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Mayhem in the Morgue | Lightning · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's episode includes information about the death of individuals. If
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this sort of thing upsets you, this is not the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: episode for you. May I suggest you watch a movie,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: maybe something like The Natural.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Mayhem in the Morning with their host doctor
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Kende Crowns.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: When I did my medical school rotation at the Cedric
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner's Office in which tak Kansas, I was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: put in the death investigator's office. The entire time I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: was there, I had my own cubicle amongst them, so
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: whenever there was a death scene, I was ready to go.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: On slow days, they would talk about their interesting cases
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and show me pictures from scenes and autopsies. At that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: point in my career, everything was interesting. Some of these
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: cases I can still see if I think about them.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: One of the cases that they show me that I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: can still remember was a double fatality. It was very
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: unique and the pictures that I saw were the only
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: time in my entire career that I had seen something
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: like this. The two individuals were killed by a lightning strike.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Growing up in Kansas, thunderstorms were just part of spring
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and summer, as well as tornadoes. Part of my grade
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  Speaker 1: school education was what not to do in these extremes
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of weather. We were taught what to do with lightning
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: when you were out in the field, and how to
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: shelter from a tornado. In Kansas, severe weather is always
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: taken seriously because one second it's calm and sunny, and
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  Speaker 1: the next it's the end of the world. The tornado
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: sirens were tested every day at noon and became background noise,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: except on the days when there was severe weather. When
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the sky was black and the sirens were howling, you
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: knew it was time to head to the basement. There
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: was one time during a tornado, my grade school music
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: teacher thought the tornado sirens were a fire alarm. She
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: was new and was from out of state. We told
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  Speaker 1: her it was a tornado siren and she said, no, children,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: it's a fire. Now we had outdoors. We lined up
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and marched outside holding hands. The wind was extreme, whipping
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: girl's hair and dirt was blowing around. The sky was
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  Speaker 1: ominous with large black clouds. When all of us were
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: out of the annex, we headed to the area where
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: we were supposed to go when there was a fire.
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  Speaker 1: When the music teacher caught up with us, her face
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  Speaker 1: showed fear. A level of fear I had not seen
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  Speaker 1: on an adult before. She screamed to head into the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: main school and to run, run, run. Our line broke
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: as panics set in. It was a free for all,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: with all of us running and screaming and shoving trying
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  Speaker 1: to get to the door to get back into the school.
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  Speaker 1: It was chaos. None of us died, but we were
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  Speaker 1: all terrified. The next day, when I went to the
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  Speaker 1: annex for music class, there was a substitute teacher. I
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  Speaker 1: found out much later the out of state, brand new
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  Speaker 1: music teacher was fired on the spot for her error.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: We tried to warn her. When they told me these
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: two individuals had died from a lightning strike, it really
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: peaked my curiosity. I have always found lightning fascinating, and
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: this came from the fact that my parents' house was
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: struck by lightning when I was a child. Our neighbor
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: had parked a large RV in his driveway. There was
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a mere feet from the sight of one side of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: my parents' house. During a thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: hit the RB and then reflected into my parents' house.
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  Speaker 1: My mother saw electricity shoot out of the wall sockets
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that she was standing by. And my brother saw nails
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: shoot out of the walls that flew across him as
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: he was laying in bed. Several of the light bulbs
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: exploded as well. I don't remember any of it because
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I was far too young, but the damage had to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: be fixed and was always talked about. Because these cases
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: were associated with lightning. I wanted to find out as
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: much as I could, and I couldn't wait to see them.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: The investigators got out the cotochromes of the old picture
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  Speaker 1: slides and we went to the conference room to look
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  Speaker 1: at them more closely. When the first picture popped up
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  Speaker 1: on the screen, it showed the whole scene, and it
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  Speaker 1: threw me off instantly because it was a park that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I was very familiar with. I had been to that
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  Speaker 1: park and recreational center multiple times throughout my childhood. It
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  Speaker 1: was eerie to see the two bodies laying in the
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  Speaker 1: parking lot where my dad would wait for me to
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  Speaker 1: finish basketball practice during my ill fated year playing basketball.
