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The attending medical examiner, Dr. Michael Berkland, stated in his report that she had fainted and fallen, hitting her head on a desk. This, he said, broke her skull in a 7-inch transverse fracture running from right temple to left, pulverized a region of bone the size of a small marble inside the skull behind the right ear and caused a fist-sized hematoma, or effusion of blood, gathering below the dura mater of the left side of the skull. There was also a contusion, or bruise, on the back of the head. Bloody foam, signifying a death of slow asphyxiation, bubbled up from her lungs into her mouth. Just for good measure, Dr. Berkland claimed that Lori's heart had also failed.

Berkland had been fired by the state of Missouri for failing to complete autopsy reports. According to his Missouri supervisor's deposition, Berkland failed to perform 28 autopsy reports for homicides alone in 1994-5. The total number of incomplete cases may have been over 140. Ultimately the cause of death could not be determined for several cases.
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Unraveling the full slate of Berkland's deceptions could prove to be a full-time job. He seems to have misstated the date of his hiring as acting medical examiner by the Jackson County Medical Examiner's office, listing 1990 rather than 1994 as the start date. The University of Kansas School of Medicine has failed to respond to repeated inquiries into Berkland's claim of having served as an associate professor of pathology, beginning in 1993. We also understand that he was booted from Litton Pathology Associates, where he had moonlighted even as he was avoiding his work at the Jackson County Medical Examiner's Office, with his possessions being unceremoniously dumped in the parking lot.

The courts, of course, are unlikely to do this sort of continuing re-examination. Dozens of people, convicted on the strength of Berkland's incomplete, inaccurate and invented work will remain in prison.