mind=blown. if you read this

Murder or
Suicide?
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science,
AUFS President the Harper Mills astounded his audience
with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the
story.
in March 23, 1994 the medical examiner
stewed the body of Ronald Opus
that he died from a
shotgun wound to the head. Mr, Opus
had jumped from the top of a truestory
building intending to commit suicide.
He left a note to. the effect indicating his
As he fell past the ninth floor his the was
interrupted by a shotgun blast passing.
through a window. w_ hit: l' t killed him
instantly. new the shooter not the
was aware ti’ -are safety net’
had been. installing just below the. eighth
floor Bevel to protect some building
not
have been able to complete
the. way he had planned.
person who. sets out to
and , even though the
mechanism might not be what he
intended. is still defined
suicide.‘ That Mr, (lpum was shot on the
way to certain death, but .
not have been successful becau. statt. f the,
safety rm caused the m. ed.
to that that a__ e. -not i__ homicidia on his
when confronted with e murder
charge the old man and is state were
both adamant and both said that they
thought the shotgun was unloaded. the
old man said it was a habit
to threaten his wife with the unloaded
shotgun. He had no intention to murder
her. Therefore the killing of hdr. Opus
appeared to be an accident; that is, if the
gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a
witness who saw the old cowpie‘ s son.
loading the shotgun about six weeks prior
to the fatal accident. it transpired that
the old lady had tut off her son' s
financial support and the son, knowing
the propensity of_ h' rs father to use the
shotgun threateningly, gun
with tht expectation that his father
would shoot his, mother.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of
this, he was guilty of the
though he didn' t aptj. pull the trigger.
The cashnow becomes one of murder on
the part olathe son ‘for the death of
pris,
Now corner twist
leather ". akd that the
son" was in tact, -Ronald Opus he had
xpost. carer the
failure of his attempt to engineer his
teii. t.. h. t. tsm. utt. This led him to JUMP
serr, . d. on Marat 23rd,
this We that we these. -M bites
himself so
demoed examiner closed the Gillie as