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  Speaker 1: I could see in the pictures oft in the distance
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  Speaker 1: the payphone that my friends and I would often use
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  Speaker 1: to make phone calls when we were out and about
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  Speaker 1: on Friday night. Seeing the dead mixed with childhood locations
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  Speaker 1: was a little jarring, but once I got past this,
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  Speaker 1: I focused on the bodies. They were two high school students.
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  Speaker 1: The forensic death investigators had some information that they were
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  Speaker 1: potentially in a romantic relationship, and neither of their parents approved.
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  Speaker 1: They had snuck out on this dark, stormy night to
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  Speaker 1: hang out in the park with friends. As the evening progressed,
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  Speaker 1: a thunderstorm came rolling in. They decided to head back
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  Speaker 1: to their homes, but before they left each other for
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  Speaker 1: the night, they had one last hug, and at that moment,
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  Speaker 1: a bolt of lightning struck the boy and the election
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: tricity transferred through him into the girl, killing them both instantly.
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  Speaker 1: Their friends that were there with them at the park
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  Speaker 1: called paramedics from the payphone, and by the time the
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  Speaker 1: paramedics arrived, they were declared dead at the scene. The
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  Speaker 1: male had much more severe injuries from the lightning strike.
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  Speaker 1: His clothes had been burnt and partially melted. He had
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  Speaker 1: burns on his body on his chest and shoulders and abdomen,
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  Speaker 1: with one burn matching the zipper of his pants, and
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  Speaker 1: his left leg was severely burned with deep burns of
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  Speaker 1: the muscle to the bone, making it look like the
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  Speaker 1: leg had exploded below the knee. The female also exhibited
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: burns on her chests and arms and singing of her clothing,
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  Speaker 1: but none of her injuries were as severe as the male.
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  Speaker 1: The death investigators told me that they had never seen
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  Speaker 1: anything like this, and I would say, in twenty six
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: years of doing autopsies, I have never seen a lightning
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  Speaker 1: strike quite as bad as these two cases. And that's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to be discussing on today's episode, is
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: death from lightning. I've only had a single case that
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I was directly associated with, and I've seen a couple
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of other cases at the offices that I have worked
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  Speaker 1: at over the years. Lightning deaths are quite rare. So
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: let's go a little more in depth about how lightning forms.
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  Speaker 1: When spring brings in warm temperatures and pushes out the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: cold air of winter, and the warm, moist air rises
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  Speaker 1: rapidly into the cool air air of the upper atmosphere,
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  Speaker 1: it creates an instability that results in the formation of
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  Speaker 1: chiomyelo nimbulus clouds or storm clouds, which is a large
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  Speaker 1: anvil shaped cloud that is often five to ten miles high.
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  Speaker 1: Within this cloud, there are extreme temperature gradients and a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of air turbulence. The lightning forms on these
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  Speaker 1: clouds from the collision of the warm, moist air and
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  Speaker 1: cold air which contains ice particles in hail. When these interact,
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  Speaker 1: it creates an electrical charge by separation of electrons, which
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  Speaker 1: results in positive charges at the top of the cloud
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  Speaker 1: and negative charges at the bottom of the cloud. The
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: earth typically maintains a negative charge, but as the storm
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  Speaker 1: cloud's negative charge increases, the ground underneath it develops a
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: charge that is the polar opposite, becoming increasingly positive. The
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: positive charges on the ground tend to concentrate on tall
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: objects like trees, poles, buildings, and if you're standing in
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  Speaker 1: a flat open field, you the air between the ground
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  Speaker 1: and the storm cloud acts as an insulator, and as
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: these positive and negative charges get higher and higher, it
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: eventually overwhelms the insulation effect of the air and negative
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  Speaker 1: charges begin heading to the ground. This is called the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: step ladder, with steps that are yards in length and
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  Speaker 1: can branch, giving lightning its characteristic shape. Positive charges on
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  Speaker 1: the ground begin streaming upwards, involving the taller objects as well,
