Pathology with Dr. Priya | A Routine Repair. A Live Wire. A Fatal Shock.
Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.4 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Electrocution can be silent and sudden, leaving few external signs and limited clues without careful investigation. This week on Pathology with Dr. Priya, a Zone 7 series, Sheryl McCollum and Dr. Priya Banerjee explain how electrical current travels through the body, why the heart can stop in an instant, and what pathologists look for at the entry and exit points of a shock. They discuss real-world risks, from downed power lines to home repairs, and the safety measures that can prevent fatal accidents.
Highlights
• (0:00) Sheryl welcome listeners and introduces the topic of electrocution deaths
• (2:00) Entry and exit points: irregular burn and blister patterns on hands, feet, or other points of contact
• (3:30) How electrical current disrupts the heart’s rhythm and can lead to sudden death
• (6:00) Who is more vulnerable: pre-existing heart conditions and age can increase susceptibility to fatalarrhythmia
• (8:15) Storm damage, downed lines, and why no one should move live wires
• (10:45) “Weekend warrior” risks and everyday household hazards
• (15:15) What electrocution looks like internally: tissue damage, muscle breakdown, and organ findings
• (17:30) Seasonal reminders: holiday lights, wet environments, and the importance of hiring professionals forelectrical work
About the Hosts
Dr. Priya Banerjee is a board-certified forensic pathologist with extensive experience in death investigation, clinical forensics, and courtroom testimony. A graduate of Johns Hopkins, she served for over a decade as Rhode Island’s state medical examiner and now runs a private forensic pathology practice. Her work includes military deaths, and high-profile investigations. Dr. Priya has also been featured as a forensic expert on platforms such as CrimeOnline and Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She is a dedicated educator, animal lover, and proud mom.
Website: anchorforensicpathology.com
Twitter/X: @Autopsy_MD
Sheryl McCollum is an Emmy Award–winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, and the Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She works as a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department and is the co-author of the textbook Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI), a nationally recognized nonprofit that brings together universities, lawenforcement, and experts to help solve unsolved homicides, missing persons cases, and kidnappings.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter/X: @ColdCaseTips
Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:11.7 | Y'all welcome to Pathology with Dr. Priya. |
| 0:15.9 | Y'all know what Mondays mean. |
| 0:18.1 | And today we are going to get an education because there's some things about this |
| 0:24.7 | particular autopsy. I am quite certain that y'all do not know. So Dr. Priya, welcome, welcome. |
| 0:32.9 | Thank you. Monday rendezvous. It is our Monday rendezvous, I tell you. You know, I want you to talk |
| 0:41.1 | about electrocutions because I think there's a lot of people that don't really understand |
| 0:46.9 | what all goes into them. But if you would start, however you start the autopsy, but I know for me at a crime scene, whether we know |
| 0:56.9 | something is an accident or we're not sure if it was accident or intentional, I look at their |
| 1:01.9 | hands first, because I'm just looking to see if there's any of those blisters. That's what I'm |
| 1:07.0 | looking for. Right. So, you know, electrocution, we have sort of high voltage and low voltage, if you will, |
| 1:13.7 | low voltage being more of our homes. |
| 1:16.8 | And high voltage being like, in the cases I've had that are more like work accidents as well, |
| 1:22.8 | we think about power lines that run like around our towns and our houses and what and businesses, |
| 1:29.5 | right? So there's sort of two different, you know, areas that we can encounter electricity. |
| 1:37.7 | Sadly, I think, you know, more of my cases have been the like work-related accidents, less commonly homicides, but, you know, |
| 1:48.5 | never, ever, ever, right, ever, go in and just assume. And so we're going in with you to the |
| 1:55.7 | crime scene looking at the surroundings. Does it make sense? Did someone set them up? Right? Does it look staged in any way? |
| 2:03.6 | But what's happening is the person who is deceased is sort of connecting the circuit, right? So they are, |
| 2:12.9 | there's going to be an entry point and an exit point for the electrical arc. And that's what the blisters are. |
| 2:20.4 | So sometimes it enters the hands, exits the foot, you know, can exit the side of the body. |
... |
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