James E. Starrs
Appearances
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
I was sent the autopsy report. It looked to me to be at least inadequate, and worst, sloppy.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
There are those people who think that it's rather ghoulish or indeed sacrilegious to dig up the graves of people. I don't look at it that way as long as there is a substantial justifiable reason for doing so. It is the difference between being a grave robber and being a grave digger. I'm a grave digger.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
I made my decision to go forward with a thorough investigation of this case, including an exhumation, because I was of a strong belief that Bill Flint had been the victim of a homicide. I'm the voice for the dead to try to speak for them when they can't speak for themselves.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
In Texas, the Houston chief investigator called me and asked me if I would look into this.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
The coronary arteries were not healthy, but the heart was healthy. Was there any evidence of any damage, any muscle damage in the heart? No. Nothing in the report of the first autopsy.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
We're very pleased that we got all of the samples that we wanted. We've got ample work to continue to work with from this point on.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
The rib fractures. We have from the x-rays of the chest indications that he, Bill Flint, had suffered fractures of three ribs on the right side.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
The kind of thing that he could live with for a while and say to his daughter, I've got this pain in my side. No, I think these are new.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
Could they have been broken after he died? You know, I don't think there's any chance at all that this could have occurred except from a very forceful blow to that area of his chest.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
But it sounds like you're really sort of pushing for this to be a murder, not pushing... I'm pushing for a conclusion that I can live with. I would be out of this entirely if we could find clear evidence that it was not murder. I'm still in it, and I'm in it up to my mukluks.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
When you get into cold cases, the mentality on the part of investigative people is always the same. We want the smoking gun. I don't have a smoking gun that I can give him.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
My name is James E. Starrs and I am a professor of forensic sciences at the George Washington University. I knew nothing about Bill Flint or his death or his family until I received a phone call. It was quite clear from the records that Bill Flint was a marked man. Two different people connected to his former wife, with whom he had been in a custody dispute over their child.
48 Hours
Exhuming the Truth
He was shot twice. He survived it. He was bludgeoned his head and survived that.