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  Speaker 1: and when the step ladder from the sky and the
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  Speaker 1: streamer from the ground connect there's a rapid electrical discharge
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  Speaker 1: that moves at sixty thousand miles per second, and once
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  Speaker 1: this occurs, it is what we know is lightning. The
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: entire process occurs so quickly that the lightning appears to
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  Speaker 1: travel from the cloud to the ground when it is
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: actually traveling from the ground to the cloud. A typical
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  Speaker 1: lightning bolt has three hundred million volts or about thirty
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  Speaker 1: thousand amps, but can get as high as one billion
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  Speaker 1: volts or one point two gigawatts of power. That's enough
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  Speaker 1: energy to power twelve million light bulbs or eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand homes for an entire day. It's also
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  Speaker 1: enough energy to power a flux capacitor, sending a doloreum
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  Speaker 1: back to the future. The heat surrounding the air of
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  Speaker 1: the lightning bolt is about fifty four thousand degrees fahrenheit,
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  Speaker 1: which is hotter than the Sun's surface. The rapid heating
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  Speaker 1: causes the air to expand explosively in a few millions
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  Speaker 1: of a second, producing thunder, which can be heard up
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  Speaker 1: to twenty five miles away. Lightning strikes are rare, and
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  Speaker 1: your odds of being struck by lightning in any given
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  Speaker 1: year are one to one million, seven hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 1: five thousand. Statistics from the Center for Disease Controls spanning
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  Speaker 1: the years from two thousand and six to twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: one showed there were four hund undred and forty four
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  Speaker 1: lightning strike deaths in the United States. Other data from
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  Speaker 1: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration showed that there
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  Speaker 1: are fifty five percent more deaths from lightning than tornadoes,
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  Speaker 1: and forty one percent more deaths from lightning than hurricanes
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  Speaker 1: and tornadoes combined. The average age of a person struck
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  Speaker 1: by lightning is thirty seven years. Males are once again
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  Speaker 1: more likely to be struck, and of course sometimes it's
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  Speaker 1: because of women, methamphetamine, or alcohol, but none of this
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  Speaker 1: has been compiled in statistics yet. Most lightning strikes occur
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  Speaker 1: between the months of May and August, with a peak
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  Speaker 1: occurring in July. Lightning occurs most commonly in the Southeastern States,
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  Speaker 1: and the most deaths have occurred in Florida, with Texas
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  Speaker 1: being second. Florida is known as the lightning capital of
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  Speaker 1: the United States, and within Florida, there is a corridor
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  Speaker 1: known as Lightning Alley, which is notorious for the high
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  Speaker 1: frequency of lightning strikes, averaging about fifty six strikes per
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  Speaker 1: square mile annually, and this quarter stretches from Tampa Bay
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  Speaker 1: to Titusville and down to Lake Okeechobee. Statistics from the
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  Speaker 1: National Weather Service show that one lightning casualty occurs for
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  Speaker 1: every eighty six thousand flashes in the United States, with
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  Speaker 1: one death occurring for every three hundred and forty five
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  Speaker 1: thousand flashes. Overall, there is a rate of seven point
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  Speaker 1: seven casualties per million people per one hundred million flashes
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  Speaker 1: of lightning found in the entire United States. The odds
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  Speaker 1: of being struck vary from person to person and is
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  Speaker 1: determined by a number of different factors. Among the most
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  Speaker 1: significant are geographical, location, climatology, and personal lifestyles or activities.
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  Speaker 1: The National Lightning Safety Council lists the Deadly Dozen, which
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  Speaker 1: are twelve activities that contribute most to lightning fatalities in
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  Speaker 1: the United States. The most fatal activity is fishing, followed
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  Speaker 1: by being on a beach, then boating, farming or ranching, camping, roofing,
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  Speaker 1: riding a bicycle, motorcycle, or atv large social gatherings construction work,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: playing golf, and finally yardwork. If you think about these
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: activities like fishing, farming, and camping, there are often large
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  Speaker 1: flat areas in which the person is the tallest object.
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  Speaker 1: Some people question whether it's due to the metal that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the person may be holding that is causing the lightning strike.
