Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Corey Micciolo - Forced To Run to Death

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Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Corey Micciolo - Forced To Run to Death · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:08
Speaker 1: Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. Weapons. We talk a
0:19
Speaker 1: lot about weapons in forensics, and sometimes you come across
0:26
Speaker 1: things other than knives and guns, anything that you can
0:31
Speaker 1: bludgeon somebody with bare hands, ligatures, fire. You think about
0:38
Speaker 1: all of things and you think about, well, those items,
0:44
Speaker 1: those elements can be easily weaponized weapons of convenience many times.
0:52
Speaker 1: But I have a question, is it possible that someone
1:01
Speaker 1: could potentially lethally weaponize exercise. We're going to find out
1:11
Speaker 1: and we're going to have a discussion about a six
1:14
Speaker 1: year old boy who unfortunately is no longer with us.
1:21
Speaker 1: I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and this is body Bags. I
1:28
Speaker 1: was never a grand athlete, Dave. I played football in
1:32
Speaker 1: high school around a lot of really great athletes, people
1:37
Speaker 1: that went on to have pro careers, but all of
1:40
Speaker 1: us suffered equally in football. It proved well when I
1:44
Speaker 1: went off into the military because it's like, okay, I
1:47
Speaker 1: can do this because of what I had gone through
1:49
Speaker 1: in high school was football, and there were times when
1:52
Speaker 1: I felt like my coaches, as I know your coaches
1:56
Speaker 1: were using exercise to punish you. And it really wasn't
2:00
Speaker 1: like you're trying to improve yourself. What they're trying to
2:03
Speaker 1: do is improve your mental mental state, to pay attention
2:06
Speaker 1: to detail.
2:07
Speaker 2: Joe, I understand what you're saying there, but you know,
2:10
Speaker 2: you're talking high school, college military using exercise not for exercise,
2:17
Speaker 2: but for discipline. And I get it, But we're talking
2:20
Speaker 2: about a six year old boy here. We don't even
2:22
Speaker 2: really know exactly when Christopher Gregor and Corey's mother, Brianna
2:26
Speaker 2: michlo first met. We know that Brianna Michloh was seventeen,
2:30
Speaker 2: Christopher Gregor was twenty one when Brianna Michloh gave birth
2:33
Speaker 2: to Corey. Gregor was reportedly not in the boy's life
2:36
Speaker 2: until he was five years old, and it was only
2:38
Speaker 2: at that time when Brianna Michloh saw it child support
2:41
Speaker 2: from Gregor, that a paternity test was done and when
2:45
Speaker 2: he came back with well, I'm not paying child support,
2:47
Speaker 2: I'm getting custody, and he did. He got custody of Corey.
2:51
Speaker 3: Michelo.
2:52
Speaker 2: Now, the very first meeting that Corey allegedly that Corey
2:57
Speaker 2: had with his dad, the very first time they were alone,
3:01
Speaker 2: Corey allegedly returned home to his mother with a busted lip.
3:04
Speaker 2: According to New Jersey Online, Micheloh didn't believe Christopher Gregor's
3:08
Speaker 2: excuse that he accidentally kicked their son while playing soccer,
3:12
Speaker 2: so she reported it to the DCPP, and DCPP caseworker
3:17
Speaker 2: accepted the story as told by Christopher Gregor, just an
3:20
Speaker 2: accident I kicked him while were playing soccer and no
3:21
Speaker 2: big deal. They his boom didn't even investigate. Gregor was
3:25
Speaker 2: able to rest custody of Corey away from his mother,
3:30
Speaker 2: Bria Michloh, because Brie had an ongoing drug problem at
3:34
Speaker 2: the time. At one point, Gregor was able to have
3:39
Speaker 2: bri Michelo's visitation taken away due to drugs. Michelo had
3:44
Speaker 2: her visitation restored after she completed a drug treatment program,
3:48
Speaker 2: but for over a year after that first meeting, she
3:52
Speaker 2: claims that Corey was routinely abused by Gregor, and she
3:55
Speaker 2: reportedly suspected the father was using a treadmill as punishment
3:58
Speaker 2: tool during their visitation. Bri Micheloh called authorities one hundred
4:04
Speaker 2: times reporting her son Corey's abuse. Briann Michelo sought an
4:08
Speaker 2: emergency change of custody after seeing the bruises on Corey's
4:11
Speaker 2: body on April first. Okay, April first is a big day.
4:16
Speaker 2: Brianna Michelo has her son. She sees these bruises all
4:19
Speaker 2: over his body. She takes him to the hospital.
4:22
Speaker 3: She gets.
4:24
Speaker 2: A doctor who's an expert in child abuse injuries, and
4:28
Speaker 2: Corey is examined. He has fourteen bruises in various stages
4:31
Speaker 2: of healing on his body. Fourteen. The child is six
4:34
Speaker 2: years old, he's a month away from turning seven. Got
4:37
Speaker 2: bruises all over his body, and Anna Michelo reaches out
4:43
Speaker 2: to get an emergency change of custody because of this
4:47
Speaker 2: and is denied. She takes Corey back to Christopher Gregor's
4:54
Speaker 2: house the next day, and on April the second, Corey
4:57
Speaker 2: gets out of the car, walks to his father's front door,
5:00
Speaker 2: opens the door, no problems walking, talking, everything's fine. The
5:03
Speaker 2: night before at the hospital, no problem with his lungs,
5:06
Speaker 2: no problem with it. He's other than all the bruises
5:08
Speaker 2: on his body, He's fine. He goes to his dad's
5:11
Speaker 2: house and in a matter of hours, Christopher Greyor calls
5:16
Speaker 2: Briannon Michelo. I need Corey's insurance, health insurance stuff. I
5:19
Speaker 2: got to take him to the hospital. He's throwing it up.
