Mayhem in the Morgue | First Day
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 August 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to the debut episode of Mayhem in the Morgue — an unfiltered, insightful look into the world of forensic pathology, hosted by veteran medical examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns. With more than 35 years of experience in death investigation, Dr. Crowns brings a unique perspective shaped by countless real-world cases.
In this premiere episode, Dr. Crowns rewinds to his very first day on a forensic pathology rotation during medical school, when a potential homicide call spiraled into something far more bizarre: a fatal case of autoerotic asphyxia. What followed was a crash course in death, dignity, and the unpredictable mechanics of a Wiffle ball bat. It’s chaotic, educational, and a vivid example of just how strange real life — and death — can be.
Highlights:
● (0:00) Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue
● (0:30) First day on the job — and straight into the deep end
● (2:00) A supposed homicide takes a wildly unexpected turn
● (4:30) “Cut him down, Kendall”: initiation by rope
● (5:30) Rookie mistakes and awkward landings
● (6:45) Lessons you never forget
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About the Host: Dr. Kendall Crowns
Dr. Kendall Crowns is a nationally recognized forensic pathologist and a frequent contributor to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. His career has taken him from tornado-ravaged Kansas, to the blood-streaked banks of the Mississippi, gang-torn Chicago, and the meth-fueled madness of Texas. With thousands of autopsies under his belt, he brings unparalleled insight into the strange, grisly, and sometimes absurd world of death investigation.
About the Show Mayhem in the Morgue takes listeners deep into the bloody, bizarre, and often unbelievable realities of forensic pathology. Each week, Dr. Crowns shares gritty stories from the morgue, the crime scene, and the courtroom. Expect gallows humor, hard truths, and cases that range from unsettling to unforgettable — think decomposing feet with no bodies, courtroom bombshells, and the kinds of deaths that even seasoned pathologists can’t quite explain. If you think you’ve heard it all… you haven’t.
Connect & Learn More
You can learn more about Dr. Kendall Crowns on LinkedIn, catch him regularly on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and be sure to follow Mayhem in the Morgue wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | Hi, guys. Nancy Grace here. And right now, I want to introduce you to a podcast you're going to love |
| 0:11.4 | Mayhem in the morgue with our friend and colleague, Dr. Kendall Crowns, Chief Medical Examiner, |
| 0:20.3 | Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth, Texas, never a lack of business in that morgue. |
| 0:24.7 | He is the esteemed lecturer in the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU with literally thousands of death investigations under his belt. |
| 0:34.3 | He has spent a career reading, evidence left on the body from blunt |
| 0:43.5 | force trauma to the smallest trace that points investigators in the right direction. |
| 0:50.4 | Crowns explains how the morgue holds answers to crimes. |
| 0:56.5 | No one else can decipher. |
| 0:58.7 | Follow Mayhem in the morgue. |
| 1:01.1 | You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:03.8 | And now here is our friend, Dr. Kendall Crowns. |
| 1:09.2 | Welcome to Mayhem in the Morning with your host, Dr. Kendall Crowns. Welcome to Mayhem in the Morning with your host, Dr. Kendall Crowns. |
| 1:18.6 | So today's episode is first day. So everybody has first days, right? We all have a first day of work, first day of school, |
| 1:29.3 | et cetera, et cetera. So today I'm going to talk about one of my first days in my career. So I was on |
| 1:34.1 | my last rotation of medical school. I was one month away from graduating. And the rotation I had chosen |
| 1:39.1 | to take was in forensic pathology, which was what I wanted to do as a career. I arrived at the medical examiner's office, walks through the front doors, and I was met by |
| 1:48.4 | the entire staff, the medical examiners, the death investigators, the clerks, everybody. |
| 1:53.6 | They gave me a little cubicle in the death investigator's office where I could put all my |
| 1:57.9 | stuff. |
| 1:58.5 | So I set up and I got ready for my day. About midday, |
| 2:02.5 | a call came in and it was a possible homicide. The chief of death investigator Bill says to me, |
... |
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