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  Speaker 1: Metals pose very low electrical resistance, making them excellent conductors
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  Speaker 1: for electricity. The metal provides a highly efficient path for
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: electrical current to continue through, but it doesn't necessarily attract
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  Speaker 1: the lightning. The fact is is when you're holding a
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  Speaker 1: metal object, it can actually make you taller. And because
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: tall metal objects like golf clubs, fishing rods, or even
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: umbrellas create height, the person effectively becomes the tallest, most
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  Speaker 1: isolated point and this increases the likelihood that a positive
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  Speaker 1: ground streamer will launch from this location and it has
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do with it being metaling. Wow wow, And
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: that brings us to the only lightning death that I
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  Speaker 1: have ever performed an autosy on. The case was that
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  Speaker 1: of a forty seven year old youth baseball coach. It
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: was August and his team was playing a game at
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  Speaker 1: a local park. It was early evening when the storm
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  Speaker 1: rolled in. The game was stopped and everyone went to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: their cars to wait out the storm. After a while,
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  Speaker 1: the storm appeared to clear up and the sky had
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: begun to brighten. The decedent and the opposing team's coach
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  Speaker 1: got out of their cars and went out to the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: baseball diamond to determine if the game should continue. The
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: deceitan was reportedly talking on a cell phone when a
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  Speaker 1: flash of lightning hit, knocking both men to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: The bolt hit the deceitan directly in the head, causing
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: him to instantly go into cardiac arrest. The other coach
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  Speaker 1: was struck by a side splash. He was able to
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: get up and walk away. Nine one one was called.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Paramedics arrived and both coaches were transported to the hospital.
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  Speaker 1: The coach that got up was discharged later that evening.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: The deceason survived until the afternoon of the next day
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  Speaker 1: and died from irreversible brain damage. At autopsy, he was
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a well developed, well nourished mail. He had a deep
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: burn on his face near his ear, cerebral edema or
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: swelling of the brain, palmery congestion, and edema or fluid
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: on the lungs, and there were no other findings. His
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: toxicology was negative, so his cause of death was made
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  Speaker 1: lightning strike manner of death accident. Before we go into
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the autopsy findings, I want to discuss first the use
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: of a cell phone in lightning storms, as well as
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a little more in depth the different ways lightning can
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  Speaker 1: cause injury or death. First off, does holding a cell
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: phone increase your risk of being hit by lightning? No,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: it does not. Using a cell phone outdoors during a
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: storm is risky because you are still standing outdoors, but
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  Speaker 1: the phone will not actually attract the lightning. There has
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: been reports of people using land lines that when the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: telephone lines were struck uck that it actually went through
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the telephone lines and then electrocuted them, but of course
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: almost nobody uses a landline anymore. Now let's talk a
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: little bit more about how lightning can cause injury or death.
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  Speaker 1: The first way is what occurred in this case and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: with the male in the park, and that is a
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: direct strike. This is when the bolt shoots down and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: hits the person straight on. Direct strikes are actually fairly
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  Speaker 1: uncommon and comprise only about three to five percent of
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  Speaker 1: the fatalities. Next is what happened to the other coach
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  Speaker 1: and the female in the park, which is called a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: side flash or splash. In this type of strike, lightning
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: hits another object like a tree or as in both
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: of these cases, another person travels downward and then jumps
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: to the other person standing next to them. This type
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of strike is much more frequent and occurs in about
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: thirty percent of deaths. Next is contact entry, and this
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: occurs when someone touches a conductive surface that has been
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: struck by lightning. It could be a events or a vehicle,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and when you're indoors, it can even be the faucet
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of the sink, because when lightning strikes water pipes, it
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: can travel into the house and make the faucets electrified.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Contact strikes account for only about three to five percent
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: of lightning strikes. Next is earth potential rise, which occurs
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: when lightning strikes the earth near someone and initiates a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: ground current that then enters their body upward through their feet.