5:21
Speaker 2: He's slurring his words and so he hangs up. After
5:24
Speaker 2: getting the information, he doesn't tell Brianda. He doesn't tell
5:27
Speaker 2: Brianna where he's taking her son, which hospital, So she's
5:32
Speaker 2: trying to figure it out. She's calling around all the hospitals,
5:35
Speaker 2: can't find where her son is. She finally calls the
5:38
Speaker 2: police and says, look, I'm not the custodian, but I'm
5:43
Speaker 2: in fear. My son's gonna die. His father has taken him.
5:46
Speaker 2: The hospital won't tell me where you know, and the
5:48
Speaker 2: police then tell her your son has passed. She had
5:53
Speaker 2: just been denied custody okay, had sought an emergency changed
5:58
Speaker 2: because she was in fear for her son's life. And
6:00
Speaker 2: now they're telling him even though she doesn't even know
6:03
Speaker 2: where her son is, he's dead. What has come to
6:06
Speaker 2: light is that when Brianna Michlow took Corey to the doctor,
6:12
Speaker 2: the doctor he specialized in child abuse, she was able
6:18
Speaker 2: to talk to Corey about where these bruises came from.
6:20
Speaker 2: And at first he tried to say it was football,
6:23
Speaker 2: playing football with his dad, practicing football with his dad,
6:26
Speaker 2: but he mentions falling off the treadmill. There's a videotape
6:32
Speaker 2: from March twentieth showing six year old Corey being forced
6:36
Speaker 2: by his father, Christopher Gregor, to get on a treadmill
6:40
Speaker 2: in the workout gym at the apartment complex. Christopher Gregor
6:43
Speaker 2: doesn't know there's surveillance cameras. The surveillance cameras catch Christopher
6:48
Speaker 2: Gregor putting his six year old son on the treadmill
6:50
Speaker 2: and making him run, and when he falls off, he
6:52
Speaker 2: turns it up, makes it go faster. Christopher Gregor kept
6:55
Speaker 2: turning the treadmill up faster and faster and faster as
6:57
Speaker 2: his son tried to run and keep up, but off
7:00
Speaker 2: six times, hitting his face, hitting his sides, getting dinged
7:03
Speaker 2: all up, getting beat up by the treadmill. But six
7:06
Speaker 2: different times Corey Michelo fell off the treadmill because it
7:10
Speaker 2: was going too fast, and Christopher Gregor picked him up
7:13
Speaker 2: and put him back on there and made him run again.
7:15
Speaker 2: At one point he's frustrated and he bites Corey on
7:18
Speaker 2: the head allegedly and puts him back on the treadmill.
7:22
Speaker 2: If not for that video, the case would not be
7:25
Speaker 2: going on.
7:26
Speaker 3: Now.
7:26
Speaker 1: Hey, Dave, have you ever fallen on a treadmill?
7:30
Speaker 3: I have.
7:32
Speaker 1: It's it's one well, first off, there's a crowd round,
7:34
Speaker 1: it's very embarrassing. But secondly, if if I fall on
7:39
Speaker 1: a treadmill, other than having to call an ambulance and
7:43
Speaker 1: a bone surgeon, I'm not getting back on the treadmill immediately.
7:48
Speaker 1: And I'm grown man, been on.
7:50
Speaker 2: I fell once, yeah, and it was last time I
7:52
Speaker 2: was on one yes, yeah, and once and.
7:54
Speaker 1: It was the last out of control with the thing.
7:56
Speaker 1: And particularly you have to understand the controls and all that.
8:00
Speaker 3: You know.
8:00
Speaker 1: I don't know what actually elevates elevates a six year
8:03
Speaker 1: old to have the cognitive ability to be able to
8:06
Speaker 1: control the thing. They don't. So that leads to this
8:11
Speaker 1: idea of weaponization of let's just face it, of a
8:15
Speaker 1: piece of athletic equipment or workout exercise equipment. It's a
8:20
Speaker 1: means to an end. Now. I don't know. If we
8:22
Speaker 1: had one of our psychology friends on here, they could
8:25
Speaker 1: probably talk about things like, well, it's not about the child,
8:28
Speaker 1: it's about the inconvenience of the child, it's not about
8:32
Speaker 1: the injuries. It has everything to do with the fact
8:35
Speaker 1: that he's angry at the mother and maybe even at
8:39
Speaker 1: the state of New Jersey for saddling him with a
8:43
Speaker 1: child that he was not aware of. But yet at
8:46
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it comes down to this
8:48
Speaker 1: little boy. It is about Corey. And you know, that's
8:52
Speaker 1: one of the things that's very frustrating when you start
8:54
Speaker 1: covering trials and areas in true crime over and over
9:00
Speaker 1: and over again, the victim is always forgotten, always forgotten.
9:04
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what context you look at this situation.
9:09
Speaker 1: And this Gregor Fela, his name is going to go down,
9:13
Speaker 1: whether he is found guilty by a jury of his
9:17
Speaker 1: peers or not. His name will go down in infamy
9:20
Speaker 1: because it is associated with Corey's death. But Corey's not
9:23
Speaker 1: going to be remembered. It's going to be the horrible
9:26
Speaker 1: acts that have alleged to have been committed. So when
9:30
Speaker 1: you think about the environment in which this child was placed,
9:35
Speaker 1: that and you and I can both speak to this,
9:38
Speaker 1: I think because of our backgrounds from the perspective of
9:41
Speaker 1: a little child, you get that bubbling up anxiety that
9:45
Speaker 1: comes along with it that you're going to have to
9:47
Speaker 1: be in the presence of your abuser or the person
9:51
Speaker 1: that goes to great links to make your life miserable.
