Earl Taylor

A Legacy of Justice: Dr. Roland Kohr's Unorthodox Career

Dr. Roland Kohr, a distinguished coroner with decades of experience spanning 13 counties in Indiana and Illinois, has seen more than his share of unusual cases. Though typically called to testify for the prosecution, his expertise has been sought in both civil and criminal cases, including cold cases requiring fresh perspectives. One such case involved Earl Taylor, a man whose actions would haunt two generations of Terre Haute residents.

The Death of Earl's Second Wife: A Midnight Drive Turned Deadly

In 1987, Earl Taylor claimed his wife couldn’t sleep one night. His solution? A late-night drive, supposedly to help her relax. After waking a babysitter and dropping off their two young children, the couple embarked on a drive that would end in tragedy.

According to Earl, a raccoon darted across the road, causing his wife to swerve their Pontiac Fiero into a pond. Earl allegedly escaped but was unable to free his wife. He ran to a nearby condominium complex for help, conveniently knocking on the door of their church minister. By the time first responders arrived, his wife had drowned.

The story unraveled quickly. Investigators found several troubling details:

• The driver's seat was pushed so far back that Earl's wife, barely over five feet tall, couldn’t have reached the pedals.
• The driver’s seatbelt was jammed into the passenger-side receptacle, rigged with a coin to prevent release.
• Black electrical tape obscured the dome light, making the interior harder to see.
• A child's rubber ball had been wedged into the door and steering wheel, locking the wheel in a straight position.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the coroner Chronicles with Dr. Roland core. Most of the cases I've done over my career have been based upon the county where I was elected coroner initially, Uh, but I've picked up other counties over the course of the decades. And at the time I retired from full-time.

Practice was handling referrals. From 13 different counties, both in Indiana and Illinois. Now, I'm sometimes asked by defense attorneys during cross-examination. Well, how many times have you testified for the prosecution? Versus how many times have you testified for the defense? And I've got to say, well probably about 99 of the time, the prosecution.

Really simple. Why? Because prosecution or the attorneys that Subpoena made it testify defense, attorneys usually don't, which is unfortunately, they're helpful because Uh, a lot of different uh, evidence can come out now. Over my career, besides justifying in criminal cases around here. I have occasionally been called upon to testify as a defense attorney uh moreover the last few years because My name's gotten out there and I've had a requests from Authorities in the state of Montana, wanting me to serve as a expert witness for the public defender system.

Um, I've also got involved serving on. Non-Criminal matters civil cases such as wrongful death. Things of that type where I will be retained either by plaintiffs or defense attorneys depending upon, you know, who's hiring? And again, Word of Mouth kind of gets out there. And once I've done a case for one attorney, If I've done well, which most of them seem to think I do reasonably well?

They tend to call me back for other cases. So some attorneys. I've now, handled three, four, five different cases for them over the last couple years. Then kind of how after my first Montana case now I've gotten three others. Since then that they keep coming back to me because they like my style and my thoroughs But the other time.

I get called to be an expert sometimes in cold cases, I know, cold cases are a source of a lot of Fascination by a lot of people because Dragging up, something that was kind of pushed aside, forgotten was considered unsolvable. That now years later, applying new technology is able to come up with something.

But sometimes it's not just new technology, it's just getting a fresh set of eyes and looking at it from a different perspective. Now in other episodes, I've talked about how sometimes autopsies are not done necessarily by forensic pathologists but by hospital-based Pathologists that lack forensic training and forensic experience.

Unfortunately, if you go back 40, 50, 60 years ago, the number of practicing forensic pathologists in this country was extremely low, it's still low. Even to this day and age. There's estimated probably only about 50 as many as there need to be because of caseloads So we tend to be stretched somewhat thin, but if you go back into the 70s like in case I'm about to discuss.

Uh, there may have been a one or two forensic pathologists in the entire state of Indiana. And it's not like, The number of, you know, murders and other suspicious deaths was Tiny back then because the population is not exactly tripled or quadrupled in that time. Now the particular case I'm going to talk about has to do with a gentleman named Earl Taylor.

Uh, Earl Taylor. I first learned about in 1988 because it was considered a very high profile trial. Earl had provided a story to explain the death of his wife in 1987, Uh, claiming that, uh, One night, she'd been unable to go to sleep. And she, you know, Finally woken up our own said, I just can't sleep and his response was okay, we'll take a drive because that always makes you drowsy Now, they had at the time, two small children, uh, I think both below the age of six and so here it is.

