Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Mayhem in the Morgue | H.R. Huffing Stuff

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Mayhem in the Morgue | H.R. Huffing Stuff · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Today's episode includes information about the deaths of individuals. If
0:04
Speaker 1: this sort of thing upsets you, this is not the
0:06
Speaker 1: episode for you. May suggest you watch a movie, maybe
0:10
Speaker 1: something like Mad Max, Fury.
0:12
Speaker 2: Road, Welcome to Mayhem, the More with your host doctor
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Speaker 2: Kitto Crowns.
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Speaker 1: Today's episode hr huffing stuff. Last century, before the existence
0:30
Speaker 1: of the Internet, people would have to figure things out
0:32
Speaker 1: by going to the library or just by trial and error.
0:36
Speaker 1: No matter what the topic was, you had to put
0:38
Speaker 1: some effort into it to find the information out. And
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Speaker 1: I had friends that would spend their day researching and
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Speaker 1: trying to figure out ways to get drunk or high.
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Speaker 1: I've talked about them before on episodes like Foraging Misadventures
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Speaker 1: when they were trying to lick toads and the Listerine
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Speaker 1: drinker on the episode Meanty Fresh, and today I'll be
1:00
Speaker 1: talking about some of them again. The question I always
1:03
Speaker 1: get asked is why did I hang out with people
1:06
Speaker 1: like this if I didn't do drugs or drink. And
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Speaker 1: the answer is in school, I didn't fit in with
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Speaker 1: any particular group completely, but I favored the non judgmentalness
1:16
Speaker 1: of the heavy metal enthusiasts and the stoners and These
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Speaker 1: are the groups of friends that were constantly trying to
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Speaker 1: get high. Why did I hang out with them? Well,
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Speaker 1: people often thought I was high because I was always tired.
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Speaker 1: I fell asleep a lot in class, and my eyes
1:31
Speaker 1: always look sleepy, and people still think I look high
1:35
Speaker 1: to this day. The reality is I always got up
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Speaker 1: every day at four am to throw papers with my dad,
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Speaker 1: and I also often didn't go to bed before eleven
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Speaker 1: PM because I was working on schoolwork, so on average,
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Speaker 1: I would get about five hours of sleep. I was
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Speaker 1: constantly functioning at a near exhaustion level, which resulted in
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Speaker 1: a very tired, disheveled look. But I wasn't high. But
2:00
Speaker 1: because of this perception, I often hung out with the
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Speaker 1: stoners and the heavy metal enthusiasts. They were nice people
2:07
Speaker 1: and I didn't judge them, and they didn't hassle me
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Speaker 1: about being sleepy in class. On one evening, they even
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Speaker 1: asked me if I wanted to participate in smoking marijuana
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Speaker 1: and drinking beer. I declined, and the response was cool
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Speaker 1: more for us. That evening ended with me completely sober,
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Speaker 1: cramped in the back of an old buick no seatbeld on,
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Speaker 1: sitting with four other people on a bench seat as
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Speaker 1: the inebriated driver and the drunk front seat passenger tried
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Speaker 1: to navigate to find the local poolhull the copper queue
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Speaker 1: to be exact. Conversations were always rambling and nonlinear. But
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Speaker 1: I really had nothing better to do on a Saturday night.
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Speaker 1: But I really should have been driving. In my hometown
2:50
Speaker 1: of Wichdal, Kansas in the late nineteen eighties, there was
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Speaker 1: not a lot of things to do. You could work,
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Speaker 1: go to school, play sports, and do other things. I
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Speaker 1: ofticipated in the other things, and they're the ones that
3:02
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the most, but we won't go into those.
3:05
Speaker 1: The friends I had that liked to do drugs started
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Speaker 1: with marijuana. One of them grew it in a secret
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Speaker 1: spot in his dan's field. But they got tired of marijuana.
