Four High-Profile True Crime Cases Revisited from Autopsy Room to Courthouse

PITTSBURGH - Sept. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Pittsburgh-based medical examiner/lawyer Cyril H. Wecht has personally performed more than 18,000 autopsies and has consulted worldwide on more than 38,000 others. Now, he and his co-author, true crime journalist Dawna Kaufmann, have written a new e-book: Ann Rule Presents—Final Exams: True Crime Cases from Cyril Wecht, published by Planet Ann Rule, LLC.

Final Exams, with a foreword by best-selling crime author Ann Rule, takes readers deep within these four "twisty mysteries" -- two of which take place in Pennsylvania:

"A Cousin's Quest" is the struggle a Pennsylvania woman went through to see her beloved relative's killer put behind bars. This case reads like a film noir, with a nasty divorce, a fortune in insurance and property, contested child custody, and a femme fatale who used steamy sex to set in motion one of the most violent murders ever in this small town. The victim, affable dentist John J. Yelenic Jr., suffered greatly, as Dr. Wecht explained to a jury. But why did it take so long for the defendant to be arrested?

"Hell Hath No Fury…" recounts the murder of a Pittsburgh-area doctor, Andrew D. Bagby, whose bullet-ridden body was found in a park. When Dr. Wecht performed an autopsy on the young man, he figured there would soon be an arrest and trial, since the killer was Bagby's former girlfriend, another physician. But Dr. Shirley Turner fled to Canada and was protected by the law there, especially when she revealed she was pregnant with the victim's son. Dr. Bagby's parents, deprived of their only child, were forced to partner up with the woman who murdered their son if they wanted to see their own grandbaby. Then, when you think it can't get worse, it does.

"The Willing Victim" is about how successful Manhattan motivational guru Jeffrey B. Locker induced an inner-city stranger named Kenneth Minor to kill him. Why each man would do such a thing is a head scratcher. But the answer involves money, greed, and drugs, and it leads to a forensic science showdown. This case goes from the crime scene through a criminal trial, with Dr. Wecht's work front and center.

"The Girl in the Pink Hat" is the sad story of nine-year-old Florida girl, Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped and murdered by a predator. This chapter goes behind the scenes, revealing what only Wecht and Kaufmann have learned. How Jessica's father became both an advocate for child safety and a lightning rod for public scorn will evoke an array of reactions from readers. But it's pure anger they'll feel when they read about what the monster did to this defenseless little girl.

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