A Real Murder Mystery
For those who have served on a jury, this one is something to think
about.
Just when you think you have heard everything.
Do you like to read a good murder mystery?
Not even "Midsummer Murders" would attempt to capture this mess. This is
an unbelievable twist of fate!!!!
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS
President, Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal
complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994... The medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus
, and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to
commit suicide.
He left a note to that effect indicating his despondency. As he fell
past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast
passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had
been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some
building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
Complete his suicide the way he had planned.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was
occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously
and he was threatening her with a shotgun! The man was so upset that
when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the
pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject 'A', but kills subject 'B' instead, one
is guilty of the murder of subject 'B.'
When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were
both adament, and both said they thought the shotgun was not loaded, the
old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the
unloaded shotgun.. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore, the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident, assuming
the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
accident.. 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. Since the loader of the gun was aware
of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull
the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son
for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist...
Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus.
He 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 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing
through the ninth story window.The son, Ronald Opus, had actually
murdered himself.
So the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from 'Associated Press