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Speaker 1: It didn't really give them the effect they wanted, probably
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Speaker 1: because it wasn't very potent. They wanted to branch out. Cocaine, LSD, PCP, mushrooms, heroin,
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Speaker 1: meth aphetamine were not readily available back then. Plus you
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Speaker 1: would have to take active measures to find them, and
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Speaker 1: possession of these drugs could result in serious jail time,
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Speaker 1: which was always a deterring factor. They instead tried things
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Speaker 1: that were readily available in their house. They would spend
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Speaker 1: hours every week looking at an ingredients and labels of
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Speaker 1: things in the kitchen, bathroom, and garage, trying to figure
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Speaker 1: out if there was something in the product that could
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Speaker 1: mess them up. Most of the time it would make
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Speaker 1: them sick or give them a headache. When they found
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Speaker 1: something that worked, they would let the group know, and
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Speaker 1: I never participated any of their findings. Some of my
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Speaker 1: other friends did. Though, Why were they always trying to
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Speaker 1: figure out a new way to get high? It's hard
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Speaker 1: to say. They were pretty intelligent people. The problem was
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Speaker 1: they didn't use their intelligence to do better in school
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Speaker 1: or music, or art or something constructive. They instead just
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Speaker 1: wanted to find out whatever they could to help them
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Speaker 1: escape the boredom of everyday life. They had a few successes.
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Speaker 1: One was the intoxicating effects of listerine, and the other
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Speaker 1: one was they huffed pro pane. Huffing refers to intentionally
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Speaker 1: inhaling chemical vapors from household or industrial products. They tried
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Speaker 1: huffing a number of different items, but stuck with pro paine,
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Speaker 1: not the wisest of chemicals to inhale. Its effect is
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Speaker 1: mainly light headedness, and it causes this by interfering with
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Speaker 1: neuroreceptors and displacing oxygen. So essentially all the high is
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Speaker 1: is your brain cells dying from lack of oxygen. Inhaling
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Speaker 1: fumes was not an original idea. In fact, this practice
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Speaker 1: to get high has been around for at least two
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Speaker 1: hundred years, and today I'm going to talk about some
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Speaker 1: cases of other people who figured out huffing chemicals, whatever
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Speaker 1: they are, can get you high and sometimes can cause
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Speaker 1: you to die. So let's get started. There are more
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Speaker 1: than a thousand household products that are inhaled for their
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Speaker 1: mind altering effects. They're convenient, inexpensive, easy to hide, and
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Speaker 1: of course legal. You can get all you want at
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Speaker 1: any store depending on what you choose to get high
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Speaker 1: with the majority of the inhalers that affect the body
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Speaker 1: in similar ways. The chemical enters the bloodstream quickly through
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Speaker 1: the large absorbitive surface of the lungs and heads to
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Speaker 1: the central nervous system, where it acts as a central
5:50
Speaker 1: nervous system depressant by interfering with neurotransmitter activity and enhancing
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Speaker 1: the depressive effects of gamma, aminobutric acid receptors and inhibiting
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Speaker 1: the nmethyldas spartaiate receptors, which causes feelings of excitement and
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Speaker 1: disorientation and euphoria, followed by drowsiness, lightheadedness, decreased inhibitions, and agitation.
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Speaker 1: The inhalents their abuse belong to four broad categories, and
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Speaker 1: these are volatile solvents, which includes paint thinners, gas glues,
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Speaker 1: and felt tip markers, which was another thing. My friends
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Speaker 1: try to get high with aerosols, which include spray pains, deodorants,
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Speaker 1: and hair sprays, gases like ether and nitrous oxide in nitrates,
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Speaker 1: which are known as poppers, and these act differently than
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Speaker 1: the rest. They cause phasodilation and muscular relaxation and are
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Speaker 1: often used for sexual activity and include substances like amyl
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Speaker 1: nitrate and buttyl nitrate. Statistically, adolescents and teenagers are often
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Speaker 1: the individuals abusing inhalance because they are easy to acquire,
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Speaker 1: but the cases I have seen of people dying from
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Speaker 1: inhalance are typically adults. The ones we see most in
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Speaker 1: the morgue are the ones that huff spray paint and
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Speaker 1: canned air. Nitrous oxide and free on spray paints and
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Speaker 1: canned air are the most common, with canned air becoming
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Speaker 1: more common lately, but spray paint is the classic one.
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Speaker 1: Its abusers have colorful nicknames, including chromers. They spray the
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Speaker 1: spray paint into a bag and then inhale, which is
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Speaker 1: called bagging, or they sprayed into a rag and huff
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Speaker 1: it that way. The high is caused by a chemical
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Speaker 1: within the spray paint called taaluweene. It's in highest concentrations
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Speaker 1: in the silver and gold spray paints. Tolluwen causes its
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Speaker 1: effects like all the other inhalants and has similar outcomes.