9:54
Speaker 1: Let's frame it that way, and I came through it
9:58
Speaker 1: at a particular time in life where I had more
10:01
Speaker 1: of a cognitive ability to kind of process it as
10:04
Speaker 1: I got older. Unfortunately, Corey is never going to have
10:08
Speaker 1: that chance, because in a world of a six year old,
10:13
Speaker 1: you probably think that the world is safe and that
10:16
Speaker 1: people love you and that they're not going to let
10:21
Speaker 1: any harm come to you. But unfortunately, with Corey, it
10:26
Speaker 1: wound up being a fatal exercise. Over the years, I
10:45
Speaker 1: worked a lot of cases involving more than I care
10:48
Speaker 1: to remember, not just children that had been abused, but
10:51
Speaker 1: I worked a lot of cases involving elder abuse as well,
10:55
Speaker 1: which again is a completely dave. You and I could
10:58
Speaker 1: sit down and talk about elder abuse for longer than
11:02
Speaker 1: you and I both would care to. But there's a
11:05
Speaker 1: common theme that happens with people that are perpetrators and
11:08
Speaker 1: alleged perpetrators when they're trying to explain how events occur
11:15
Speaker 1: in the life of those that they are expected to protect.
11:18
Speaker 1: And what always amazes me, I think is that if
11:22
Speaker 1: there's some kind of critical injury that has been identified
11:27
Speaker 1: by a healthcare professional, the person in charge will always say, well,
11:32
Speaker 1: they fail, and then when the healthcare provider or lord knows,
11:38
Speaker 1: a forensic pathologist is trying to assess what they're looking
11:41
Speaker 1: at from a physical presentation, they're thinking, well, yay, he
11:46
Speaker 1: said he fell, but how many times did he fall?
11:50
Speaker 1: Because you know, the thing about our body becomes almost
11:53
Speaker 1: like a little roadmap, a history of what we've endured.
11:57
Speaker 1: And for those that are kind of hearing us talk
12:00
Speaker 1: through this, just imagine anytime that if okay, if you
12:04
Speaker 1: get up out of the bed and you've got a
12:07
Speaker 1: night stand or something that's adjacent to your bed, or
12:09
Speaker 1: there's something that protrudes out a piece of furniture and
12:12
Speaker 1: you bang your leg. Okay, let's say you bang your
12:15
Speaker 1: leg four times over a period of twelve days. Well,
12:20
Speaker 1: each one of those injuries is going to look different.
12:23
Speaker 1: And it's kind of simple science because your body in
12:27
Speaker 1: life is always trying to repair itself, and so these
12:31
Speaker 1: areas of swelling, contusions, even lacerations, they will begin to
12:37
Speaker 1: kind of resolve. Now they're going to resolve in ways
12:39
Speaker 1: that might not be favorable. Even broken bones try to
12:42
Speaker 1: resolve themselves and you get really horrible consequences as a
12:46
Speaker 1: result of a bone not being reset. But to say
12:49
Speaker 1: the least it provides for us forensically a roadmap as
12:52
Speaker 1: to kind of the history. It's almost I love to
12:55
Speaker 1: equate it to this day. It's almost like cutting down
12:59
Speaker 1: a tree and look at the rings at the tree,
13:01
Speaker 1: because you can tell by virtue of you know, people
13:05
Speaker 1: that deal in this sort of thing, they can look
13:07
Speaker 1: at it and say, well, this was a drought. You know,
13:09
Speaker 1: this was a heavy rain year, or you know, whatever
13:11
Speaker 1: the case might be. In kind of a very more
13:14
Speaker 1: condensed perspective, you look at an individual's body and you
13:18
Speaker 1: can begin to assess not just the pattern of the injury,
13:22
Speaker 1: but what stage that injury is at relative to resolution.
13:29
Speaker 2: You know, bringing that up, and I'm so glad you did,
13:31
Speaker 2: because that actually was something that was brought up at trial.
13:35
Speaker 3: By the way.
13:35
Speaker 2: You you know, this case is ongoing right now. I've
13:39
Speaker 2: had to cover a lot of it, and I was
13:41
Speaker 2: shocked at the testimony of a couple of different people,
13:44
Speaker 2: but in particular the pediatrician who looked at Corey. I
13:47
Speaker 2: wanted to point something out. Yeah, Corey was forced to
13:49
Speaker 2: run on the treadmill March twentieth of twenty twenty one.
13:53
Speaker 2: It was April the second when Corey Michelo died and
13:58
Speaker 2: that twelve day period from the treadmill incident to his
14:02
Speaker 2: death is difficult to explain, but listening to you over
14:07
Speaker 2: the years, I told you this before we started listening
14:10
Speaker 2: to the pediatrician testify as to what she saw on
14:13
Speaker 2: Corey Michelo, the bruising that she saw. I had to
14:18
Speaker 2: actually stop the testimony and walk away twice, because this
14:25
Speaker 2: six year old boy had fourteen bruises on his body
14:29
Speaker 2: in various stages of healing. Some were fresher than others.
14:34
Speaker 2: There were actually two places on his body that were
14:37
Speaker 2: actually discolored but were white because the pigment hadn't come
14:42
Speaker 2: back in the healing process, which I need to talk
14:45
Speaker 2: to you about. But that's what I wanted to make
14:46
Speaker 2: sure everybody understands that the treadmill incident happened on March twentieth,
14:50
Speaker 2: thank Corey died April the second. Now, in between that time,
14:53
Speaker 2: Corey's physical being was he was fine. He wasn't fine,
14:58
Speaker 2: but he was a six year ol O boy with bruises.
