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1994's Most Bizarre Suicide |
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Sunday, 15 October 1995 |
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At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American
Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper
Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal
complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story.
"On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of
Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound
of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a
ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a
note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth
floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through
a window, 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
washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete
his suicide anyway because of this."
"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit
suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended."
That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below
probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to
homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been
successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on
his hands.
"The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast
emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were
arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset
that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and
the pellets went through the window striking Opus."
"When one intends to kill subject A but 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 both adamant that
neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his
long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He
had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus
appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally
loaded."
"The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the
fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's
financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to
use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation
that his father would shoot his mother.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the
death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist.
"Further investigation revealed that the son [Ronald
Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his
attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the
ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast
through a ninth story window.
"The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."
This Ain't True
The story is written as if it is true. It sounds true. It isn't.
Read about its origin at snopes.com.
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