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Speaker 1: The high of tolluween is intense but short lived, which
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Speaker 1: makes the hoffers huff multiple times from their bag over
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Speaker 1: the core of hours or even a day. It attacks
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Speaker 1: the nervous system and may cause permanent damage in a
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Speaker 1: single exposure. Heavy use causes drowsiness, fatigue, and confusion that
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Speaker 1: can last minutes or hours. It can also cause irritation
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Speaker 1: in the upper respiratory tract, and chronic use can cause
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Speaker 1: clinical depression. Huffering spray paint can also cause a syndrome
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Speaker 1: known as sprayhead syndrome, where the individual acts bizarre with
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Speaker 1: disinhibition and aggressive behavior. At autopsy, the individuals often have
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Speaker 1: silver or gold spray paint around their hands or about
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Speaker 1: their face, going into their nostrils and on their tongue. Internally,
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Speaker 1: there might be slight brain atrophy in pulmonia deemer congestion
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Speaker 1: meaning fluid on the lungs, but no other real findings.
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Speaker 1: Special testing has to be done to find it on
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Speaker 1: a toxological examination, which shows tolluene present in the blood.
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Speaker 1: Canned air is commonly used as an air duster for
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Speaker 1: cleaning electronics, but it does not contain ordinary air. Instead,
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Speaker 1: it contains hydrofluorocarbons, specifically one one difloral ethane. The effects
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Speaker 1: of canned air are again the same as other inhalins,
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Speaker 1: but the canned air cases that I have seen have
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Speaker 1: very unusual scene findings. And what you find are multiple
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Speaker 1: cans of canned air everywhere, on the couch, in the bed.
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Speaker 1: It just depends on where they get lit up. I've
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Speaker 1: seen several cans in the bathroom or in people's cars,
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Speaker 1: on the floor of the car, in the glove box,
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Speaker 1: in the center console, in the kitchen, and even in
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Speaker 1: their workplace. They don't even try and hide it. It's
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Speaker 1: almost like they just don't think people will think they're
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Speaker 1: using it to get high. When they die, they may
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Speaker 1: be holding the can in their hand with the small
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Speaker 1: straw coming from the can and sticking in their nose.
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Speaker 1: At autopsy, there are no real direct findings, and again
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Speaker 1: the diagnosis is all based on toxologic findings and what
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Speaker 1: you get is one to one difluoroethane present in the blood.
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Speaker 1: The next common inhalent that we see generally at the
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Speaker 1: morgue is nitrous oxide or laughing gas. Nitrous oxide is
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Speaker 1: a colorless, odorless gas used for medical anesthesia and pain relief.
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Speaker 1: It causes brief euphoria, giggling, floating sensations, dizziness, visual and
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Speaker 1: auditory hallucinations, and inappropriate behavior. Nitrous oxide abuse is somewhat
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Speaker 1: common in the population, but amongst medical and dental professionals
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Speaker 1: it is a little more common, when one survey showed
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Speaker 1: twenty percent of medical and dental students have actually tried it.
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Speaker 1: For dentists, it ranks after alcohol dependence, prescription and opiate abuse,
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Speaker 1: and other illegal drugs, comprising five percent of dentists who
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Speaker 1: abuse drugs. Experience of medical professionals who die of overdoses,
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Speaker 1: nurses are the most common, followed by doctors, particular anesthesiologists
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Speaker 1: and then dentists. But for inhaling abuse, all I have
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Speaker 1: ever seen for medical professionals has been dentists. In one
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Speaker 1: particular case, the dentists would destress after work by inhaling
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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide to relax. After everyone else had left, he
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Speaker 1: would huff a little nitrous oxide to take the edge
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Speaker 1: off of his day before he went home. Over time,
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Speaker 1: he needed more and more to settle down. Also, the
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Speaker 1: nitrous abuse was beginning to cause problems, specifically neuropsychiatric symptoms,
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Speaker 1: which we'll go into more later. On the day he died,
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Speaker 1: it had been evidently a particularly stressful day, probably he
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Speaker 1: had to do one too many root canals or some
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Speaker 1: other detailed procedure. After work, he slipped down the oxygen mask,
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Speaker 1: leaned back in his dental chair, and turned on the
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Speaker 1: nitrous tank. And that was how he was found by
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Speaker 1: his office manager. The next day. She opened up the
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Speaker 1: door to the practice, came in like she always did,
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Speaker 1: turned on the lights, and found him reclined in the
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Speaker 1: dental chair, oxygen masks still in place, nitrous tank completely empty.