15:01
Speaker 2: And when he was brought back to his father's house,
15:04
Speaker 2: you know, or this is so frustrating, Joe, I know, brother,
15:09
Speaker 2: are we not supposed to protect children?
15:11
Speaker 3: Is that not our job?
15:13
Speaker 1: It is our job. It's the job of those individuals
15:15
Speaker 1: that that we elect to office or that are appointed
15:18
Speaker 1: to office to protect and as parents, where there's a
15:23
Speaker 1: whole group of people that are expected to protect children,
15:25
Speaker 1: they're the most and this is so rote they are
15:28
Speaker 1: the most precious resource that we possess. It goes far
15:31
Speaker 1: beyond money, it goes far beyond any kind of physical
15:34
Speaker 1: possessions that we have. Period end of story. And there
15:40
Speaker 1: is a monumental failure all the way around in Corey's case.
15:45
Speaker 1: And look, I could, I could, really, you know, bring
15:48
Speaker 1: down the thunder, you know, in a situation like this,
15:51
Speaker 1: beginning to think about this and thinking about everything this
15:53
Speaker 1: child has endured. But that's this is a great lesson,
15:59
Speaker 1: I think in sense that when you're an investigator and
16:03
Speaker 1: you're out in the field, you have to fight these
16:06
Speaker 1: feelings in your mind and everything that went wrong and
16:09
Speaker 1: be able to assess the science that you're looking at.
16:12
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, the science points to quite a bit of
16:16
Speaker 1: negligence I think in certain people's world. Well that's about
16:20
Speaker 1: as far as I want to go at this point.
16:22
Speaker 1: But I'll put to you this way. It makes my
16:24
Speaker 1: blood pressure want to blow the top of my head
16:26
Speaker 1: off because it is so infuriating. My face will turn red,
16:30
Speaker 1: you know, after I have veins poking out on my
16:32
Speaker 1: forehead over.
16:32
Speaker 3: It what I'm watching.
16:34
Speaker 2: When I watch Christopher Gregor with Corey Mischlow, I see
16:38
Speaker 2: a man who has no emotional tide to this child.
16:42
Speaker 2: It's like they miss the bonding that takes place between
16:44
Speaker 2: a parent and a child. It's an emotional bonding, it's
16:48
Speaker 2: a physical bonding. You know, where you sit and you
16:49
Speaker 2: hold each other and you watch TV or whatever you do.
16:52
Speaker 2: And it's that time that Christopher Gregor didn't have with
16:56
Speaker 2: his son that allowed him because when you watch this,
16:59
Speaker 2: it's not like watching an actual father with his son
17:02
Speaker 2: because that's not what men do. But what he did
17:06
Speaker 2: to this child was abusive. In my mind, he's alleged
17:10
Speaker 2: to he's not alleged to have made him run on
17:11
Speaker 2: the treadmill.
17:12
Speaker 3: We have video of this.
17:13
Speaker 2: Yes, his own attorney at the start of trial and
17:16
Speaker 2: during opening statements actually had to say, you're not going
17:18
Speaker 2: to like him. You are not going to like Christopher Gregor.
17:21
Speaker 2: And he's right. The issue is did he cause his death.
17:26
Speaker 2: You know, it was it running on the treadmill and
17:29
Speaker 2: the injuries. But the thing is, Joe, is there are
17:31
Speaker 2: at there were other injuries, and that's why we need
17:33
Speaker 2: to get into the bruising of what the pediatrician noticed
17:38
Speaker 2: on his body, because she said that in court.
17:41
Speaker 3: She stood up.
17:42
Speaker 2: They asked her to show because and I've learned this
17:44
Speaker 2: from you. When you start talking about certain parts of
17:48
Speaker 2: the body, yes, and use terms that I'm sure I
17:52
Speaker 2: was supposed to have learned them in ninth or tenth
17:55
Speaker 2: grade biology, but I memorized, studied and forgot it.
17:58
Speaker 1: And so hang on, I got to and sort of
18:00
Speaker 1: SoundBite here and just simply say, okay, Joe Scott, talk
18:03
Speaker 1: to us in normal people talk. I'm just I'm just
18:08
Speaker 1: a yeah, I'm not a doctor, you know.
18:12
Speaker 2: And that's that's what happened on the stand as his
18:15
Speaker 2: pediatricians started talking about what it was on his body.
18:18
Speaker 2: But the reality issue, they said, would you stand up
18:20
Speaker 2: please and face the jury and show them, you know.
18:23
Speaker 2: So this doctor stands up and she shows them where
18:28
Speaker 2: the bruises are on again six year old boy with
18:34
Speaker 2: fourteen bruises in various stages of healing, and she is
18:38
Speaker 2: showing the jury and she starts with left cheek. He's
18:43
Speaker 2: got a bruise on his left cheek. Now, I'm gonna
18:45
Speaker 2: be honest with you, Joe. If I'm around a child
18:50
Speaker 2: then has a bruise on his face like that, I
18:54
Speaker 2: don't care who his dad is, who his mom is.
18:56
Speaker 2: I'm asking what happened, what happened there? And if he
19:01
Speaker 2: doesn't have a very quick answer, oh, I had a
19:03
Speaker 2: go cart crash, I ran into a tree. My brother
19:06
Speaker 2: hit me. You know, if he doesn't have a quick answer,
19:11
Speaker 2: I'm following up.
