Episode 8: Missing Arm

Uncovering Secrets: A Tale of Homicide, Dogs, and the Unexpected
Episode Spotlight from Kohroner Chronicles with Dr. Roland Kohr

Welcome to Kohroner Chronicles, the podcast where Dr. Roland Kohr, forensic pathologist, delves into the intriguing and often perplexing world of forensic science. In today’s episode, Dr. Kohr recounts a case from his time in Terre Haute that took an unusual turn, blending the tragic, the bizarre, and the unexpectedly humorous.

The story begins on a Sunday afternoon in a residential area near railroad tracks. A dog, seemingly on a mission, had been digging and unearthed something grim: human remains. A passerby stumbled upon the scene and quickly alerted the police. Upon their arrival, authorities contacted Dr. Kohr to oversee the excavation.

The victim, a young woman who had been reported missing weeks earlier, was found buried near a fallen tree, just 50 feet from a well-traveled street. Despite the proximity to a public area, the grave was haphazardly concealed. As the body was uncovered, one detail stood out: part of her upper extremity was missing.

Identification was possible thanks to a unique, unfinished tattoo. A friend of the victim provided a photo of the tattoo’s progress, which matched perfectly. Investigators confirmed that the victim’s significant other, known for a tumultuous relationship with her and threats to her life, was responsible for her murder. 

What followed, however, was a twist no one expected.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Kohroner Chronicles with Dr. Roland Kohr. This is Dr. Roland Kohrr. Forensic pathologist. Uh today I want to talk about a case that had kind of an unusual twist at the end. Uh, even though the initial part was fairly straightforward, Uh, the remains of a young aluminum were found on a Sunday afternoon by a dog who've been digging near some railroad tracks in a residential part of Terre Haute uh a woman had been reported missing by friends and family several weeks earlier.

And friends related that she and her significant other had a very rocky relationship. In fact it even been shared that he had threatened her on multiple occasions, one of these days he was going to kill her and barrier and her log. Uh, just so happened, a dog, digging in an area near railroad trash, just within 50 ft of one of the main streets going through Terre, Haute and uncovered, something and somebody had stumbled across it notified, police and the police got there on Sunday afternoon and proceeded to further excavate.

Before the excavation commenced. Of course, they gave me a call and I got there to oversee things and see what we're dealing with. Uh as it was there was a large piece of a fallen tree that had been kind of partially placed over the side of the burial. Uh, with the burial was not that far away from again a commonly, you know, traveled Street.

And was done exactly well concealed. As we examine the body and got it on, we found that. Unfortunately, we were missing the better part of one of her upper extremities everything else was there. But one of her arms was missing Still clothing there. Uh, we eventually were able to identify her at the time using a Very unique tattoo.

It was something that was a work in progress that had not been finished, but a friend, had a cell phone photo that matched, just what stage she'd been at and location. Turned out. Uh, she had been murdered by her significant other and I don't even remember at this point what the means of death was, whether it was a gunshot versus a blunt force, trauma to the head or something like that type, The bottom line is we were dealing with a homicide.

Uh being it was a Sunday, once we got the body out and was transported to the hospital. And uh, scheduled to do an autopsy on Monday. Now Monday Morning came along and as I recall, I had two separate cases that day and hers ended up being the second of the two.

And as usual, we had in attendance, several detectives and anonymous technician to document everything as we went through the case. Uh case was finished up and as it was frequently, the case with my morning work, uh, got done shortly before lunch time. So after I left the board and generated, my paperwork, for my preliminary report and headed down the cafeteria for lunch.

Again, Terre Haute is a relatively small town had two active TV stations at the time newspaper. And the local TV news had already been broadcasted. The fact that a woman's remains had been found at this particular location in town. And um so people were aware of it and it was not unusual that people in the hallways at the hospital and they would stop me from time to time asked me what they could about cases and certain things I could share certain things I could not.

That particular day. I was standing in line with cafeteria waiting to get my food, and one of the girls who come to work in Radiology, Uh, mentioned that she had seen the report and asked if I've done the autopsy which I said. Yes. Is, you know, Doc, you're going to think I'm crazy.

But, uh, When I go home and work from work, every night, I drive in that General neighborhood, drive through there to get to where I live. And Friday. I saw a dog walking down the street and I could have sworn, he was carrying a leg. Uh, she got my attention real quick, and I didn't say what we're dealing with, I, but I told her I said, Tell you what.

Uh, that is probably going to be irrelevant. I'm gonna get in touch place and they're going to give you a call and probably ask you some more details about what they all look like. Where exactly you sell it, what direction? It was heading. Should it wasn't a lag but Nevertheless, there was a missing part.

So anyway, Not after. Now, the police were called that the hospital sat down with her and took what details? They could and got a nice description of the dog, the neighborhood and so forth. And then uh started canvassing the neighborhood. Looking for that dog. Uh, needless to say they never were able to locate the dog.

Certainly never located a place where the dog had deposited the bones. But uh out there somewhere within the city limits, there are the remains of This Woman's arm that the dog had managed to dig up. Uncovering, the body and drop off, Lord knows where Now, this has been Good 20, 25 years ago that this all took place and I can just imagine at some point.

Somewhere down the road, somebody's going to be Like a New Foundation digging up something else. If you're going to come across human bones and wondering what the heck's going to go on or what took place and launch an entire new homicide investigation. This one was resolved way back when.

Uh, but uh, sort of things like this, do not happen with, you know, I will say where to, you know, in terms of being actual human bones. Yeah, that's rare. But it was commonplace at least once or twice a year. Someone would show up from my office, usually, from law enforcement that had been called by a homeowner.

Somebody with bone segments, and say, oh my God, we found this. We were diggling our basement or I was putting in new shrubs on the house and I came, you know what? What are these A lot of Hunters when they're done with their hunt, they'll dump the bones from a deer.

You know. On their own property. They may bury them, they may not You know why people marry stuff like that in their you know, dirt floor basements is beyond me but we've seen that before. Uh, got one of the more unusual ones I ever saw was brought in. It was about six inch length of bone, which was right about the right diameter to have been a human leg bone.

But I had unusual tool marks on it, you know, when I talk about two marks on a ball, we're talking about things that look like they've been imparted, grooves, cut in it from either, you know, knife edge, or maybe, you know, crowbar or whatever. And I looked at this bone and thought, man, there's something unusual about those Made this one particularly unusual.

Um wasn't these were all the way around the bone involved in the entire length of the ballot. I'm looking at this bond to kind of racket my brain. What the world could this be from? And then it finally hit me. And I had one of those aha moments which I always find amusing because, ah, frequently I come up with those long before anybody else in the room.

Does of course, the cops are looking at me. Like the idea is not because I know what we're dealing with. So apparently the spiral sliced ham had a nice spiral grooves of the bone all the way around. And whenever done with it, Supply must have thoughts it to the dog, the dog had, you know, got meat off of it and then Jones to bury it somewhere and years later somebody digs it up in their basement.

And so while they we go from oh my God we got a unsolved Thomas side to nah. Most cases at least kind of give a little levity to the case. And you know, cut out nice break from the usual summer and dire things we deal with but Wondered, you know, at some point or other The arm bones in that one are going to turn up someplace in Terre Haute and there's going to be all kind of commotion as a result.