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Speaker 1: Nine one one was called and he was pronounced dead
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Speaker 1: at the scene. His autopsy was done the next day
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Speaker 1: and he was found to have pomic congestion edema, and
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Speaker 1: toxicology testing had to be performed to determine that he
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Speaker 1: had died from his nitrous oxide intoxication and not another drug.
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Speaker 1: The thing is, nitrous oxide isn't always detected in routine
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Speaker 1: toxologic testing because occasionally he can disappear quickly after death.
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Speaker 1: But autopsy toxologic screens can identify nitrous oxide in biological
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Speaker 1: samples such as blood, urine, brain, liver, lung, and tracular
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Speaker 1: airway gases, and detection can even be possible even up
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Speaker 1: to one month after death. In some cases, this persistent
12:59
Speaker 1: is due to re zigyl gases in tissues and organs. Still,
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Speaker 1: concentrations decline over time. But even if nitrous oxide doesn't
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Speaker 1: show up on toxologic testing, you can still diagnose it
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Speaker 1: by circumstantial evidence. With the dentists, we were able to
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Speaker 1: find nitrous oxide in his blood. Other common nitrous oxide
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Speaker 1: cases we see our high school and college students with
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Speaker 1: plastic bags over their heads and multiple cans of ready
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Speaker 1: whip at their side. It doesn't have to be ready whip.
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Speaker 1: It can be other variants of aerosol cream, but the
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Speaker 1: key factor is it has to be an aerosol dispensed
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Speaker 1: whipped cream made with real dairy cream. I'm sure you've
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Speaker 1: seen it in the grocery store are used it yourself
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Speaker 1: as a topping on desserts. The propellant associated with whipped
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Speaker 1: cream is actually nitrous oxide. The reason for this is
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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide, when injected in cream under pressure, dissolves into
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Speaker 1: the fat content of the cream. Release through the nozzle,
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Speaker 1: the gas rapidly expands, incorporating air and forming tiny bubbles.
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Speaker 1: It gives whipped cream its characteristics fluffy texture in stable structure.
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Speaker 1: It was chosen over carbon dioxide, which is typically used
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Speaker 1: in carbonated beverages, because carbon dioxide causes a sour taste,
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Speaker 1: whereas nitrous oxide is slightly sweet. Carbon dioxide doesn't create
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Speaker 1: the thick, pillowy texture like nitrous oxide does, and it's
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Speaker 1: less stable. Also, nitrous oxide as a bacterial static property,
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Speaker 1: meaning it inhibits the growth of bacteria, which carbon dioxide
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Speaker 1: does not. People have to buy multiple aerosol whipped cream
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Speaker 1: cans and empty them upright into a balloon or into
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Speaker 1: a plastic bag over their head. Inhaling it as they
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Speaker 1: go to get high. The other thing that can be
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Speaker 1: used is whipped cream dispensers from a restaurant store or Amazon.
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Speaker 1: These use small nitrous containers that are small cylinders that
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Speaker 1: are a couple of inches long, containing eight grams of
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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide. A device also can be purchased called a
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Speaker 1: cracker from a drug paraphernalia store that can empty a
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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide cartridge into a balloon for the ease of inhaling.
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Speaker 1: These cartridges have a nickname and they're called whippets with
15:22
Speaker 1: nitrous oxide. Most people die during acute use, and this
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Speaker 1: is because of asphyxiation. Nitrous Oxide, much like propane, displaces oxygen,
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Speaker 1: and if only nitrous oxide is available and no new
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Speaker 1: oxygen enters the body, the individual dyes from lack of
15:41
Speaker 1: oxygen getting to the brain with whipped cream huffing. It
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Speaker 1: is also because the individual passes out with a bag
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Speaker 1: over their head. The bag is of course full of
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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide and no oxygen, and they potentially afphyxiate. But
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Speaker 1: also the bag usually gets stuck in the mouth and
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Speaker 1: on the nose, making it impossible for air to get
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Speaker 1: through even if it was available At autopsy, there is
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Speaker 1: typically no finding other than palmrin edema in congestion, but
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Speaker 1: you can look at the plastic bag and look for
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Speaker 1: condensation which showed that the individual was breathing when it
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Speaker 1: was on their head, so you doubt they were alive
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Speaker 1: when they were huffing the nitrous oxide. Chronic nitrous oxide
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Speaker 1: abuse can result in other issues like nerve damage such
16:28
Speaker 1: as numbness, muscle weakness, and impaired coordination. Also, it can
16:33
Speaker 1: cause a vitamin B twelve deficiency which can worsen the
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Speaker 1: neurologic issues, and it also can cause an anemia. The
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Speaker 1: dentists that died had been noticing a decreased ability to
16:45
Speaker 1: do his job and lack of coordination, which was all
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Speaker 1: due to his chronic nitrous oxide abuse. Ultimately, the thing
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Speaker 1: that killed him also caused him to have more stress,
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Speaker 1: and he was using it to try and decrease his streth.