19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you know, if you've got an individual that
19:14
Speaker 1: you're questioning about it and they're searching, you know, they're
19:17
Speaker 1: trying to come up in their mind with well, how
19:20
Speaker 1: can I explain this right? And it's almost impossible. And
19:23
Speaker 1: of course, you know Corey, the sweet little kid is
19:29
Speaker 1: doctor Deacon, who is actually the pediatrician. She's having a
19:32
Speaker 1: conversation with this child and she's asking him somehow how
19:36
Speaker 1: did these how these injuries come about? He says, well,
19:39
Speaker 1: my dad's trying to teach me football. That's all fine
19:43
Speaker 1: and good, and teach your child football. You can take
19:45
Speaker 1: him out in the yard, you can throw you can,
19:48
Speaker 1: I don't know, work on pursuit angles. He can do
19:50
Speaker 1: all those work in the box. Yeah, catch the ball,
19:52
Speaker 1: you know you you no matter what it is. But
19:55
Speaker 1: are you telling me that remember what we talked about earlier?
19:59
Speaker 1: Are you in Oklahoma drills? And if you're not familiar
20:03
Speaker 1: with what an Oklahoma drill looks like, look it up
20:06
Speaker 1: on YouTube. I'll i'll siffly or a bull in a
20:08
Speaker 1: ring and it's bull in the ring. And I'm not
20:12
Speaker 1: saying this happen, but we're talking about full contact. Yeah,
20:16
Speaker 1: you know when and i'd come home, you know, in
20:18
Speaker 1: high school I have bruises all up and down my
20:20
Speaker 1: arms and that sort of thing.
20:22
Speaker 3: But this is a dad with a six year old son.
20:24
Speaker 1: No, come on, and so you can't.
20:25
Speaker 3: They're playing catch?
20:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you're playing catch at this point, right
20:29
Speaker 1: And at best you'll maybe teach them some rudimentary past
20:34
Speaker 1: past routes. You know that you want to run with them,
20:37
Speaker 1: you know that kind of stuff. But it doesn't rise.
20:41
Speaker 1: You know, when you have a clinician like this pediatrician
20:45
Speaker 1: that is doing the assessment on this child, I can
20:49
Speaker 1: only imagine, you know, as they're as they're assessing this.
20:53
Speaker 1: They've seen this before, Dave. This is not something that
20:58
Speaker 1: happens on just every blue moon for a pediatrician. They've
21:01
Speaker 1: seen it in practice. They've seen a lot of it
21:06
Speaker 1: in their training because most physicians will work at big
21:09
Speaker 1: teaching hospitals, and you see all kinds of things and
21:13
Speaker 1: teaching hospitals and you feel like you're spitting in the
21:16
Speaker 1: ocean to try to raise a water level when you're
21:18
Speaker 1: trying to protect somebody. You see kids that'll come through
21:21
Speaker 1: multiple times in these environments and you can't do anything
21:24
Speaker 1: about it, to interdict it. And unfortunately, in the case
21:30
Speaker 1: of Corey, his injuries were far worse than anything anybody
21:37
Speaker 1: could have imagined. The odd thing about being in a
21:57
Speaker 1: morgue working with a forensic pathologist. You're standing at a
22:02
Speaker 1: table and you have no connection to the body that
22:08
Speaker 1: is lying before you while they were in life. And
22:12
Speaker 1: it's a weird place to be in day because you
22:14
Speaker 1: can look at the body man and you're sitting there
22:18
Speaker 1: and you're trying to consider what led them to my table,
22:21
Speaker 1: what led them to this cold stainless steel table, And
22:26
Speaker 1: you're looking down and you have time. You have a
22:31
Speaker 1: lot of time in the morgue to do assessments that
22:36
Speaker 1: other people in other medical professions don't have. You don't
22:39
Speaker 1: have a waiting room, you don't have other people tugging
22:43
Speaker 1: at you. Now, you might have other cases to do,
22:45
Speaker 1: but think about the morgue is that you can take
22:48
Speaker 1: your time when doing your assessment. And there is nothing
22:53
Speaker 1: that will give a staff of forensic scientists pause more
23:02
Speaker 1: than the death of a child. I'm not saying that,
23:07
Speaker 1: you know, we don't give our due diligence to other cases,
23:10
Speaker 1: but when you have a dead little kid in front
23:13
Speaker 1: of you, little kids are not just supposed to fall
23:17
Speaker 1: over dead. They're not an eighty five year old grandpa
23:22
Speaker 1: with atheroscartic cardiovascular disease and a history of acute mild
23:27
Speaker 1: cardial infarctions or tias or CVAs or any of those
23:31
Speaker 1: things that come along in the brain. It's not what
23:34
Speaker 1: we're talking about.
23:36
Speaker 3: He's six years old. Six yeah, covered in bruises.
23:40
Speaker 2: Now we know there was a history of bruising on
23:44
Speaker 2: this six year old boy. And I will tell you
23:45
Speaker 2: that in looking at this, there were people who notice things,
23:50
Speaker 2: There were people who said things. There was a noticeable
23:53
Speaker 2: difference After Corey Michelo began living with his father full
23:58
Speaker 2: time and only saw his mother on visitation. And his
24:03
Speaker 2: first grade teacher testified that he wore clothing that was
24:05
Speaker 2: inappropriate for the weather. It was too hot to be
24:07
Speaker 2: wearing long sleeve outfits and things like that, and teachers
24:11
Speaker 2: and you mentioned this. Teachers and doctor they've seen all
24:14
Speaker 2: this before and so they know what the signs are.
24:17
Speaker 2: So the bruising and we're only going to deal with
24:20
Speaker 2: the treadmill on On April first, that's when the pediatrician
24:25
Speaker 2: saw Corey. He was having a number of issues, and
24:27
Speaker 2: so as she was examining him, she was looking at
24:30
Speaker 2: the bruises and she marked them down and talked about it.
