One woman died because of her varicose veins (Image: Getty)
The Australian ‘Doctor Death’ has revealed the most disturbing ways of dying after decades examining the ghastly and gruesome.
Forensic pathologist Roger Byard has investigated hundreds of deaths ranging from serial killer victims to fatal encounters with cockerels and other creatures.
“I’ve been collecting animal deaths. Dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel,” Roger admitted during an episode of the I Catch Killers podcast, presented by former detective chief inspector Gary Jubelin.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” the pathologist remarked when describing how an angler 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 infamy, recognised as the ‘bodies in barrels’ murders, reports the Daily Star.
The woman had been attacked by her rooster (Image: Getty)
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 stated.
The horrific slayings took place in Snowtown, South Australia, orchestrated by ringleader John Justin Bunting, alongside Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis.
Their twisted form of vigilantism involved torturing and murdering suspected paedophiles without concrete evidence, while also targeting LGBTQ community members 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 colleagues were required to examine after a team member noticed “there are feet poking about” inside one.
Robert Wagner, who helped kill 12 people in the Snowtown murders. (Image: Getty)
Yet Doctor Death’s accounts grow even more remarkable, as he went on to describe how an elderly woman lost her life at the claws of one of her own cockerels, which Roger characterises as “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 profusely if punctured.
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 moment of levity throughout the interview, Roger stressed the profound emotional burden 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.”