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Speaker 1: So is quite the vicious circle, and it's something to
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Speaker 1: consider that if the stress of your job is so
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Speaker 1: severe that alcohol and drugs are needed to cope, maybe
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Speaker 1: something else needs to be done before it destroys you.
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Speaker 1: The next thing that I commonly see is chloral fluorocarbons,
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Speaker 1: which are also known by their trade name of Freon.
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Speaker 1: Chloral fluorocarbons are organic compounds that contain carbon, chlorine, and fluoride.
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Speaker 1: It's a colorless, non flammable liquid and does not occur naturally.
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Speaker 1: It's about four times heavier than air and evaporates rapidly
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Speaker 1: when exposed to air. It dissolves only slightly when mixed
17:44
Speaker 1: with water. Frion's main use is as a refrigerant, especially
17:49
Speaker 1: in air conditioning units. It also is in cleaning products
17:53
Speaker 1: and aerosol propellants, often being present in hair sprays. I
17:57
Speaker 1: have had occasional cases of climbing on top of buildings
18:02
Speaker 1: to access the air conditioning units. They break the free
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Speaker 1: online and then place a bag over their head and
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Speaker 1: huff the chlorofluorocarbons as they come out of the broken line.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes they're found dead with the bag over their heads,
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Speaker 1: still leaning on the broken line. One interesting finding from
18:23
Speaker 1: chlorofluorocarbon abuse and nitrous oxide, as well as some other
18:28
Speaker 1: inhalance is there can be frostbite injuries when the gas
18:32
Speaker 1: comes out of the containers. They can be at a
18:34
Speaker 1: temperature of negative forty degrees fahrenheit. And this can burn
18:39
Speaker 1: the mucous membranes of the nose, tongue, lips, and throat
18:43
Speaker 1: in other areas such as the hands and fingers, leaving
18:47
Speaker 1: telltale red burn marks, but these are of course incidental.
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Speaker 1: Most individuals who die from huffing chlorofluorocarbons die just like
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Speaker 1: as the other individuals who huff inhalance, and that is
19:00
Speaker 1: from asphyxiation. But there is a syndrome known as sudden
19:04
Speaker 1: sniffing death syndrome that can occur. It's unpredictable and can
19:10
Speaker 1: happen even on the first use of an inhalant. This
19:14
Speaker 1: syndrome is caused by the fact that the inhalants are
19:17
Speaker 1: cardiac depressants. They cause slowing down the heartbeat, prolonging the
19:23
Speaker 1: time it takes between contractions of the heart, and this
19:26
Speaker 1: can result in arrhythmius. Inhalans are also believed to sensitize
19:31
Speaker 1: the heart muscle to circulating catecholamines, which are part of
19:35
Speaker 1: the excitatory response. This can cause an exaggerated response by
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Speaker 1: the heart muscle, and when a huffer is startled by
19:42
Speaker 1: someone or something, it can lead to a fatal cardiac
19:46
Speaker 1: arrhythmia known as a ventricular fibrillation, where the heart just
19:50
Speaker 1: quivers instead of pumping blood. Also, the sensitization of the
19:54
Speaker 1: heart can result in arrhythmia when the individual gets done huffing,
19:58
Speaker 1: if there is increased physical activity such as running from
20:02
Speaker 1: the police, or if the individual is experiencing a frightful
20:06
Speaker 1: hallucination or participating in sexual activity. Like with other inhalants,
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Speaker 1: the findings of autopsy with chloral fluorocarbons are completely unremarkable
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Speaker 1: and establishing a diagnosis is dependent once again on finding
20:22
Speaker 1: evidence of the inhalient in postwar intoxicologics testing. One case
20:27
Speaker 1: of chlorofluorocarbon huffing that I performed an autopsy on had
20:31
Speaker 1: an interesting finding. She was a thirty year old female.