24:35
Speaker 2: She mentioned the bruise on the eye. She mentioned this
24:39
Speaker 2: yellow green bruises big ones show and she pointed out
24:44
Speaker 2: a number of other ones. And I don't know what
24:46
Speaker 2: it means. I don't know what these different bruises on
24:50
Speaker 2: different parts of his body mean. I do know that
24:53
Speaker 2: the doctor she spoke with Corey and asked about where
24:57
Speaker 2: did these bruises come with what happened? She said that
25:00
Speaker 2: he did mention playing football with his dad and the
25:03
Speaker 2: treadmill incident in air quotes, and she talked to him
25:07
Speaker 2: a little further about this, and she testified in court
25:11
Speaker 2: that Corey put more emphasis on the treadmill as the
25:14
Speaker 2: source for a lot of the injuries she was seeing,
25:17
Speaker 2: not playing football with his dad. What did the bruises mean, Joe.
25:22
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked to stay because you know, when
25:24
Speaker 1: you're looking at a bruise, that is you mentioned one
25:27
Speaker 1: specifically that was yellow in color, you're looking at a
25:32
Speaker 1: bruise if you're aging, which we do in forensics, we do. Well.
25:38
Speaker 1: Let me back up. Practitioners, clinical practitioners that are taking
25:41
Speaker 1: care of the living. They assessed to pediatricians specifically, they
25:46
Speaker 1: will look at bruises and na CA a agent. But
25:48
Speaker 1: we use the same tool with dead because when an
25:52
Speaker 1: individual does die, everything and this is kind of an
25:55
Speaker 1: obvious statement, everything ceases. But the beauty of that from
25:58
Speaker 1: an investigative standpoint is that you literally get a freeze
26:01
Speaker 1: frame at that moment time because the bruise, the contusion
26:05
Speaker 1: is not going to continue to resolve. It's frozen. It's
26:09
Speaker 1: frozen in that amount of time. If the body is
26:11
Speaker 1: left preserved, you can really do a thorough assessment. If
26:15
Speaker 1: the body you know, if you find a body that's decomposing,
26:18
Speaker 1: which this is not the case, then those things will
26:20
Speaker 1: be a little bit tougher to kind of assess. But
26:23
Speaker 1: you're looking at a bruise that's yellow, you're talking about
26:27
Speaker 1: seven to eight days maybe nine of post trauma, of
26:32
Speaker 1: post impact event. Because anytime you have a bruise, there
26:35
Speaker 1: is an impact that's associated with That's the only way
26:38
Speaker 1: that you're going to have the presentation of a contusion.
26:42
Speaker 1: What I think the question this begs is when you
26:46
Speaker 1: look at the external presentation of the injuries, what critical
26:51
Speaker 1: areas of the body? Does it overlie? Now, if you
26:55
Speaker 1: look at say a bruise that someone might have on
26:58
Speaker 1: their bicep that doesn't have the same level of criticality, say,
27:03
Speaker 1: for instance, if child has a bruised or blackened eye,
27:07
Speaker 1: because now you're talking about potential brain injury. Or if
27:11
Speaker 1: you see somebody has a bruise to their leg, Okay,
27:14
Speaker 1: maybe their outer thigh, maybe they bumped into a table. Eh.
27:19
Speaker 1: That can it's certainly painful, and it can tell you
27:21
Speaker 1: a lot historically. But buddy, let me tell you something.
27:24
Speaker 1: If you see bruises on the abdomen, those are specific
27:28
Speaker 1: impact injuries how many? How many times? In your life?
27:31
Speaker 1: And in my life too, I'm asking myself the same question.
27:34
Speaker 1: Have I walked into something with my abdominal muscles leading
27:38
Speaker 1: the way or my abdomen leading way where I have
27:41
Speaker 1: a specific impact site on that location anytime? And I'm
27:47
Speaker 1: not a boxer. You know, if you're a boxer, you
27:50
Speaker 1: get out of the ring and you're taking body shots,
27:53
Speaker 1: you know you're going to have contusions, you know, all
27:55
Speaker 1: of you. These guys don't escape, you know, right and so,
27:59
Speaker 1: but those bruises will be the same age. So if
28:02
Speaker 1: you get multiple sites all over the body, you know
28:04
Speaker 1: that someone has specifically targeted in an area. Say you
28:09
Speaker 1: get a punch to the admin, punch in the eye,
28:12
Speaker 1: or any number of other locations, and you begin to
28:17
Speaker 1: assess those and literally what we do at autopsy is
28:20
Speaker 1: we in size those specific areas. You just don't look
28:24
Speaker 1: at it externally. You make a cut into that area
28:27
Speaker 1: and you can actually appreciate how the thing is resolving
28:30
Speaker 1: and you have to track this very carefully. Day.
28:32
Speaker 3: Is that like rings of a tree.
28:34
Speaker 1: No, it's not like rings of a tree. That's that
28:38
Speaker 1: analogy doesn't necessarily apply here. What it does apply to more.
28:43
Speaker 1: I think is probably targeting areas. Because let's just say
28:47
Speaker 1: you've got a bruise. Find the bottom the right aspect
28:51
Speaker 1: of your right rib cage the last rib anteriorly. That
28:57
Speaker 1: approximates the area where your liver is, and so on
29:00
Speaker 1: the right side. So if you have a bruise a
29:03
Speaker 1: contusion on your abdomen, approximating in that area. And I'm
29:10
Speaker 1: in the morgue and I'm looking at this, you know
29:12
Speaker 1: what I'm going to think. I'm going to think, well,
29:13
Speaker 1: it's presenting with a bruise here. It's not an easy
29:16
Speaker 1: area to bruise. I note this had required a tremendous
29:19
Speaker 1: amount of impact or velocity. When I open this person's abdomen,
29:25
Speaker 1: I want to know what the liver looks like, because
29:28
Speaker 1: you can actually have a contusion to deliver. There's actually
29:32
Speaker 1: another odd term I think I've mentioned before that forensic
29:36
Speaker 1: pathologists use. It's called a fracturing of the liver. We
29:39
Speaker 1: think fracturing with bone. You can and it's truly a laceration.
