not ficson

[dsjeya]

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.

"Ordinarily, " Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what
he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."

That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would
not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical
examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.

In 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 unloaded. 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, if 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 hat 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 had actually Murdered himself,
so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

:cry:

[Shades]

Is this case true?, If yes where it happened?

[dsjeya]

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.

[Shades]

Really Amazing!