The decision came in the late 1970s: "I'll get a medical degree and then become a coroner," thought Cagliari teenager Roberto Demontis. In fact, he didn't just think it: he actually did it. The TV show "Quincy" was the catalyst: "I watched it; I was fascinated by how it managed to solve the most complicated murder cases by studying the crime scene and the victim's body."
Okay, but as teenagers we all think of becoming a firefighter or a singer, an actor or the Pope. You imagined yourself among the corpses, the result of violent deaths, moreover.
"Evidently, given how it went. And I've never regretted it: forensic medicine is extremely interesting, difficult, and requires a lot of rigor. And it provides answers, and I like that."
Times change, and with them, schools of thought: a few decades ago, the coroner was someone who "cut up corpses," and people watched him with a certain shiver. Then, from the United States, TV series arrived in which the coroner (the medical examiner, to be precise) was the protagonist, solving the most intricate legal cases. In some cases—such as Dr. Donald Mallard, from the NCIS TV series—the coroner was portrayed as a genius, highly knowledgeable in all fields and endowed with a great sense of humanity. "But those are TV shows," chuckles Roberto Demontis, 63, from Cagliari, who has been a coroner ("No, the medical examiner," he corrects) since 1992. Married with three children, he graduated from Cagliari, specialized in Rome at the University of Tor Vergata, earned a doctorate in Criminalistics and a master's degree in Forensic Odontostomatology. He is now director of the Forensic Medicine complex, where he has six colleagues to rely on and is based at the Businco Oncology Hospital in Cagliari, then at Arnas Brotzu. However, he is a university doctor, in fact, he teaches at the University of Cagliari. He loves to laugh and joke, adores moments of levity, but he splits his life in two: when he's working and when he's not. Managing to be two similar people, but not the same. In short, "I send Dr. Demontis to the autopsy room, never Roberto." So much so that, once, he had to perform a post-mortem examination on a relative: "I did it without thinking. I just did it. Just like the oncologist facing a hopeless child patient, the medical examiner must also remain impassive."
How much do emotions influence your work?
«The day I feel emotional, I will stop doing autopsies and crime scene investigations».
Really.
The main secret of our work is not to feel emotions at all, because they lead down the wrong path. I analyze; I have a body to interview with my eyes, to observe in detail, to read through time-consuming laboratory tests, such as toxicology. I have to study the location of the wounds to reconstruct the dynamics of the crime, assign the positions of the victim and the killer at the crime scene, understand who and what killed a person. And also whether it was actually a homicide. Incidentally, the analysis of the crime scene is as important as the autopsy, in fact I always ask to see it before the police, and even the police forensics team or the Carabinieri RIS, can modify it. There are crucial details, and the medical examiner conducts his investigation based on different parameters than those used by the investigators.
Forensic pathologists in American TV series talk to corpses and claim that, somehow, they respond.
"You can do anything on TV, but real life is different. I don't talk to the dead, but it's true that in a certain sense they do it with me, obviously not with words. By observing them, I discover many things about them in general, starting with the illnesses they suffered from, and above all how they died."
But there will be special "patients." Children, for example.
"No, no one can be special. I always look for leads, and I always follow them to uncover the maximum amount of truth possible. The method shouldn't change, unless there are new forensic investigation tools: only the people I have on my desk change, and I focus on the work. Then, I clear my mind and forget about it."
But there must be one case that is more memorable than others.
Of course, yes, we all remember the statistical anomalies and oddities we encounter in our work. I can say that during that autopsy, I saw something new: the killer flayed the victim's face. Since it was a settling of scores among criminals, the gist was: 'You've lost face.' And then there was a case in the Oristano area: a body dismembered and scattered in the open. I spent fifteen days searching for and collecting them. Furthermore, I realized, from examining the crime scene, that the killer was limping: the fingerprints indicated it. And so it was; he was arrested and convicted.
When was one of your tests decisive in finding the culprit?
"Our tests often are. Once, a case that was about to be closed as a suicide became a homicide investigation. In general, the medical examiner is often decisive."
And does it happen that the medical examiner acquits a suspect?
"Yes, we often find the murderers, but in other cases we realize the suspect isn't the murderer."
His first case?
«The autopsy of a fetus that died in the womb».
Nothing will be spared you.
«It's in the nature of things: we are forensic doctors».
Don't women kill?
"Very little, usually to defend themselves from abusive husbands or partners. They use edged weapons, that is, blades."
Do they eliminate those who then, if they don't, kill them?
«In some cases, yes.»
Are Sardinian murderers more or less evil than average?
The number of murders has remained stable for about twenty years. The motive has changed: before, it was to punish cattle rustling, or feuds, but now they are more passionate, linked to betrayal, with no difference in the level of cruelty compared to the rest of Italy.
Many brains around are ruined by alcohol and drug abuse, especially during adolescence.
«True, and this has an impact on homicides: they don't control the violence and the damage caused by substances at a young age is present for the rest of their lives».
Let's move on to the sadness not of the dead, but of the living. You are the councilor for social policies in the municipality of Sinnai. Where do you find the strength?
"I find fulfillment when I manage to complete a project. For example, Sinnai was one of the first municipalities to be cardioprotected, because we installed defibrillators around the area. We also organize first aid courses, and it's a world of the living that helps me compensate for the world of the dead. I have a good team at the Municipality, and I have another in the Forensic Medicine complex."
You're a believer. Do you ever find God during autopsies?
"No, never. I find clues and evidence, and I'm focused on that because that's what's required of me, so I have to keep a cool head. I only have to make a statement when I find evidence, and then I'm focused on the research."
However, in a body tortured by violence, at least Satan must have glimpsed it at some point.
I don't associate with anyone like that, not even at work. I've said it before: if one day I find myself feeling any emotion during an autopsy or crime scene analysis, that will be my last day in the field, and I'll leave the work to my team alone. Faith and emotion are superstructures for the medical examiner, therefore a luxury he can't afford. Only the evidence has the right to speak, in this job where ego must be annulled. Then you turn off the lights in the room and leave, and at that point you experience all the emotions you want, but with one rule: once the autopsy is over, I won't even remember the face of the person I had on the table, with two advantages. The first is being able to have a life completely outside of this, the other is giving the prosecutor or judge credible and scientific support in finding the killer. The right one.