29:42
Speaker 1: The liver splits. It's so dense and so heavy it'll
29:46
Speaker 1: split and fracture, and so that's seeping blood and the
29:49
Speaker 1: other thing you get when you open up the abdomen
29:52
Speaker 1: Dave is that many times you'll see the organs, the
29:57
Speaker 1: abdominal organs floating in blood, or there'll be a pro
30:00
Speaker 1: and blood it'll be clotted, and that also gives you
30:04
Speaker 1: an idea that something has happened in the recent past
30:09
Speaker 1: more than likely. So the external injuries that a person,
30:14
Speaker 1: a child, and in Corey's case, that they would be
30:17
Speaker 1: presenting with all over their body, those little points of impact,
30:22
Speaker 1: it runs much deeper, That's what I'm talking about. It
30:25
Speaker 1: runs much deeper. What you're seeing on the surface is
30:30
Speaker 1: only it's a very superficial kind of almost like X
30:35
Speaker 1: marks the spot and a treasure hunt. When you go
30:37
Speaker 1: beneath the X at that point in time, that's where
30:40
Speaker 1: you're really going to begin to understand how vicious an
30:45
Speaker 1: event may have been that would have led to an
30:48
Speaker 1: otherwise healthy six year old child's dead.
30:51
Speaker 3: Kids.
30:52
Speaker 1: Kids, as you well know, kids are very resilient, you know,
30:56
Speaker 1: I mean, kids fall, they take some of the worst
30:58
Speaker 1: That a fall that my grandson who's you know five,
31:02
Speaker 1: see James is five now he'll be six soon. A
31:06
Speaker 1: fall that Jamison might take as a five year old
31:09
Speaker 1: six year old. He's it would kill you, and I right,
31:14
Speaker 1: it would kill you. And they'll bounce back. They'll bounce back.
31:18
Speaker 2: And that's why when I had to listen to had
31:20
Speaker 2: to I had to listen to the testimony of the
31:22
Speaker 2: doctor and getting away from the clinical and just thinking
31:26
Speaker 2: about a child. I'm telling you, Joe, I had to
31:28
Speaker 2: stop because the number of bruises, where the bruises were
31:33
Speaker 2: on his body, and the various stages that they were
31:36
Speaker 2: in the healing process. It didn't go unnoticed, okay, And
31:40
Speaker 2: I want to be clear on this that it did
31:41
Speaker 2: not go unnoticed. But his mother, because of her past
31:45
Speaker 2: and because she had lost in court, she had continued
31:48
Speaker 2: to fight for Corey. She had gone back to court
31:51
Speaker 2: many times and had talked, She had reported the abuse
31:54
Speaker 2: that she saw. She was the one his mother, Corey's
31:59
Speaker 2: mom takes him to the doctor on April first, where
32:01
Speaker 2: the doctor documents all these bruises and injuries. And after that,
32:06
Speaker 2: because it was attributed to the treadmill incident, his mother,
32:10
Speaker 2: Corey's mom, Bree, sought custody immediately an emergency cut because
32:16
Speaker 2: of these abuses that she could see. The boy died
32:20
Speaker 2: the next day. Now at waste.
32:23
Speaker 1: Make sure, make sure you tell everybody where he died.
32:26
Speaker 1: Where did he go into rest?
32:28
Speaker 3: Okay? Oh, here's the thing to back up. Okay.
32:31
Speaker 2: Corey's mom, bri takes him to the doctor on April
32:34
Speaker 2: the first. Doctor sees these bruises. Yeah, Brianna files with
32:39
Speaker 2: the state. She files with DCCP. I think is what
32:41
Speaker 2: it's called in New Jersey. She filed with them right away.
32:45
Speaker 2: Corey died a day after his mother took him to
32:48
Speaker 2: the doctor for the treadmill abuse, which was ten days
32:51
Speaker 2: Eleven days after the treadmill incident, Brianna Michelo reported the
32:55
Speaker 2: abuse to DCPP and filed for emergency customs April first.
33:02
Speaker 2: The request was denied the next day, April the second,
33:06
Speaker 2: on nine am in the morning, Brianna had to bring
33:09
Speaker 2: Corey back to his dad. Corey Michelo is able to
33:12
Speaker 2: get out of the car's nine am, April the second.
33:15
Speaker 2: He's able to get out of the car, He walks
33:18
Speaker 2: to his dad's front door and opens the front door
33:21
Speaker 2: himself and lets himself into the house. Nothing seems out
33:26
Speaker 2: of the ordinary. He's fine. Later on, a couple hours later,
33:31
Speaker 2: Brianna gets called from Christopher Gregor asking for Corey's insurance card,
33:36
Speaker 2: saying he's lethargic, he's throwing up, he's slurring his words,
33:41
Speaker 2: and I'm going to take him to the hospital. And
33:44
Speaker 2: so he does. Now he doesn't tell the mother. He
33:47
Speaker 2: does not tell Brie where he's taking Corey, just taking
33:50
Speaker 2: her to the hospital. Taking my son to the hospital.
33:52
Speaker 2: So she's left with calling the area hospitals, Joe trying
33:56
Speaker 2: to find her son, who she knows is sick. She's
34:00
Speaker 2: calling every hospital. Finally, you know what she had to do,
34:02
Speaker 2: she had to call the police station and say, look,
34:05
Speaker 2: I'm not the custodian old mother. You know, he's with
34:09
Speaker 2: his dad, but he's sick, and his dad's stating in
34:10
Speaker 2: the hospital. But he doesn't tell me where. And that's
34:13
Speaker 2: when the police tell her, but your son's passed. Now
34:20
Speaker 2: she drops him off the house at nine am. He's fine.