20:34
Speaker 1: She liked to huff hairspray. The particular one she used
20:38
Speaker 1: contained free on. She would spray it into a rag,
20:41
Speaker 1: put it over her face, and huff it to get high.
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Speaker 1: On the last time huffing, she was found dead, face
20:48
Speaker 1: down in the rag, laying on bed. There were multiple
20:52
Speaker 1: cands of hair spray at her side. Her autopsy findings
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Speaker 1: were again nonspecific. She had palmery, congestion and deema, and
21:00
Speaker 1: some cerebral edema, but nothing else. The toxicology came back
21:04
Speaker 1: with chlorofluorocarbons present in the blood and it bury very
21:08
Speaker 1: very high alcohol level innervitrious at eight hundred. If you
21:12
Speaker 1: remember in a previous discussion, each can of beer, glass
21:16
Speaker 1: of wine, or shot of whiskey can elevate your blood
21:19
Speaker 1: alcohol level to zero point zero two percent. So a
21:23
Speaker 1: blood alcohol of eight hundred is equivalent to zero point
21:27
Speaker 1: eight percent, which is incredibly high and would essentially be
21:32
Speaker 1: like drinking forty cans of beer all in the span
21:35
Speaker 1: of an hour. Her blood level, on the other hand,
21:38
Speaker 1: was completely devoid of alcohol, which makes no sense. Why
21:42
Speaker 1: did this occur? It took some research, but it appeared
21:46
Speaker 1: that the hair spray had also contained a significant amount
21:49
Speaker 1: of alcohol, and when she died and was laying on
21:52
Speaker 1: the rag, the alcohol continued to passively absorb into her
21:57
Speaker 1: eyeball and get inner vitreous and create this false result.
22:02
Speaker 1: The reality was she had not drunk alcohol at all,
22:05
Speaker 1: and the alcohol level in her eye was just created
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Speaker 1: by this passive absorption of alcohol after she died. As
22:13
Speaker 1: an aside, I did find while researching this, there was
22:17
Speaker 1: a period of time where college students were doing eye
22:20
Speaker 1: shots where they were putting a shot glass full of
22:23
Speaker 1: alcohol on their eye, trying to get drunk from absorbing
22:27
Speaker 1: through the eye. It is probably one of the more
22:30
Speaker 1: unusual ways I've seen people attempting to get drunk by
22:33
Speaker 1: not drinking it orally. There are other unusual methods for
22:37
Speaker 1: getting drunk, but that's for another show. Her cause of
22:41
Speaker 1: death was a cute chlorofloro carbon toxicity, and of course
22:46
Speaker 1: the manner of death was accident and the alcohol had
22:49
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, and that brings us to
22:56
Speaker 1: our final case. It was a unique substance that was inhaled. It's,
23:00
Speaker 1: in fact, the only instance of this that I have
23:04
Speaker 1: seen or experienced in my entire career. The individual was
23:09
Speaker 1: a seventeen year old male. He was found floating face
23:11
Speaker 1: down in a bathtub full of hot water. The tub
23:14
Speaker 1: was overflowing and spilled out onto the floor, seeping into
23:18
Speaker 1: the adjacent room. This flooding is how he was discovered.
23:22
Speaker 1: His mother noticed the water flowing out from under the
23:25
Speaker 1: bathroom door. She knocked, no response, and she quickly became worried.
23:30
Speaker 1: She began frantically pounding on the door as a flooding increased,
23:34
Speaker 1: her son continued not to respond. She popped the lock
23:38
Speaker 1: and found him on responsive, face down in the tub.
23:41
Speaker 1: She pulled him out and called nine one one. She
23:43
Speaker 1: initiated CPR until the paramedics arrived and took over to
23:48
Speaker 1: no avail. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He
23:51
Speaker 1: was brought to the medical Examiner's office and I performed
23:54
Speaker 1: his autopsy the next day. My findings were he was
23:58
Speaker 1: a thin male, appearing to be seventeen years of age.
