no one wants to land on his table. The forensic scientist Michael Thali Director of the Institute of legal medicine (IRM) at the University of Zurich and studied victims of violent crime. We are in a small side room in the basement of the Institute. “It only takes a few seconds,” says Thali and shows on the computer tomography (CT). Quick as a flash, the Scanner would scan the body of a victim on a stretcher through the slides. Virtopsy or virtual autopsy is the procedure that develops Thali and internationally has been established. Unlike classical autopsy, the body remains intact.

The way to the CT room lead through a corridor, to the right, some of the display cases. There you can see the skull reconstructions, where the margin channels are visualized. In a large space, employees sit at the Computer and analyze the latest pictures. Next door, behind closed doors, where the classical autopsies take place, examine colleagues Thalis just a murder victim. Also Thali has made in his career, many autopsies, he is known to have the right medicine into the digital age.

“So I would lie on the stretcher”, the Thali is pulling up the shoulders, presses the arms to the body. On the CT multiple cameras float. “You would take my surface, while I go through the Scanner.” As a result, a “digital twin” of the specialists, internal and external injuries be able to recognise emerging. For the photographer Thali is now on the device, but first a white cloth. As a forensic investigator he is, everyone is constantly microscopically small traces of white.

For the “CSI”series creators attractive

“we used to be in the public’s perception of the strange dudes,” he said earlier in his office during the Interview. The coroner, not for the dead, because he can do it with the Living. With this prejudice Thali can not do much. He is eighth in the selection of his people much on communicative skills. In addition to nearly 500 autopsies the IRM specialists investigate approximately 800 living injured every year. The image is from oddball have changed especially thanks to the TV series, in recent years anyway. “The U.S. series “CSI” has brought us a lot.” Especially the high-tech aspect to talk to him, the medical examiner in “CSI” are portrayed. Was very happy to have him then, as the series creators knocked on the door in Zurich. Virtopsy is in three episodes of “CSI”.

Thali is mentally still somewhere else. Virtopsy is established, the IRM-UZH courses for colleagues from around the world. “If something is ready to be developed, then it is not for me so interesting.” He sets the Hand before the mouth, to simulate a feigned Yawn. The Hunger New and a coincidence had brought him originally to the coroner and push him again and again to try New things.

“Actually, I wanted to form myself according to my study of medicine in the direction of orthopaedic surgery.” A year in the court of medicine seemed to him suitable, to learn the inner workings of the human body in more detail. A “genius Chef” who had left him a lot of freedoms, opened for him the door to the forensics career, which began at the University of Bern.

corpses, but on computers that are death to be elicited on the causes. Photo: Virtopsy

“We are the body models developed to test the different effects of blunt or sharp violence and firearms.” With his Team realized Thali, a skull-brain model made of synthetic materials, using the reconstructed Actions. Also in the murder case, Zwahlen, he helped in the nineties and was able to prove that the injuries on the head of Christine Zwahlen came from a wheel wrench.

Hard life

The search for Truth to drive him, says Thali. He wanted to find the knowledge that will serve the justice. “We always come first, then, if the piece was actually played, and must reconstruct from the props, what is going to happen.” This fact is helping, however, with the terrible images. He am always being asked how it was, if one is constantly confronted with the depths of the human soul and every day must see what people do to other people. A certain amount of resilience he needed in any case. “But emergency physicians and General practitioners see a lot of horrible things.” In the case of the court physicians of the pressure off the case, at least, to do everything possible so that the Affected person survived.

A Latin-American colleague once said, the coroner, were the happiest people, because they appreciated the day-to-day, that nothing Bad has happened to you. “Of course not, it is also possible for us to enjoy life each day to the fullest,” says Thali. But he does believe that the constant awareness of the finite nature make the life more intense. “I’m like one of those Wind-up toys,” he says with a laugh. Once set in motion, he had to stop hard, even if you could push it against the wall.

Professional conflicts did nothing to him, he says, and knocks on the table. “I speak things directly.” As a disruptive, non-compliant, relentlessly, he would describe himself as a Workaholic. He pulls the Smartphone out of his pocket and shows his alarm clock. At five o’clock in the day often begins in the evening, he is often in front of nine at home. He had a very understanding wife.

the judge shall, with the VR-glasses scenes watch

In discussions, he is also the subject of data protection. On the mirror in his office, a combination of characters and letters. “This is my DNA profile,” says Thali. Wanted to demonstrate it in order that some would be in the forensic DNA database in the wrong reservations. For the uninitiated, the combination of XY for a man of this sign salad at the most readable. The Phenotyping he considers to be an important Instrument of investigation. In the process of trying out the DNA traces of certain external signal elements – characteristics of a potential perpetrator, such as hair, eye or skin color – reading. The procedure is not without controversy.

According to the virtual autopsies Thali is in development now. His Team is working on that at the Moment, to reconstruct the whole crime scenarios in 3-D. The scanned victim, you could be in a virtual environment, the possible modus operandi to better adjust. Even in the courtroom, judges should be able to watch with a VR-glasses in a Scene. The IRM-tests UZH the method in three recent cases.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 23.02.2019, 11:24 PM