34:23
Speaker 2: Later on that afternoon he has passed away. And he
34:27
Speaker 2: actually Corey passed away in the hospital. He was actually
34:31
Speaker 2: in that he was getting a cat scan, yep, and
34:34
Speaker 2: actually had a seizure in the cat scan at the hospital,
34:38
Speaker 2: surrounded by doctors and nurses, and he's right there and
34:42
Speaker 2: still still he died.
34:44
Speaker 3: They could not save his life.
34:46
Speaker 1: Nothing they could do. Dave, he is, he is on
34:49
Speaker 1: that slippery slope. And what it tells me is that
34:53
Speaker 1: there is ongoing hemorrhage within him. And it's interesting of
34:58
Speaker 1: note here. You know, he prior to be taken to
35:02
Speaker 1: the hospital, he awakes from a nap. Do he realics
35:05
Speaker 1: how hard it is to get a six year old
35:07
Speaker 1: to take a nap. It's a herculean task, to say
35:10
Speaker 1: the leiefs it is. But he's taken a nap. If
35:13
Speaker 1: you've got a kid that's six years old and it's
35:15
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day like this, particularly a
35:18
Speaker 1: little boy who's full of energy, he's bouncing around this
35:21
Speaker 1: sort of thing, he's going to lay down and take
35:23
Speaker 1: a nap like he's a three year old old. Yeah,
35:26
Speaker 1: feel good. And when he wakes up, Dave, he's slurring.
35:30
Speaker 1: He's slurring, he is, he's complaining of nausea symptomology, just
35:36
Speaker 1: kind of the disorientation and slurring the speech. That tells
35:40
Speaker 1: me that there's probably some kind of neurological problem going on. Conversely,
35:45
Speaker 1: it can also indicate that there is a tremendous amount
35:48
Speaker 1: of internal blood loss going on. And that can arise
35:50
Speaker 1: from any number of locations. Remember what I was talking
35:52
Speaker 1: about with the points of impact. And Corey does, in
35:55
Speaker 1: fact die in treatment room. You know where they're going
35:58
Speaker 1: to do the CT. And I know, you know what
36:01
Speaker 1: it's like to go into a CT. It's not as
36:03
Speaker 1: bad as an MRI, but you know, they're loading you
36:06
Speaker 1: into this this thing. You know, you're laying there on
36:08
Speaker 1: your back and all of that, and then all of
36:11
Speaker 1: a sudden and they're talking to you. Ever notice how
36:13
Speaker 1: they talk to you over the loud speaker.
36:14
Speaker 3: Well, you got.
36:17
Speaker 1: To keep you from decompensating in there. I always feel
36:20
Speaker 1: like I'm in a you know, in a torpedo tube. Anyway,
36:23
Speaker 1: you know, I don't. You don't like being in that environment.
36:26
Speaker 1: And look, you got a six year old kid, and
36:28
Speaker 1: these things are noisy too. He imagined what it's like
36:31
Speaker 1: to try to get a six year old calm down
36:34
Speaker 1: and to keep them alert because they have to give
36:36
Speaker 1: you directives. You're also how hard it is for a
36:38
Speaker 1: six year old to lay still? Yeah, I know, and
36:43
Speaker 1: but yet they're giving him directives and all of a
36:45
Speaker 1: sudden day he's not responding. He's not responding to verbal
36:51
Speaker 1: verbal commands or directives or anything like that. Buddy, he
36:55
Speaker 1: is going into a cardiac arrest. How many times has
36:59
Speaker 1: this ever happened in the presence of a clinician, where
37:02
Speaker 1: you've got a kid that's not suffering from terminal illness
37:06
Speaker 1: and they're surrounded in a hospital and they go into
37:12
Speaker 1: a fatal event before your eyes and there's nothing you
37:15
Speaker 1: can do about it. But in the wake of all
37:20
Speaker 1: of this and the fact that the police had been
37:23
Speaker 1: looking into this, it did obviously lead to charges. But
37:27
Speaker 1: just let me run this down to you real quick,
37:30
Speaker 1: because I think that it needs to be plainly stated
37:35
Speaker 1: that when when Corey was autopsied and they begin to
37:44
Speaker 1: assess those things that you remember, you remember day were,
37:49
Speaker 1: you know, we were talking about those things that are
37:51
Speaker 1: just under the surface. This baby had cardiac which means
37:59
Speaker 1: heart and liver contusions, which means he had sustained impact
38:08
Speaker 1: injuries to his heart to his liver. There was an
38:15
Speaker 1: inflammatory response, which means that it wasn't necessarily in the
38:23
Speaker 1: phase that it had just happened. It had happened days before, okay,
38:29
Speaker 1: and this was kind of a rollout. He's getting worse
38:35
Speaker 1: and worse and worse all the way along, and you know,
38:39
Speaker 1: the final diagnosis for this child was that he had
38:48
Speaker 1: sustained first off consequences of chronic abuse, not acute. Acute
38:55
Speaker 1: means suddenly chronic means DAVE, ongoing, ongoing, and the entries
39:02
Speaker 1: that he had sustained. He had blunt force impact of
39:07
Speaker 1: the chest, the abdomen, Dave with a laceration of his heart.
39:16
Speaker 1: I don't know what to make of this, but when
39:22
Speaker 1: I see this case, I think about what he endured.
39:27
Speaker 1: People talk about how they've been injured in life and
39:31
Speaker 1: how they've had their heart broken. This child literally died
39:39
Speaker 1: of a broken heart. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and this
39:44
Speaker 1: is body Backs