Doctor death forensic pathologist reveals the worst ways people can die: Never trust a rooster

Roger Byard – whose colleagues refer to him as ‘Doctor Death’ – has investigated some of the most traumatic deaths in Australia.He’s also investigated some of the strangest.The forensic pathologist told the latest episode of Gary Jubelin’s I Catch Killers podcast about his baptism of fire into the profession, being called out to investigate the infamous ‘bodies in barrels’ Snowtown murders on his first week on call.“I was called by the head of Major Crime one night … and I was so green,” he explained.“I didn’t realize that when the head of Major Crime calls you, it’s pretty serious.”The Snowtown murders were a series of murders committed by John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner, and James Spyridon Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999, in and around Adelaide.

A fourth person, Mark Haydon, was convicted of helping to dispose of the bodies.The trial was one of the longest and most publicized in Australian legal history, with Byard’s forensic evidence contributing to the convictions.But while Snowtown may have been one of the most publicized cases Byard has worked on, it wasn’t the most bizarre.“I’ve been collecting animal deaths,” he told Jubelin.“Deaths from dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel.”You read that right.

Mackerel.“There was a bloke fishing in the Darwin Harbour and sharks were nearby, so this 25 kilogram mackerel jumped out of the water and sideswiped him,” he recalled.“Wrong place, wrong time,” he continued.But what about the rooster?“There was a little old lady out the back collecting eggs,” he explains.“Roosters, I understand, are nasty creatures.It went for her, and she had varicose veins and it just pecked her leg.”Byard explains that he’s had a number of deaths come across his desk where people with varicose veins have experienced minor trauma and ended up dying.“One case was a cat scratch,” he said.

“People don’t realize, and this is the reason that I actually pu...