At midnight on a weekday, they call a babysitter, wake her up. Get two kids out of bed at that age, take him to the babysitters and then go out for a drive. So uh, His wife can fall asleep. Lo and behold while they're out driving according to Earl's study a raccoon darts, across the road.

Uh on the east side of town and if she swerves to miss it, the Pontiac Fiero, she was driving Vears into a pond, that's about an acre in size, right off. One of the main roads, Uh, hits the water and sinks like a stone. Now, somehow, Earl's able to get out of the car.

I tries to get her out count and then runs up the hill across the street to, uh, A uh, condominium complexion is pounds on the door. Well, the door he pounds on just happens to be where the minister of their Church goes. And a change. And he says, you know, there's been a horrible accident, please call 9-1-1.

By the time, police get there and rescue workers. She's dead. At the time, there were no forensic pathology. Services being available. Terre Haute. I had not yet been elected coroner the existing corner of the time. It will assume any cases because he's afraid I might be after his job.

Uh so this case was sent Indianapolis that had a group of three very talented qualified forensic pathologist uh native the autopsy. And they concluded it was consistent with drowning. Now, where the case got a little tricky in this situation was Browning is never a definitive diagnosis. Drowning has to be predicated upon certain other factors such as why did the person drown.

And even an Olympic swimmer, like, Uh, Michael Phelps could drown under certain circumstances, such as he's drugged heavily, intoxicated with alcohol or Dives in hits his head in his unconscious and can't swim his way out. But in this case, Let us say, okay, why did this young woman drown?

What caused her to drown and not be able to get out? Extensive toxicology was done. They're never able to find out exactly any drugs in our system. But there was nothing else to really explain it. However, Certain inconsistencies occurred once they got the car out of the water. Uh, the car was pulled from the water placed in an impound lot and then examined by police investigators within a couple of days.

And suddenly there are some things that were very strange. Uh, for Uh, she had been found in the driver's seat. First quarter to his story, she'd been placed there because driving is what made her drowsy not being a passenger. But the problem was she was just a little bit over five feet tall and the driver's seat was pushed so far back that there's no way that her feet could have even touched the pedals.

Furthermore her seat belt instead of being plugged into the receptacle for the drivers, was plugged into the receptacle for the passenger side. And a small coin had been jammed in so that when you trust tried to push the release button, the seat belt would not release. On top of that, black electricians tape had been used to cover over the dome light on the inside of the car.

So it wouldn't be able to be seen And then lastly, a child's rubbed, the bulb and placed between the door and the steering wheel. In such a way that when the door was shut, the steering wheel was kept straight, so it would not turn one way or the other.

All those were very suspicious and to add to it then Earl within a day or so was Contacting his insurance agent, trying to file claims for her gift. Now, most people that point would have been grieving would have been despondent, you know, two small kids to take care of but he seemed to be somewhat nonchalant about the whole process.

Uh, there are other aspects of its personal life and possible. Another relationship he was doing on the side that came at the light during trial. Uh but the big things were that this was obviously, something very peculiar. There's no way she could have been driving the car. When our feet can't reap the pedals, when the seat belts in the wrong spots or something is definitely a Miss.

And then to top it all off, the police decided that they would try to recreate this accident. So they, you know, instead of choosing any random body of water, they actually went to the same body of water. Locked off the street. Had, you know, State Police video cameras rolling while two new stations in town.

Also, videoed the whole thing. And uh, Put a uh, State Police diver into the car with a air source so that he could get out and he drove into the pond. Now, if Earl story would have been right, the car should have sunk like a rock because that's what he described.

Yet what happened was the car, sat on the surface, and floated for the next couple minutes before I finally started to know was under Now, people that are In their 60s and 70s may remember, the old Volkswagen commercials that used to promote how tightly built Volkswagens were in the old days.

And there was actually a commercial that showed a Volkswagen being driven, under the water and floating on the surface because all the rubber seals around the doors were so well manufactured, and the tolerances are so tight that it would float for a while. When I saw this on the newscast that night, Uh, anyway, his story was just so inconsistent with the facts, the fact that the car had been doctored in so many ways that he hadn't been able to, you know, Undo, because of the impound.