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  Speaker 1: This is seen usually at sporting events when a strike
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: hits the playing field and injures the players. The next
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: type of lightning strike is caused from upward streamers, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it's caused when the upper edge of the electrical current
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: causes serious injury or death when the person becomes the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: unwitting conduit. It is believed that when someone's hair begins
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: standing on end is the moment that an upward streamer
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: is passing through their body. And finally, the last way
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: lightning can injure a person is parotrauma or shockwaves that
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: can cause blunt from the concussive shock or shrapnel injuries
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: from an object being struck by lightning, such as a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: tree and exploding out. Of all these different ways of
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: lightning can cause injury, their effects are all pretty much
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the same. When lightning strikes a person and causes injuries
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: through the electricity and heat, but also through light and barotrauma.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: There is of course burns of the skin, which I
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: will discuss further in the autopsy findings, but the primary
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: injury is to the nervous system. In survivors, there are
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: milder symptoms which may include muscle soreness, headache, nausea, confusion,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: memory issues, and balance problems. Long term implications include chronic pains,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: sleep problems, ringing in the years, depression, and personality changes.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: A single lightning bolt can produce over ninety eight thousand lumens,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: which is like looking straight into one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: incandescent light bulbs, which can cause injuries of the eyes
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  Speaker 1: including uviitis, macular holes, optic neuropathy, retinal detachment, and even cataracts.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: The majority of day from lightning injuries are due to
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  Speaker 1: the immediate cardiac or pulmary arrests followed by unsuccessful resuscitation.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: The lightning strike can cause an arrhythmia or an irregular heartbeat,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: or a complete stoppage of the heart. Not unlike how
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: defibrillator works, respiratory arrests may occur due to the chest
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: muscles being paralyzed and also suppresses the respiratory center of
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the brain because of the neurological disruption. One other finding
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in lightning injury is a massive catecholamine release, which results
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: in hypertension, tachycardia, or an increased heartbeat, and myocardial infarctions
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: or heart attacks. In most cases seen at autopsy, the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: current has both entered and exited the body through burns
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: on the skin and flowed over the surface of the body.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Burns may or may not be seen, but when they are,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: these are linear and punctate. Burns, feathering lesions, and thermal injuries.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Linear burns are the most common and they are found
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: in areas of great sweat concentration under the breasts or
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the axilla or armpits and down the middle of the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: chest or back, and are caused by the vaporization of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the sweat. The punk tape burns are small, circular, closely
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: spaced burns, and they can be superficial or full thickness.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Feathering lesions are also known as Lichtenberg figures and are
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: fern like, fractal or branching red pink lesions along the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: skin surface. When we see these lesions, it's specific for
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: a lightning strike. So when someone is found dead in
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a field with no other information and you see these
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Lichtenberg figures, you can be certain that they were hit
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: by lightning. How they're formed is actually unknown, but there
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: are several theories. My favorite one is that the electricity
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: lightning causes the capillaries to contract, causing red blood cells
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to be pushed through the vessel walls into the subcutaneous tissue,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: matching the pattern of the electricity on the skin surface.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: The last skin injury is thermal injuries caused by zippers
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: or other metal objects heated by the lightning. Beyond the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: external burns of the skin, Internally, there are no specific
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: findings other than there may be cerebral edema or swelling
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: the brain and pomary congestion edema or fluid on the lungs. Microscopically,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: there can be a wave like necrosis due to the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: cardiac effects of the lightning. Also from the barotrauma, there
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: can be blood draining from the ears due the rupture
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: of the ear drums, as well as rupture of the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: lungs and gas run testinal tracks resulting in air in
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: these cavities. These findings are pretty much all that can
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: be found at autopsy, and beyond the Lichtenberg figures, they
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: are all pretty nonspecific, so it is always very helpful
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to have a good investigation because Lichtenberg figures may not
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: always be there, and in the few other lightning deaths
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I've seen, the findings are pretty much all the same.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: There is a simple rule of thumb that is outlined
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: in multiple different websites, and that is when thunder roars
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: go indoors. It's catchy and it's easy to remember, and
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: if you take the lightning threat seriously and always get
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: inside before lightning becomes a threat. Your personal odds of
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: being struck are near zero. That brings us to the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: end of the episode. I hope you learned something and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I hope you were entertained until the next time.