''Autopsy'' is a television series of
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
's ''
America Undercover''
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
series. Dr.
Michael Baden
Michael M. Baden (born July 27, 1934) is an American physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for his work investigating high-profile deaths and as the host of HBO's ''Autopsy''. Baden was the chief medical examiner of the Ci ...
, a real-life
forensic pathologist, is the primary analyst, and has been personally involved in many of the cases that are reviewed.
Episodes and cases
*''Autopsy: Confessions of a Medical Examiner'' (1994)
**The Case of Joan Bent: Murdered in 1986, the analysis of Joan Bent's stomach contents caught her killer.
**Finding a tattooed arm in the belly of a shark helps solve a missing persons' case.
**The Case of Marybeth Tinning:
Marybeth Tinning was discovered to have killed nine children over 14 years, a stunning example of
Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
**The Case of
Billy Martin: The legendary
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
manager died in 1989 in a single-car accident; Dr. Baden shows that he was not the driver.
**The
Green Haven Prison Murder: Dr. Baden uses dental records to find the killer of a female prison guard.
**The Case of LaToya Thomas: A 13-year-old girl is wrongfully convicted of strangling her mother to death; Dr. Baden helps to exonerate her.
**
The Iceman: Analysis of a preserved corpse found in the
Swiss Alps
The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...
determines it to be 5,000 years old.
*''Autopsy 2: Voices From the Dead'' (1995)
**The Case of the Unidentified Torso: A dismembered
torso
The torso or trunk is an anatomical terminology, anatomical term for the central part, or the core (anatomy), core, of the body (biology), body of many animals (including human beings), from which the head, neck, limb (anatomy), limbs, tail an ...
is identified through its
pelvic bones
The hip bone (os coxae, innominate bone, pelvic bone or coxal bone) is a large flat bone, constricted in the center and expanded above and below. In some vertebrates (including humans before puberty) it is composed of three parts: the ilium, isch ...
as the missing Joyce Klindt, who was murdered by her husband, James.
**Maggots In Evidence: A bathtub filled with filthy water, a skeleton, and
maggot
A maggot is the larva of a fly (order Diptera); it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachycera flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, hoverflies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and cr ...
s leads examiners to analyze the maggots to determine suicide by
barbiturate
Barbiturates are a class of depressant, depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medication, medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological a ...
overdose.
**The Good Doctor: The investigation of Dr. John Cavaness, who murdered two of his four sons.
**The Jellyfish Case: An unidentified body that washes ashore in a plastic bag is identified as murder victim Keeran Carter, who was identified through the
serial number
A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially.
Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...
s on her
breast implants.
**The Angel of Death: The exhumation of several bodies convicts "
angel of death"
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
*
*
*
*
* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
Donald Harvey
Donald Harvey (April 15, 1952 – March 30, 2017) was an American serial killer who claimed to have murdered 87 people, though he has 37 confirmed victims. He was able to do this during his time as a hospital orderly. His spree took place ...
, a nurse's aide at Drake Hospital in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
.
**The Ron Settles Case:
Ron Settles, a star
college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
running back, is arrested and declared an apparent suicide by hanging. Dr. Baden proves his death was a result of a police choke hold.
**A Mother's Instinct: The death of 4-year old
Dennis Jurgens, whose biological mother, Jerry Sherwood, learns of her son's death years after she gave him up for adoption.
Lois Jurgens was later convicted of the murder of her adopted son.
**The Fun House Dummy: A
fun house dummy is found to be the
mummified corpse of a
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...
outlaw named
Elmer McCurdy, who was shot to death in 1911.
**
Forensic reconstruction of
King Tut's face.
*''Autopsy 3: Voices From the Grave'' (1996)
**Intro: The need for modern forensic science comes of age with Jack the Ripper, the first modern serial killer.
**The Sam Kastanis Case: Pathologists prove that Margaret Kastanis murdered her three children before committing suicide, exonerating her husband, who was on trial for the slaying of his family.
**A Killer's Signature: The murder of Milagros Satero, whose killer was found through examining the contents of her stomach.
**The Cheater: The December 1983 disappearance of singer
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
culminates in a conviction for double homicide when his body is found 4 years later floating in his wife's lover's back yard
cistern
A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster.
Cisterns are disti ...
.
**The Story of Anna: The signature bite marks left by an abducted 11-year-old girl's
braces on her attacker's body convicts him of rape and attempted murder.
