A Question of Murder

Synopsis

No one has performed more autopsies in high-profile cases than Dr. Cyril Wecht. During the past four decades, he has dissected more than 16,000 bodies to determine how and why they died. He has testified in hundreds of trials and exhumed dozens of corpses. He's investigated the deaths of presidents and princes, coal miners and Hollywood stars.

From the tragic homicides of Laci Peterson and Nicole Brown Simpson to the mysteries that surround the deaths of JonBenét Ramsey and Natalee Hollaway, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, the New York Times, and scores of other publications constantly call upon Dr. Wecht to provide his expert analysis.

In this new book, Dr. Wecht and true-crime journalist Dawna Kaufmann present five fascinating mysteries:
• Who or what killed Anna Nicole Smith's young son, Daniel?
• Who or what killed Anna Nicole Smith? Was her son's death associated with her own demise just months later? Dr. Wecht considers whether someone attempted to get one or both of them out of the way.
• Who killed twelve-year-old Stephanie Crowe, who was found stabbed to death in the hallway of her home? Dr. Wecht's acumen helped straighten out a baffling whodunit that had left local law enforcement going down the wrong path.
• Should David Westerfield be on death row for the murder of his seven-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam? What were the mistakes and victories in that dramatic trial?
• During the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, did medical professionals at a distinguished New Orleans hospital purposely inject elderly patients with heart-stopping medications? What does the evidence say?

The combined expertise of one of theleading forensic pathologists in the world and an accomplished true-crime journalist come together in this riveting page-turner filled with many details about these notable cases available nowhere else.

Publishers Weekly

An expert who has consulted on investigations ranging from JFK's assassination to the murder of Laci Peterson, forensic pathologist Wecht dissects five recent high-profile cases. The opening chapters cover the deaths of former Playboy centerfold Anna Nicole Smith and her 20-year-old son, Daniel. Rumors abounded, and Wecht-called in by Smith's lawyer and friend Howard K. Stern to perform a second autopsy-determined that Daniel and Smith both died of accidental drug overdoses. In the murders of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe in 1998 and seven-year-old Danielle van Dam in 2002 in their San Diego homes, Wecht agreed with prosecutors who argued that Crowe had been stabbed by a mentally unstable transient, but in the van Dam case, he concluded that the girl was kidnapped and later killed by a neighbor. In the most compelling section, Wecht explores the case of a doctor accused of administering fatal doses of morphine to nine hospital patients during Hurricane Katrina. But fascinating as the cases are, and though Wecht's breadth of forensic knowledge and experience is undeniable, these stories lack cohesion and too often veer into unnecessary minutiae. (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.