Ring RIng, Corpse Phone

Death in the Afternoon

Caitlin Doughty

Education, Society & Culture

5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2018

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ring ring. Hello? Who’s there? IT’S YOUR MORTALITY CALLING.

In life, phones make everything easier– just “reach out and touch someone.” But in death, reaching out can be a little more complicated. This week we talk about accessing a dead man’s cell phone, texting from beyond the grave, and the grim origins of a certain red handset.

Transcript

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0:16.0	This episode isn't about officer-involved shootings of unarmed black men, although that is where we're starting.
0:19.0	It's March of 2018 and police detectives have just arrived at the Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater, Florida.
0:27.0	They've come to demand help from a man named Linus Philip, except Linus Philip is dead. To explain, let's go back several days before the police arrive at the funeral home.
0:40.0	Just before 6 p.m. 30 year old Linus Philip has stopped at a Wawa gas station to refuel.
0:47.0	A police car also pulls into the gas station wanting to question Philip on why the windows of his Nissan Ultima are too heavily
0:55.6	tinted and why they smell marijuana.
0:59.7	What happens next is highly debated.
1:02.4	No clear footage exists. According to the police, Philip
1:07.2	attempted to leap back in his car and drive away from the scene, an action
1:11.9	which could be explained by a crack and powdered cocaine found in his pockets.
1:17.0	One of the officers, Matthew Steiner, had his body halfway inside the Nissan, as Philip was reversing. Instead of rolling out of the vehicle,
1:26.5	Steiner pulled out his weapon and shot Philip four times, killing him.
1:39.0	This episode isn't going to address the question of whether the killing is self-defense or Philip is another victim in a long painful line of black men killed by nervous overzealous, potentially racist, police.
1:48.6	We're here to talk about what happened days later at the Sylvan Abbey funeral home
1:53.6	when police officers showed up with Linus Phillips cell phone. Welcome to Death in the afternoon, a podcast about all things mortal from the Order of
2:16.7	the Good Death.
2:17.7	I'm Caitlin, a mortician and educator, and as always I'm joined by my fellow
2:22.3	researchers and writers Louise Hung and Sarah Chavez.
2:25.6	Today's episode, the last episode of our first season. Ring Ring.
2:30.5	Corpse Phone. I just can't wrap my I just can't wrap my head around what happened in this case.
2:46.8	I can't either and as a warning to everyone we contacted two of my colleagues for this
2:51.9	episode both a forensic pathologist and an expert in funeral home and cemetery law, but even with them don't expect any firm conclusions.
	...

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