Latest news with #RogerByard
News.com.au
26-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Forensic pathologist makes claim about Ned Kelly tattoos
A forensic pathologist has shared the bizarre trend he has noticed about those who have a popular Australian tattoo. Roger Byard, an Emeritus Professor at The University of Adelaide who is nicknamed Dr Death by his colleagues, specialises in the study of death and injuries. His profession not only helps solve crimes, but can also help prevent future deaths in cases such as the research his autopsies provided on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to help lower early childhood deaths. Recently, Mr Byard appeared on I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin, where he revealed an anecdotal trend about a tattoo he has noticed during his 30 year career. After getting involved with Foxtel series Lawless, which looked at figures such as Ned Kelly and the Kenneth Brothers, Mr Byard said he kept looking into Bushrangers. 'We were basically trying to see what evidence there was for the historical stories. You look at Ben Hall — the popular theory is that police snuck up on him and shot him in his swag,' Mr Byard said on the podcast. 'The police version is a bit different.' It led him to notice, anecdotally, a piece of information about people who had ink of Australia's most well known bushranger Ned Kelly, who was executed for killing Constable Thomas Lonigan in 1880. 'I just noticed that a lot of the people coming into the mortuary with Ned Kelly tattoos had died violent deaths,' he said. I did a retrospective study and then I did a 10-year prospective study. Sure enough like 80 per cent of them had died of accidents or suicides or homicides. All sorts of strange things.' Mr Byard clarified that this was in a forensic context and just because you had a tattoo of Ned Kelly it didn't mean you were 'marked' for a violent death. He said he thought it was because the tattoo was a mark of 'drug associated' lifestyles or other forms of risk taking. Social media users claimed the tattoo represented a certain kind of lifestyle. 'I think it's also the demographic within society that idolises Ned is mostly those who live reckless and/or dangerous lives,' one said. Another said: 'Wow that feels energetic. They say tattooing names on you also transfers a similar energy.' It's not the first time Mr Byard has discussed this topic, in 2023 he and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart had a paper published in Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology journal. The paper explained that the tattoos often depicted Kelly in his armour or his alleged last words 'Such is life'. Their study ran from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2020, at Forensic Science South Australia. Over this period, 38 people ended up in the morgue with Ned Kelly inspired tattoos. Ten of these were natural deaths, while 15 were suicide, nine were accidents and four were homicides.
News.com.au
25-05-2025
- News.com.au
Forensic pathologist reveals the absolute worst ways to die
WARNING: GRAPHIC Roger Byard – whose colleagues refer to him as 'Doctor Death' – has investigated some of the most traumatic deaths in Australia. He's also investigated some of the strangest. The forensic pathologist told the latest episode of Gary Jubelin's I Catch Killers podcast about his baptism of fire into the profession, being called out to investigate the infamous 'bodies in barrels' Snowtown murders on his first week on call. 'I was called by the head of Major Crime one night … and I was so green,' he explained. 'I didn't realise that when the head of Major Crime calls you, it's pretty serious.' The Snowtown murders were a series of murders committed by John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner, and James Spyridon Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999, in and around Adelaide. A fourth person, Mark Haydon, was convicted of helping to dispose of the bodies. The trial was one of the longest and most publicised in Australian legal history, with Byard's forensic evidence contributing to the convictions. But while Snowtown may have been one of the most publicised cases Byard has worked on, it wasn't the most bizarre. 'I've been collecting animal deaths,' he told Jubelin. 'Deaths from dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel.' You read that right. Mackerel. 'There was a bloke fishing in the Darwin Harbour and sharks were nearby, so this 25 kilogram mackerel jumped out of the water and sideswiped him,' he recalled. 'Wrong place, wrong time,' he continued. But what about the rooster? 'There was a little old lady out the back collecting eggs,' he explains. 'Roosters, I understand, are nasty creatures. It went for her, and she had varicose veins and it just pecked her leg.' Byard explains that he's had a number of deaths come across his desk where people with varicose veins have experienced minor trauma and ended up dying. 'One case was a cat scratch,' he said. 'People don't realise, and this is the reason that I actually publicise this stuff, it's not because it's bizarre and weird, it's to let people know that if you got varicose veins and you get a small hole, you need to lie down and put your finger over it and elevate it and you'll survive. What [people] tend to do is wander around panicking and they bleed to death – completely unnecessary deaths.' 'But yeah,' adds Byard, 'never trust a rooster.' And while the stranger elements of Byard's job might be headline-making, there's a darker trauma that lingers. 'Nobody talks about post-traumatic stress with forensic pathologists, and yet every month of every year we go out to scenes,' he explained sadly. 'We see dismembered bodies, incinerated bodies. We see children that are being starved to death, vehicle accidents, dreadful scenes. And we have to not only immerse ourselves in it, we have to then describe it in great detail, understand it, then we have to present it to a jury and sometimes have our credibility attacked while we're doing it.' He explained that while his trauma has built up with each case he's worked, so too has his understanding that he isn't always going to find the answers. 'When I first started, I thought I was gonna find the causes of all these deaths – I was gung-ho,' he said. 'And then as I got further and further into my career, I realised that, no, I'm not going to find answers all the time. And I'm going to have to sit down with families and say, 'I have no idea'. All I can say to them is, 'it was nothing that you did'. ' And also, a lot of the time they just want to meet the person that looked after their baby between the time when they saw the baby last, and when they saw their baby at the funeral home.'
