Post Questions to Dr. Cyril Wecht about the Cooper Harris Case

The death of Cooper Harris has captivated everyone.

There are so many unanswered questions and tonight (Thursday) 8 PM Eastern on True Crime Radio we will do our best to answer them.


Tonight's guests world famous pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht and Sheryl McCollum from the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute.

Please post any questions you may have for Dr. Wecht or Sheryl McCollum about the Harris case on this thread.

All you need to remember is come to www.truecrimeradio.com at 8 PM Eastern every Thursday and there you will find the link to listen live and you can join the chatroom too.

Remember and pass it around to everyone please: www.truecrimeradio.com 8 PM Eastern every Thursday Night and TONIGHT Dr. Cryil Wecht and Sheryl McCollum.

Thank you,
Tricia
PS. Mods I will move this thread after the show.

Awesome, Tricia! One question is whether there are any cases they are aware of where there was a question about whether a child was left in hot car accidentally vs deliberately. I've seen the stats about accident/deliberate/child climbed in on own, but wonder if any of those that were deliberate had the question of accident or not that had to be disproved in favor of intention. Hope that made sense

Hi Dr. Wecht.

*I may have different questions after the hearing today, but this came to mind early this morning before the hearing, so I'll go ahead.

My question is about the rumored smell in Ross Harris's vehicle.

There's a rumor floating around that the responding officers noticed a strong smell in Ross Harris's Hundyai, speculation is that this was one of the things that tipped responders off that he could not have driven from his workplace to the strip mall without realizing Cooper was deceased in the back. It raised suspicions.

There's been a lot of discussion on our thread about decomp odors, but at the same time I'd also imagine that even a healthy live child who'd been wearing the same diaper in a hot car for 7 hours would be pretty ripe too.

I've read the Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The curious lives of human cadavers," but it's been several years, and I've forgotten the details of the hot car section.

Given what we know about poor Cooper's death, is it likely that responding officers smelled something "intense" in the vehicle? Is it at all possible Ross Harris drove to the Akers Mill Shopping center and didn't smell it? What sort of smell was it at that stage? (Decomp or sweaty soiled child? Vomit? All three?)Finally, is it possible that the smell, if decomp, could be an indication that the child had died at an earlier time? Perhaps the child had even died on a previous day and Ross Harris' actions on the 18th were a cover for a prior accident?

Thank you so much for being on the show.

Given that the internal temp of the car was probably in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (and potentially much higher) at the time of death, how much faster is the onset of rigor mortis under those conditions?

Is the faster onset of rigor mortis in the high heat environment even faster in a smaller body, such as the 25-30 pound body of a 2 year old?

I would assume a smaller body would reach ambient temps more quickly, also. Do you think the responding ME techs/ or ME obtained a core temp on the child, to estimate time of death? Or is it enough to know rigor was advanced?

Thank you!

It is rather difficult to discuss, but perhaps Dr. Weight would be willing to discuss the kinds of findings at autopsy that indicate that a death is due to hyperthermia. Cerebral edema, etc.

I think it's important to educate the audience about what kind of extreme damage occurs with hot car deaths, as well as the profound brain damage that can occur in survivors of hot car abandonment. It is something we can all learn more about, with the goal of being vigilant and preventing these kinds of deaths.

"Rigor mortis may not be perceivable in many infant and child corpses due to their smaller muscle mass.[5]"

I'm wondering since Cooper is said to remain in the sitting position after being removed from his car seat..
If he had died at an earlier time..closer to that 10-12 hour timeline in the wiki linkhttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis




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Could the motion of the car leaving work jostle Cooper enough to produce any audible sounds? (In reference to possible "choking" noise heard)

Great questions everyone.

Dr. Wecht has limited time with us tonight but I will do my best to try and get everyones questions to the good doctor.

Does anyone have any questions about how to get to the live show on iHeart?

All you need to do is go to WWW.TRUECRIMERADIO.COM and the link to the live show is right there at the top of the page. I'll be live from 8 PM-9PM Eastern tonight and every Thursday.

Dr. Wecht will be on the show Thursday July 24th talking about his new book, "Final Exams".

Remember to go to www.truecrimeradio.com for our chat room a link to the live show every Thursday night 8 PM Eastern.