[guide.chat] ATRUE STORY

From: "harold kitching" <harold.kitching01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "pam camidge" <pam.camidge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "guide chat" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 16:12:42 +0100
:FWD: A true story?
Murder Mystery (true story)... A must read
For those who have served on a jury...this one is something to think 
about...Just when you think you have heard everything!!
Do you like to read a good murder mystery?
Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess. This is an 
unbelievable twist of fate!!!!

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, (AAFS) President, 
Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a 
bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23,1994 ... the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus, and 
concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped 
from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide.
He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the 
ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a 
window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been 
installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers 
and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way 
he had planned.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by 
an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was 
threatening her with a shotgun! The man was so upset that when he pulled the 
trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the 
window, striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject 'A' but kills subject 'B' in the attempt, one 
is guilty of the murder of subject 'B.'
When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both 
adamant, and both said that they thought the shotgun was not loaded. The old 
man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded 
shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus 
appeared to be an accident; that is, assuming the gun had been accidentally 
loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son 
loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired 
that the old lady, had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing 
the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun 
with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even 
though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder 
on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist ... Further investigation revealed that the son 
was, in fact, Ronald Opus. 
He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to 
engineer his mother's murder.
This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be 
killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window.
The son, Ronald Opus, had actually murdered himself. So the medical examiner 
closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press.
[guide.chat] ATRUE STORY

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