Terror At The Morgue

Did A Medical Examiner Strap A Bomb To His Own Neck?

(CBS) 
Smith again told the agents he believed he was targeted for his testimony against Workman. But inconsistencies emerged with each recounting of the attack.

In two earlier written statements, Smith said his assailant first tied the barbed wire around his ankles, and then his wrists. But during his interrogation, Smith told agents that he thought his hands were tied first: "I'm blind. I got my hands underneath me. He's on top. I can't move. He owns me."

Agents didn't buy Smith's story of being so easily overwhelmed by his assailant, especially since Smith had once been a combat surgeon with the Navy Reserves, and had even served with the Marines in the Persian Gulf War.

So why didn't Smith fight back? "Machismo gets you killed," he says. "You have a choice. You can resist, anger him, suffer the consequences, or you can ride it."

For prosecutor Pat Harris, photos of Smith after the attack raised the greatest suspicions. She says Smith should have suffered injuries to his face, from the barbed wire and the acid, that were much worse than they appeared.

How does Smith explain why his face wasn't cut up more from the barbed wire? "What you're looking at is the fact that the barbed wire is old, it's rusty, it's dull, so it's gonna scratch, but it's not gonna tear skin," says Smith. He points to sections of his face that were hit with lye.

But Harris believes that Smith doused his own face with lye, carefully avoiding contact with his eyes.

Almost a year and a half after his attack, the investigation formally ends, with an outcome that no one could have predicted.