The Earl was nevertheless convicted of murdering his wife. He was sentenced to prison and served close to 20 years. For his role in this, he finally got out for good behavior and time served and for whatever reason returned to the Terre Haute area to finish out his life. Now, what makes it really interesting is this is not the first wife of our roles that had died under mysterious circumstances.

It turns out back in 1975, his first wife had died, Uh back in 1975. The circumstances were that he had called 9-1. Well 911 didn't exist in 75 but he called a three say I got home from work and found my wife dead in the bathtub.

Now, they were in a small ranch style house, you know, typical bathroom, not exactly huge by today's standards. And he claims that when he got there, she was submerged underwater. Uh, but a clock radio had fallen into the water and possibly electrocuted her, which had then caused her to drown in the bathtub.

Now, back in 1975 that was considered very suspicious, regardless, among other things. Uh, his first wife had been very suspicious the way he was behaving and even told friends and family members. If anything ever happens to me, you need to look at Earl. Taken out numerous insurance policies on her life and forged her signature on them.

Uh, it turns out he was in the insurance business himself. Uh and so there were little red flags at the time, they'd had an electrical engineer, look at the clock radio. For one, they noticed that this radio that had been supposedly sitting on the edge of the bathtub, so she could listen to music while she bathed.

No longer had the original. Electric cord on it, that was Done by the manufacturer. This radio was like a white or beige color and had a black cord yet. The ones that came out of the box from the factory, all had white cords. It obviously changed the chord out.

The fact, the standard issued court came from the manufacturer was You know, three or four feet long and this was eight feet long such that it would reach all the way the bathtub. Whereas another one wouldn't the original? Of course, that begs the question. Why would anyone balance an electric Appliance on the edge of a tub while?

They're taking a bath, knowing the potential hazards. Now, um, In spite of that, uh, you know, they were still suspicious autopsy was done at the time by a pathologist at one of the two hospitals he found. But again, we were talking non-phrinescent pathologist and, um, Really not being able to say anything other than, you know, looks like drowning.

25 years, go by almost, almost 30 years before Earl gets out, back in town. And at this point, it just so happens that the production company for one of the Networks that does these, you know, True crime stories had been in town working on another case with local authorities.

Uh, after they succeeded in helping getting charges filed. In that case, producers said, you know, it's been very nice working with your your Sheriff's department. Yhs, do you have any other interesting cases? We might be, you know. They'll look into. Insurance department produce a couple suggestions. And this one of the Earl's first wife kind of intrigued them said yeah, we'll like to come back and do that one.

So they started recruiting people, they started looking up relatives. Of his first wife, they talked to retired police officers, that had been involved with the first investigation. And they contacted me and said Dr. Core would you take a look at the records we have in this case and the photographs and see what you think.

Now, back in 75, when this happened, I was graduating from college hadn't, even started medical school till that fall. And certainly hadn't chosen a career in pathology let alone forensics. So this was way before my time. And I said, well, sir be happy to look at the case. Well, the problem was the autism report, which we got was incomplete, was missing a page or two.

We never were able to locate toxicology records to see if they'd done exhaustive possibility or found anything or whatever. We had an autopsy that was focusing on natural disease, which was what was typically done by Hospital Pathologists back in the day, you know, did they die heart disease? This or that looking more for disease processes than necessarily trauma.

And they're only a handful of photographs that were taken from scene and certainly no photographs from the autopsy itself. Nevertheless, as I started looking through this stuff, a couple things popped up to me. Autopsy really. In a drowning is usually used to exclude other causes of death. There's no magic finding in the drowning.

You can drown and have dry looking lungs. You can drown and have wet looking dogs. You can kill somebody from some other method and put them in water and have them have wet lungs. So, French pathologist when they have a driving case generally say consistent with drowning based on XYZ circumstances rather than just Drowning, because we found water because That's inappropriate.

Well. One thing they did notice was her stomach contents. Now, according to Earl's story, You know, he's left for work and she was going to take a bath, obviously that morning yet. When they looked in their stomach, they found residues of peas and carrots. Now for most people peas and carrots are not exactly breakfast Fair.

You know, maybe Fruity Pebbles or something but you know, peas and carrots. Nah. And although not all food is, well preserved in the stomach, some things do stand out because they undergo minimal degradation. If you've got clear peas and carrots that tells me, This happened after an evening meal before digestion had taken place.

