[osreb]

A Murder Mystery (true story) A must read

For those who have served on 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? Well, here is a good one
for you!

Not even Law and Order 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 the 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' in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject 'B.'

When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife
were both adamant, and both said that 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; that
is, 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.