**The Face From The Grave: A "faceprint" of Juana Gillette's face on the trash bag that suffocated her convicts her husband, Ronald, of her murder.
**The Black Widow: The attempted murder of Reverend Dwight Moore by
arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...
poisoning leads to the discovery that his second wife,
Blanche Taylor Moore, is a serial killer.
**The Mystery of Folly Island: Nineteen decapitated skeletons are discovered in an island off
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
, and found to be
Union soldiers, members of
Wild's African Brigade.
*''Autopsy 4: The Dead Speak'' (1997)
**A Cry In The Night: Belinda Wood is murdered by her downstairs neighbor, who torches their apartment building to destroy the crime scene.
**The Crypt Keeper: An elderly man vanishes from his
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
home; two decades later, an investigation is needed when a skeleton is found in a hidden room in the basement.
**The Michelle Wallace Case: Photographer Michelle Wallace vanishes in the
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...
; two braids of hair change the case from a disappearance to a homicide, and help convict her killer.
**The Perfect Witness:
DNA analysis
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
of cat hairs brings a killer to justice on
Canada's Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...
.
**The Case of The Masked Man: Paula Sims claims her baby girl was abducted by a masked intruder; her bones, found later in the woods near her home, shed no light on her death. When the Sims' second daughter is also kidnapped, a forensic examination of the infant's body convicts Paula for both murders.
**Case of The Missing Cowboy: The investigation of a dismembered and morphine-filled torso and head convicts a rancher mother of three in the death of her boyfriend, Casey Elliott.
**The
Bog People: The
peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...
bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...
s of Europe yield up perfectly preserved bodies, all violently murdered over 2,000 years ago.
*''Autopsy 5: Dead Men Do Tell Tales'' (1998)
**Intro: History of outlawed autopsy and
body-snatching to provide bodies for dissection.
**The Robert Curley Case: A university electrician dies from a mystery ailment; high
thallium
Thallium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Tl and atomic number 81. It is a silvery-white post-transition metal that is not found free in nature. When isolated, thallium resembles tin, but discolors when exposed to air. Che ...
levels in his hair provide a timeline that proves systematic poisoning by his new bride.
**The Collector: FBI profilers use a
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
serial killer's obsession with trophies to arrest "the eyeball killer",
Charles Albright.
**Murder in Paradise: Forensic analysis of a rack of antlers leads to the arrest of a poacher for the slaughter of Charger, a famous elk in
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...
.
**The Roy Kirk Case: Slumlord Roy Kirk is apprehended for murdering and dismembering his complaining neighbor, Ann Hoover; examination also shows how the handcuffed and shackled Kirk hanged himself in the police van en route to the station.
**A Bad Impression: Two prostitute murderers of a pimp are identified by a bite impression left in a wad of chewing gum.
**The Videotape Murder: A video of skaters in a park is enhanced to prove that a suspect with missing fingertips did not commit a murder caught on tape.
**The Mary Ann Powell Case: Strange scratch patterns in the aluminum seat of his newly purchased boat connects Warren Powell to the murder and disposal of the body of his pregnant young wife.
*''Autopsy 6: Secrets of the Dead'' (1999)
**The Case of the Severed Hand: Fingerprinting a waterlogged hand found in the
Manatee River leads to a violated corpse and a voodoo practitioner running a funeral parlor.
**A Fatal Attraction: Hairs found at the crime scene of Andrew Katrinak's missing wife and baby convict his ex-girlfriend of their abduction and murder.
**The Margo Prade Story: A physician is found shot in her car; the unusual imprint of only half a bite mark convicts her husband, a decorated police captain with an upper plate of false teeth, of her murder.
**The Telltale Imprint: An incriminating lipstick print left on the glass door convicts a robber, who held up the bank in drag.
**An American Dream: When
Jack Reeves's third wife, a Filipina immigrant, disappears, he reveals his second wife, a Korean immigrant, drowned at
Lake Whitney and his first wife, Sharon, committed suicide by pulling a shotgun trigger with her big toe. An exhumation of Sharon's body proves her death was a homicide. Reeves was convicted of the murders of his first and third wife, whose remains were found in a shallow grave at Lake Whitney.
**The Strange Obsession of Dr.
Carl von Cosel: An elderly physician's fixation on preserving the corpse of his lovely young
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
patient in 1930s
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...
results in grave robbing and
necrophilia
Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction or acts involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its ''International ...
.