24:01
Speaker 1: He had abrasions on the left side of his face
24:03
Speaker 1: and along his neck. There were his areas of skin
24:06
Speaker 1: slummage on his extremities that were more likely than not
24:09
Speaker 1: caused from the hot water of the bathtub, essentially cooking
24:12
Speaker 1: him like a lobster and accelerating the decomposition process. He
24:18
Speaker 1: was also found to have water in this sphenoid sinus,
24:20
Speaker 1: which is a nonspecific finding in drownings. The sphenoid sinus
24:25
Speaker 1: is located in the anterior cranial fosa at the base
24:28
Speaker 1: of your skull, right around where your eyeballs sit, and
24:32
Speaker 1: when opened and accessed with a needle, you can find
24:35
Speaker 1: water in it. In cases of drowning, it does not
24:39
Speaker 1: exactly mean that the person drowned, but it shows that
24:42
Speaker 1: the body was found in water. He had also moderate
24:47
Speaker 1: edema of his lungs, and these findings were nonspecific and
24:51
Speaker 1: there were no other findings of note. His case was
24:54
Speaker 1: made pending to wait for the toxicologic testing to get back.
24:59
Speaker 1: There were two Shares officers who attended the autopsy for
25:03
Speaker 1: the purpose of viewing it and finding out what happened.
25:06
Speaker 1: They wanted answers. He had died in a small town
25:09
Speaker 1: in rural Texas, so everyone knew everyone, and it was
25:13
Speaker 1: shocking that this seventeen year old male had just suddenly died.
25:17
Speaker 1: The sheriffs wanted to figure out what had happened and
25:21
Speaker 1: provide closure to the family. While I was performing the autopsy,
25:25
Speaker 1: the officers and I discussed the findings, and they also
25:29
Speaker 1: told me about what they had found at the scene.
25:32
Speaker 1: It appeared that the seedent had gone into the bathroom
25:34
Speaker 1: and collapsed in the tub, hitting his head, which fit
25:38
Speaker 1: with the autopsy finding of the abrasions of the head
25:40
Speaker 1: and neck. But he was also doing something else well naked,
25:45
Speaker 1: and it is not what you're thinking. He was huffing
25:48
Speaker 1: something from a one Leader pop or soda bottle. Before
25:52
Speaker 1: they told me what it was, they said, well, Doc,
25:55
Speaker 1: you have to understand, he's a weird kid. Keeps to himself.
25:58
Speaker 1: He isn't involved any clubs at school, and he doesn't
26:01
Speaker 1: play sports, especially no football, just nothing. Then they told
26:06
Speaker 1: me the Leader bottle contained a firmanent mixture of his
26:10
Speaker 1: urine and feces. This was the substance that he was huffing.
26:15
Speaker 1: The concoction is known as jencom. Jencom is a hallucinogenic
26:20
Speaker 1: inhalin created by fermenting feces and urine. The drugs supposedly
26:25
Speaker 1: originated in Africa, where it was reported by the BBC
26:29
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one that street children in Zambia were
26:33
Speaker 1: inhaling furman and sewage, and, of course, because it was
26:37
Speaker 1: the late nineties and early two thousands, this information became
26:40
Speaker 1: available on the internet. Supposedly, kids in America began claiming
26:44
Speaker 1: they were huffing jencom as well, and for a short
26:47
Speaker 1: period of time, many local news reports and TV stations
26:50
Speaker 1: picked this up and ran stories on it, advising parents
26:54
Speaker 1: to make sure their kids were not huffing their own feces,
26:57
Speaker 1: telling them to check the kid's breadth before they went
27:00
Speaker 1: to bed. As it turned out, jencam use is largely
27:04
Speaker 1: a myth, and its use of the United States was
27:07
Speaker 1: almost entirely a hoax, with most of the Internet sites
27:10
Speaker 1: being unsure if it was real or not. But as
27:14
Speaker 1: I have learned so many times, people do strange things,
27:18
Speaker 1: and my case was definitely a real case of jencam use.