And so more likely, it happened closer to the prior evening than the morning that he alleges it happened. Now, the other thing they noticed was, there's a bruise on her forehead and some small bruises on her shoulders. Those were significant. Now, as I'm looking at the picture, something else kind of caught my eye, which apparently nobody else had noticed and that refers to the position she was in When authorities got there and took pictures, she was laying, not in the tub, but was laying on the floor on a small.

You know, carpet, they're in the bathroom. Laying perfectly flat. Now let's face it. Both bathtubs are not six feet long and you can't lie down, fully stretched out. Typical bathtub is about four, four and a half feet long. So people tend to be in a seated position in the tub.

And if she had died in the morning in warm bath water, and been electrocuted, which speeds up the onset of rigor. Then by the time he found her that afternoon when he got home from work, she should have been in a bent position bent at the waist. And rigor, when it sets up like that, you're not going to easily just flatten the body out.

You can almost use it like a teeter cutter with the fulcrum. In this case, it would have been our hips. So, that didn't add up. The other thing was, Um, When I looked at the math structure, This was uh you know, typical in 1970s, you know, Beths that had shower heads on them.

Could either have a shower curtain or else, they could have the sliding plastic glass or plastic doors with the track. Uh, those were on track. There was nothing to suggest that those have been knocked down or You know, knock into it all There's also a small plastic soap dish on the edge of the tub.

That was still there with the soap in it. So, I'm thinking, okay, now you've got A woman flowing about being electrocuted. A may have knocked this thing in. But then B, the biggest thing is, If and when Earl got there, that afternoon and found his wife dead and we moved her from the tub.

It would have been lifting 120 lb of dead weight. That was stiff as a board because of the rigor and he would have had almost tender upright. Got her through the passageway of the shower door. And then later down flattered out without either knocking the door off track. Knocking the soap dish back into the tub, or onto the floor.

And not managing to scrape up her back or her size or her arms, as he's trying to move this 120 lb through a narrow passageway and none of those were described. Instead, all we've got the only injuries on our body, are the little bruise on her forehead and what she's got on her shoulders.

So based upon that I said, you know, I can't say 100 for certain what happened but His version of the story. There's no way it happened that way because of her position in full rigor running flat, Um lack of any type of damage to the door. So it just there's no way it happened that way and certainly, you know, unless you know she routinely has, you know, peas and carrots for breakfast, that doesn't make sense either.

Well, of course, other things were coming together with case and Now Earl in all his wisdom decide, he was going to defend himself, fired his lawyer because he thought he was smart enough to get away with this one as well. When I testify in this case, My impression was more likely.

When he drowned her, he drowned her in the tub, by holding her face down, and may have actually climbed into the tub with her, used his shoulders to hold his knees to hold down her shoulders. While I used his hands to keep her head forced down, which will explain the bruise on her forehead.

Also the small bruising on the backs of her shoulders. A that's going to make it very easy for her to, you know, not be able to fight back because he was a bigger man than she was a woman. But the other thing is you've got to consider if somebody's trying to Me in a bathtub and they come on and I'm sitting upright.

I'm gonna do whatever it takes, try and get them off which includes kicking Uh and if it takes trying to kick somebody and you know their mail genitalia to try to get them to release, I would do that because it's life or death. If you hold them face down with their shoulders pinned down, They can't kick you because their legs.

Don't bend that way. She's basically all she can do is Bend at the knees and maybe, you know, Driver hails into his buttocks or his back, but he's not going to be able to kick him anywhere else. That made a lot more sense to me that, uh, that's how he held it now.

Uh regardless of some inconsistencies that was not emphasized by the prosecutor's office. But uh the case did go to trial And he was convicted of murdering his first wife based on those sort of things as well as the other evidence we had. But Fish like that are kind of fun because it's problem solving without all the tools.

Now what I'd like to have had a full autopsy. Yes. What I have liked that have done the autopsy myself. Yes. But obviously when it happens, you know 30 years before You know, the trial that's not an option that I had available to me. Would it have been nice to know what the Taj colleges showed how he possibly maybe drugged her to get her suited that she would, you know, be less resistant when he attacked her.

Yeah, but nevertheless, This was when we were able to establish and Earl's not going to get out this time. On. Good behavior. Anything else? He's going to spend the rest of his life in jail. So Some degree assassin. In that case, Justice was served although late.