr. G: Medical Examiner documents cases handled by deputy chief medical examiner Dr. Jan C. Garavaglia (aka Dr. G) of Florida's District Nine Medical Examiner's Office. Each episode features two or three cases Dr. G has handled in the Orlando area, and also in Bexar County, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida where she was previously employed. Some portions of the show have been dramatized and some names have been changed to protect the dignity of individuals and their families.

A Most Terrible Tragedy

Seasons8

Season 2 Episodes18

Cast1

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