27:22
Speaker 1: Let's discuss jencam a little more in depth. To make
27:26
Speaker 1: gencom ficomatter and urine are placed in a bottle or
27:29
Speaker 1: jar and covered, most commonly with a balloon. It's then
27:33
Speaker 1: placed in a sunny area for several hours or days
27:37
Speaker 1: until it ferments. The contents will separate and release a gas,
27:41
Speaker 1: which is captured in the balloon. Inhaling, the gas is
27:44
Speaker 1: said to have a euphoric hi similar to ingesting cocaine,
27:48
Speaker 1: but with strong hallucinations. Once ingested, the onset of the
27:52
Speaker 1: hide takes approximately ten seconds, with most severe hallucinations happening
27:58
Speaker 1: in approximately twenty minutes. The literature states after inhaling, the
28:03
Speaker 1: subject often will pass out and then wake up and
28:07
Speaker 1: achieve a magical hallucinogenic state within seconds of regaining consciousness.
28:13
Speaker 1: The high has been described by subjects as feeling as
28:17
Speaker 1: being out of it, and it may last for several hours.
28:21
Speaker 1: Most of the literature, though reports jencom use to again
28:24
Speaker 1: be a myth, but in this particular case, it was
28:27
Speaker 1: definitely real. The officers showed me pictures of his bizarre
28:31
Speaker 1: concoction that they found at the house. It was in
28:34
Speaker 1: a green plastic bottle. It appeared to have irn in
28:38
Speaker 1: feces sitting in it. They were separated. They didn't find
28:42
Speaker 1: any balloons of the scene, but he could have been
28:45
Speaker 1: just huffing it directly from the bottle. It definitely looked
28:49
Speaker 1: real to me and not a hoax. With no findings
28:52
Speaker 1: at the autopsy. Like I said, the case was made pending.
28:56
Speaker 1: I ran toxologic tests, expecting to find one of the
29:00
Speaker 1: usual suspects, especially meth amphetamine, which seems to be everywhere
29:05
Speaker 1: in rural America, and when it doesn't make sense, it's
29:08
Speaker 1: usually meth Definitely, when someone's huffing their own feces, that
29:13
Speaker 1: really doesn't make sense. When its toxologic testing came back,
29:17
Speaker 1: his femeral blood was positive for a substance known as thiosulfate,
29:22
Speaker 1: which was well within a fatal range. Thiosulfate is produced
29:26
Speaker 1: by the metabolism of hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless,
29:32
Speaker 1: flammable gas produced by decaying organic matter. It's also present
29:37
Speaker 1: in feces, and in high enough concentrations, it's extremely toxic
29:43
Speaker 1: and can result in sudden and consciousness. It is produced
29:47
Speaker 1: by anaerobic bacteria in the colon as a breakdown sulfur
29:51
Speaker 1: containing compounds in certain foods like eggs, meat, garlic, onions,
29:56
Speaker 1: and cruciferous vegetables which include radishes, turnips, and Brussels sprouts.
30:02
Speaker 1: The production of the gas is part of the normal
30:05
Speaker 1: gut digestion process. Hydrogen sulfide is one of the volatile
30:10
Speaker 1: sulfur compounds that contributes to the smell of flatulence and feces.
30:15
Speaker 1: By fermenting his own feces in urine, he probably created
30:18
Speaker 1: hydrogen sulfide more than anything else, and he was basically
30:22
Speaker 1: huffing that which caused him to pass out and he
30:25
Speaker 1: fell into the bath stub full of water and drowned.
30:28
Speaker 1: He had no other findings other than the thiosulfate in
30:32
Speaker 1: his blood, so his cause of death was made. Hydrogen
30:35
Speaker 1: sulfide gas toxicity was a significant contributing factor of drowning.
30:41
Speaker 1: His manner of death was accent. It was definitely a
30:44
Speaker 1: weird way to go out, but I don't think it
30:47
Speaker 1: had anything to do with his lack of sports aptitude,
30:50
Speaker 1: and it was probably more of his curiosity and boredom.
30:54
Speaker 1: One could almost blame the Internet for his death, and
30:58
Speaker 1: that brings us to the end of the year episode.
31:01
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank car fifty five as usual for
31:04
Speaker 1: providing the music for the show, and once again thanked
31:07
Speaker 1: Team Mayhem, consisting of Max Lodine, audio production and technical editor,
31:13
Speaker 1: and Katie Flatley, the digital producer, and of course my
31:17
Speaker 1: wife Bets for all her help and contributions to both
31:21
Speaker 1: the audio and video productions of the show. I hope
31:29
Speaker 1: you learned something like don't huff your own thesis, and
31:33
Speaker 1: I hope you were entertained until the next time.