Mayhem in the Morgue | Holidays
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Content Warning: This episode discusses the deaths of individuals. If you’re sensitive to this topic, this episode may not be for you.
In this episode of Mayhem in the Morgue, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns reflects on how celebration and death often share the same season. From Christmas music echoing through the medical examiner's office to a door-decorating contest that nearly led to suspension, he recalls the unusual ways morgue culture adapts to the holidays. Dr. Crowns also recounts a corporate holiday party that ended in homicide, explains the science behind neck injuries, and remembers the “death watch” he and his father kept while delivering newspapers to those who died alone during the most festive time of the year.
Highlights
• (0:00) Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue with Dr. Kendall Crowns
• (0:45) Christmas music in the morgue and a memory that tested family tolerance
• (3:45) Door-decorating competitions from residency and the Rudolph controversy
• (7:30) Holiday parties, the rumored poisoning case, and the politics of the potluck table
• (11:00) The dangers of open bars at holiday office parties and a rivalry gone wrong
• (14:00) Understanding subarachnoid hemorrhages, vertebral artery tears, and blunt-force trauma
• (17:45) Decomposition and the reality of those who die unnoticed, leading to the “death watch” lessons learned on a paper route
• (22:15) Closing reflections: the importance of checking in on others during the holiday season
About the Host: Dr. Kendall Crowns
Dr. Crowns is the Chief Medical Examiner for Travis County, Texas, and a nationally recognized forensic pathologist. He las led death investigations in Travis County, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Kansas. Over his career, he has performed thousands of autopsies and testified in court hundreds of times as an expert witness. A frequent contributor to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Dr. Crowns brings unparalleled insight into the strange, grisly, and sometimes absurd realities of forensic pathology.
About the Show
Mayhem in the Morgue takes listeners inside the bloody, bizarre, and often unbelievable world of forensic pathology. Hosted by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns, each episode delivers real-life cases from the morgue, the crime scene, and the courtroom. Expect gallows humor, hard truths, and unforgettable investigations.
Connect and Learn More
Learn more about Dr. Kendall Crowns on Linkedin. Catch him regularly on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and follow Mayhem in the Morgue where you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.6 | Today's episode has information about the death of individuals. |
| 0:08.1 | If this sort of thing upsets you, this is once again not the episode for you. |
| 0:12.8 | May I suggest you read a book, something like My Travels with Charlie. |
| 0:17.9 | Welcome to Mayhem in the Morning with your host, Dr. Kendall Counds. Today's episode, |
| 0:31.1 | Holidays. Merry Christmas and happy holidays from Mayhem and the Morg. As the weather gets colder |
| 0:36.6 | outside and the holidays are |
| 0:38.1 | fast approaching, I thought in today's episode we could discuss some things commonly |
| 0:42.5 | associated with this time of year. And those things are holiday celebrations and decomposition. |
| 0:49.3 | So let's get started. Now that Thanksgiving has passed, offices all over the U.S. are preparing for their annual |
| 0:55.8 | holiday festivities, and medical examiner's offices are no exception. Every office and hospital I have |
| 1:02.5 | ever worked at gets into the spirit of the season in a variety of ways. There is usually |
| 1:07.5 | holiday music, decorating competitions, and of course, parties. |
| 1:13.1 | Every morgue I have ever worked in has had music playing, except one, and that was the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. |
| 1:20.8 | The chief medical examiner there said music was distracting in the morgue and disrupted the thought process, |
| 1:26.2 | and it was always quiet, except for the sound of people working and having discussions. |
| 1:31.6 | And of course, the only music that ever occurred was the scream of the bone saws, grinding against the skulls. |
| 1:38.6 | But everywhere else, music was always part of the day. And during the holidays, the music can take a more festive turn. |
| 1:46.1 | My first holiday season in a morgue was as an autopsy tech. The hospital I worked at was a Catholic |
| 1:52.1 | hospital, and during the holidays, they played Christmas music throughout the workday on the PA system. |
| 1:57.8 | In the morgue, it came through a circular speaker covered with a gray metal grate next to |
... |
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