Excerpts

CSI OLD SCHOOL
EXCERPTS

THE BASEMENT WAS MORE OF A CELLAR-DARK AND FOREBODING.

Before taking my first step down into the basement I found myself thinking, “What the hell am I doing here?” Fortunately, no one present knew what I was thinking—nor did they know that I had to force myself to take the first step down those narrow and dark stairs into the unknown….. The most surprising challenge for me to overcome in those early days was the absolute stillness of death. The absence of life was, at times for me, deafening. Maybe we all develop our own coping mechanisms, but somehow that was the hardest for me to conquer. The absence of life, in what was shortly before a living being, felt to me as if I were in some sort of void or vacuum. But it wasn’t simply the quietness. Perhaps it is similar to what being in another dimension might feel like. I tried to discern the difference, focusing on what seemed to have changed. Was it simply the cessation of biological life functions, the absence of the soul, or something else? I never learned the answer, but the sensation was real, at least for me.

and my presence was needed as soon as possible. Pekin was approximately forty-five miles from where I lived in Bloomington, depending on the route I traveled, and based on the weather, I could tell that this trip would take extra time. The rain was relentless; so hard that the fastest speed of the wipers couldn’t remotely keep up with the speed at which the windshield was again covered and the road obliterated from view. The other windows in my squad car were useless not only because of the unending rain, but also because of the relentless lightning, which was everywhere. The continual lightning strands were so bright and fast that they replicated a strobe light effect, accompanied by deafening thunder, which made it impossible to properly focus on the road. The edges of the road were virtually invisible, and I couldn’t risk too much speed for fear of hydroplaning, yet I knew others were waiting for me. The only thing in my favor was that because the weather was so bad there was very little traffic on the roads. Even so, I would occasionally still lose focus from the horrific driving conditions, playing over the possible scene I would soon face. I found myself praying not only for a safe arrival, but for calmness in what I was about to encounter…. To many, the scene I walked into would have appeared completely chaotic. In a relatively small house, there were three brutally murdered family members; pooling and splattered blood throughout the house; items strewn about; a closet door removed from its hinges; teeth lying on the floor; a bent knife sticking out of the upper back of one of the victims; and copious wounds on all of the bodies that were visible to us in the positions where they had fallen, or lain, as they drew their last breaths. We would not know the complete extent and nature of all the wounds for hours, until such time we could fully examine them at autopsy; however, even at first sight, there was no doubt that the clearly visible wounds were of an unimaginable and brutal nature.

I HAD BEEN CALLED OUT TO INVESTIGATE A TRIPLE MURDER IN PEKIN, ILLINOIS

WHEN I ENTERED THE UNNATURALLY SILENT APARTMENT, IFOUND THE SUITCASE EXACTLY WHERE SHE TOLD ME IT WOULD BE.

Although I thought that I had sufficiently prepared myself for the recovery of what I expected to be a deceased infant, I cannot explain the visceral emotions that surfaced within me as I first located the suitcase, and then gently removed it from its hiding place in the closet. I found myself picking it up with extra care, not wanting to further disturb or damage its fragile contents. I carefully placed it on the nearby bed, and then opened the latches to slowly expose the small, beautifully formed but lifeless human being inside—all the while secretly hoping for a miracle. But my miracle was not to be. The umbilical cord was, indeed, wrapped around its little neck so tightly that it took every bit of restraint I could muster not to pull it free. There was no doubt that the child was deceased. Professionally, I knew that I could not disturb its condition, any more than was absolutely necessary, prior to the pathologist’s autopsy. One life was already lost, but the future of the mother still hung in the balance.