*''Autopsy 7: Dead Man Talking'' (2001)
**Maggots For The Defense: A maggot timeline exonerates a wrongly-convicted
Boy Scout
A Scout, Boy Scout, Girl Scout or, in some countries, a Pathfinder is a participant in the Scout Movement, usually aged 10–18 years, who engage in learning scoutcraft and outdoor and other special interest activities. Some Scout organizatio ...
leader for murder.
**Criss/Cross: Marks left on a body by stolen jewelry thwart a pact by two
Hoboken husbands to murder each other's wives.
**The Good Doctor: Dr.
John Schneeberger drugs and rapes a patient and his stepdaughter, evading arrest for years by implanting a vial of another's blood in his arm to beating DNA testing.
**The Sue Snow Case: An incorrect determination of her husband's death prompts
Stella Nickell to kill again with cyanide, in the first product
tampering case in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
**Til Death Do Us Part: An autopsy of
Chang and Eng Bunker
Chang Bunker (จัน บังเกอร์) and Eng Bunker (อิน บังเกอร์) (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were Siamese (Thai)-American conjoined twins, conjoined twin brothers whose fame propelled the expression " ...
, the famous
conjoined twin
Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined ''Uterus, in utero''. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 50,000 births to one in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence i ...
brothers whose nationality became the basis for the term "Siamese twins".
*''Autopsy 8: Dead Giveaway'' (2002)
**Pure Evil: Investigation of the remains of their victims leads to the apprehension of
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
serial rapists and murderers
Paul Bernardo and
Karla Homolka.
**The Lady Vanishes: DNA on the envelope of a suicide note proves that a "missing" wife was being impersonated by her murderous husband.
**Mail Rape: A serial rapist attempts to throw doubt on his case by mailing a DNA sample to an accomplice.
**Blood Hound of Detroit: A blood scenting dog ties up a case that begins with body parts found in a dumpster.
**The Medicine Man: Chief Medical Examiner William Sybers wrongly assumes that embalming will hide all the evidence that he murdered his wife.
**Belle of Them All: The 1931 capture of an elderly woman for poisoning her boyfriend reveals her to be notorious
Norwegian-American
Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...
serial killer
Belle Gunness, who murdered her children and prospective husbands decades ago, burying their bodies on her pig farm before faking her own death.
*''Autopsy 9: Dead Awakening'' (2003)
**A Baby's Cry: Laser light on a baby's body reveals bruises, proving her stepfather to be responsible for her death.
**A Deadly Fare: DNA in a discarded tissue helps convict the murderer of a
Banff cabdriver.
**Love Thy Neighbor: The thallium poisoning of an entire family is tracked to their next door neighbor, George Trepal, a murderous games-playing
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
.
**In Your Face: Laser light reveals an impression left on a truck's airbag, convicting a suspect in a multiple-fatality hit and run.
**Thread of Evidence: Carpet fibers lead to the apprehension of
Steven Brian Pennell, the
U.S. 40 serial killer.
**Ask Dr. Baden: An online request to evaluate a crime scene leads to a couple's deaths being reclassified as homicides.
*''An Actual Autopsy'' and ''A Re-Examination of "Autopsy's" Most Complex Cases'' (2003)
**Dr. Baden takes the audience step-by-step through a genuine autopsy and looks back on unusually difficult cases.
**The Black Widow
**The Marybeth Tinning Story
**Pure Evil
**The Angel of Death
*''Ask Dr. Baden: An Autopsy Special'' (2005) (referred to also as ''Autopsy 10'' on the ''Autopsy'' website)
*''Autopsy 11: Sex, Lies and Murder...'' (2006)
**The Love Bird: A loyal pet cockatoo's attack on his owner's murderer leads to a conviction.
**Justice for Jaime:
**Lasting Impression: The imprint of a license plate number on a hit and run victim leads to the driver's arrest and conviction.
**He Said...She Said:
*''Autopsy: Post Mortem with Dr. Michael Baden'' (2008)
**The assassination of
John F. Kennedy in 1963.
**The royal
Romanov family in Russia in 1918.
**The deaths of
Sid Vicious
Simon John Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the second bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. After his death in 1979 at the age of 21, he remai ...
and his girlfriend
Nancy Spungen four months apart in 1978–79.
**The double-murder case involving
O. J. Simpson
Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...
in 1994.
**Illnesses and deaths in first responders due to exposure to toxic chemicals at Ground Zero in the hours and days after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Autopsy (Tv Series)
American English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Television shows about death
1994 American television series debuts
1990s American documentary television series
2000s American documentary television series
2008 American television series endings
2010s American documentary television series
True crime television series