MAYHEM IN THE MORGUE | PET FOOD
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listen to Mayhem in the Morgue on all podcast platforms: https://link.podtrac.com/MayhemMorgue
Content Warning: This episode contains disturbing descriptions of the death of an individual. If you’re sensitive to this topic, this episode may not be for you.
It started with a song lyric: “She was a winner that became a doggie’s dinner.” But behind that darkly humorous line lies a story stranger (and sadder) than the myth it inspired. In this episode of Mayhem in the Morgue, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns investigates the real story behind the tragic death of silent film star Marie Prevost, separating rumor from forensic reality. Through real cases and forensic insight, Dr. Crowns shows how devotion, biology, and the harsh realities of animal scavenging can collide in the aftermath of death.
Highlights
• (0:00) Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue with Dr. Kendall Crowns
• (0:30) A song lyric leads Dr. Crowns down an unexpected rabbit hole
• (1:00) The real story of Marie Prevost, her silent film fame, heartbreak, and decline
• (2:15) The 1937 discovery, the truth behind the rumor, and how the book Hollywood Babylon distorted the facts
• (4:30) From myth to morgue: the forensic reality of postmortem pet scavenging
• (6:00) How hunger, instinct, and biology drive behavior in dogs, cats, and even rodents
• (7:45) The Chihuahua pack case and the nightmare scene investigators walked into
• (9:15) When pet hoarding turns horrific: 20 cats, one body, and the survival instinct at work
• (11:15) Displacement behavior and the Memphis case involving a loyal dog, a group of raccoons, and the forensic clue that revealed the truth
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. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.5 | Today's episode includes the discussion of deaths of individuals and animal scavenging. |
| 0:10.1 | So if this sort of thing upsets you, I suggest you check out some other category other than the true crime section. |
| 0:17.5 | Welcome to Mayhem in the morning with your host, Dr. Kendall Crowns. |
| 0:28.9 | Today's episode, Pet Food. |
| 0:31.8 | I was listening to the radio driving somewhere when a song came on that had the following lyric in it. |
| 0:36.7 | She was a winner that became a doggy's dinner. The song goes on to had the following lyric in it. She was a winner that became a |
| 0:38.4 | doggy's dinner. The song goes on to tell a story of a movie star found dead and eaten by her dog. |
| 0:44.3 | This type of thing fascinates me. I had to find out who wrote it and what the song was about. |
| 0:50.3 | So when I got home, I did an internet search. And I found out the song was by an artist by the name of Nick Lowe, and it was entitled Mary Provost. |
| 0:59.7 | Now, the question became, was she an actual person? Did she actually get eaten by a dog? And what I found out was the song was loosely based on the life of a real person by the name of Mary Prevost. |
| 1:15.4 | I might be mispronouncing her name, I don't know, but I found out all about her, |
| 1:22.3 | from different websites, articles, and even a book. Yes, an actual book, which I still like to read, |
| 1:26.6 | and now I will share a brief summary of what I found out, just so you can know, too. |
| 1:28.5 | She was a major star of the silent movies that had a tragic downfall and untimely death. She had a career that spanned 20 years |
| 1:34.3 | and had been in 121 movies. Her box office successes brought in large sums of money that helped |
| 1:41.2 | build studios like Universal and Warner Brothers. In the mid to late 1920s, |
| 1:46.0 | she experienced several tragedies. Her mother died in a car accident. She was let go from her |
| 1:50.7 | contract from Warner Brothers, and she got a divorce from her husband. She became depressed and |
| 1:55.9 | started drinking heavily and binge eating to try and cope. And in 1927, one more thing happened. Sound was introduced to the movies. |
| 2:04.5 | Her star power was waning, partially because she had gained so much weight and the drinking. But some sources say she also didn't have a good voice for the new form of movies. |
... |
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