From the ‘Doctor Death’ in Australia to the UK’s highest-profile morticians, these professionals have seen it all when it comes to the worst ways to die
The Australian ‘Doctor Death’ has revealed the grimmest ways to meet your maker after spending decades investigating the macabre and morbid.
Forensic pathologist Roger Byard has examined hundreds of fatalities ranging from serial killer victims to deadly encounters with roosters and other creatures.
“I’ve been collecting animal deaths. Dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel,” Roger ADMITTED during a recent episode of the I Catch Killers podcast, hosted by former detective chief inspector Gary Jubelin.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” the pathologist remarked when describing how a fisherman in Australia’s Northern Territory perished after a 25-kilogram mackerel leapt from the water and struck him, killing him instantly, in Darwin Harbour.
During the programme, Byard, who occupies the George Richard Marks Chair of Pathology at the University of Adelaide, also recounted one of his earliest cases, which remains etched in Australian notoriety, dubbed the ‘bodies in barrels’ murders, reports the Express.
This killing spree terrorised Down Under throughout the 90s. “I didn’t realise that when the head of Major Crime calls you, it’s pretty serious,” Roger SAID.
The gruesome murders took place in Snowtown, South Australia, led by the ringleader John Justin Bunting, along with Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis. Their twisted form of vigilantism involved torturing and killing suspected paedophiles without substantial evidence, as well as targeting members of the LGBTQ community and victims based on their weight.
“That was my first week on call, actually,” Roger said, “there were eight bodies partially dismembered in the barrels,” which he and his team had to examine after a colleague noticed “there are feet poking about” inside one.
But Doctor Death’s stories get even more bizarre, as he went on to recount how an elderly woman met her end at the claws of her own roosters, which Roger describes as being “nasty creatures”.
“A little old lady out the back collecting eggs… (the rooster) went for her and she had varicose veins, and it pecked her leg (causing her to die).”
Varicose veins are a medical condition where veins become swollen and twisted and can bleed significantly if cut.
Roger added: “I’ve had a number of deaths of people with varicose veins who have just had minor trauma. There was a cat scratch (that killed the victim).
“This is the reason I publish this stuff, it’s not because it’s bizarre and weird. It’s to let people know that if you’ve got varicose veins and you get a small hole, lie down and put your finger over it and elevate it… you’ll survive. But you never trust a rooster.”
Despite the occasional light-hearted moment during the interview, Roger highlighted the emotional strain that comes with being a forensic pathologist.
“Nobody talks about PTSD with forensic pathologists,” he said. “We see incinerated bodies, dismembered bodies, children starved to death. Then we have to describe it all in detail in court-sometimes while getting our credibility torn apart.
“When I first started, I thought I was gonna find the causes of all these deaths – I was gung-ho. And then as I got further and further into my career, I realised that, no, I’m not going to find answers all the time.
“And I’m going to have to sit down with families and say ‘I have no idea’. All I can say to them is ‘It was nothing that you did’. And also, a lot of the time they just want to meet the person that looked after their baby between the time when they saw the baby last, and when they saw their baby at the funeral home.”