New York Post
24-05-2025
- New York Post
‘Doctor death' forensic pathologist reveals the worst ways people can die: ‘Never trust a rooster'
Roger Byard – whose colleagues refer to him as 'Doctor Death' – has investigated some of the most traumatic deaths in Australia. He's also investigated some of the strangest. The forensic pathologist told the latest episode of Gary Jubelin's I Catch Killers podcast about his baptism of fire into the profession, being called out to investigate the infamous 'bodies in barrels' Snowtown murders on his first week on call. 'I was called by the head of Major Crime one night … and I was so green,' he explained. 'I didn't realize that when the head of Major Crime calls you, it's pretty serious.' The Snowtown murders were a series of murders committed by John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner, and James Spyridon Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999, in and around Adelaide. A fourth person, Mark Haydon, was convicted of helping to dispose of the bodies. The trial was one of the longest and most publicized in Australian legal history, with Byard's forensic evidence contributing to the convictions. 3 Roger Byard revealed the most gruesome cases he's worked on. AJ_stock_photos – But while Snowtown may have been one of the most publicized cases Byard has worked on, it wasn't the most bizarre. 'I've been collecting animal deaths,' he told Jubelin. 'Deaths from dogs, snakes, sharks, roosters, mackerel.' You read that right. Mackerel. 'There was a bloke fishing in the Darwin Harbour and sharks were nearby, so this 25 kilogram mackerel jumped out of the water and sideswiped him,' he recalled. 'Wrong place, wrong time,' he continued. 3 One case he worked on involved a fatal cat scratch. pridannikov – But what about the rooster? 'There was a little old lady out the back collecting eggs,' he explains. 'Roosters, I understand, are nasty creatures. It went for her, and she had varicose veins and it just pecked her leg.' Byard explains that he's had a number of deaths come across his desk where people with varicose veins have experienced minor trauma and ended up dying. 'One case was a cat scratch,' he said. 'People don't realize, and this is the reason that I actually publicize this stuff, it's not because it's bizarre and weird, it's to let people know that if you got varicose veins and you get a small hole, you need to lie down and put your finger over it and elevate it and you'll survive. What [people] tend to do is wander around panicking and they bleed to death – completely unnecessary deaths.' 'But yeah,' adds Byard, 'never trust a rooster.' 3 'Roosters, I understand, are nasty creatures. It went for her, and she had varicose veins and it just pecked her leg,' he said. SE Viera Photo – And while the stranger elements of Byard's job might be headline-making, there's a darker trauma that lingers. 'Nobody talks about post-traumatic stress with forensic pathologists, and yet every month of every year we go out to scenes,' he explained sadly. 'We see dismembered bodies, incinerated bodies. We see children that are being starved to death, vehicle accidents, dreadful scenes. And we have to not only immerse ourselves in it, we have to then describe it in great detail, understand it, then we have to present it to a jury and sometimes have our credibility attacked while we're doing it.' He explained that while his trauma has built up with each case he's worked, so too has his understanding that he isn't always going to find the answers. 'When I first started, I thought I was gonna find the causes of all these deaths – I was gung-ho,' he said. 'And then as I got further and further into my career, I realized that, no, I'm not going to find answers all the time. And I'm going to have to sit down with families and say, 'I have no idea'. All I can say to them is, 'it was nothing that you did'. ' And also, a lot of the time they just want to meet the person that looked after their baby between the time when they saw the baby last, and when they saw their baby at the funeral home.'
Daily Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Daily Telegraph
Buried alive: Roger Byard Pt. 2
Jasmeen Kaur was kidnapped, bound and buried alive in a shallow grave by a spurned lover. Jasmeen had rejected the murderer weeks before he abducted her and horrifically abandoned her in a shallow grave. Forensic pathologist Roger Byard has performed more than 6000 post-mortems, but this is the worst case he's ever seen. Get episodes of I Catch Killers a week early and ad-free, as well as bonus content, by subscribing to Crime X+ today. Like the show? Get more at Advertising enquiries: newspodcastssold@ Questions for Gary: icatchkillers@ Get in touch with the show by joining our Facebook group, and visiting us on Instagram or Tiktok.
Herald Sun
17-05-2025
- Herald Sun
Snowtown murders: Roger Byard talks through bodies in barrels case
A man eaten by his own cats, cannibal killers and mummified men dying alone in their homes. These are just some of the cases forensic pathologist Roger Byard has faced in his career. Roger sits down with Gary Jubelin to talk about the cases that he'll never forget including the young woman who was buried alive by her boyfriend and the Snowtown murders where eight bodies were found in barrels. Get episodes of I Catch Killers a week early and ad-free, as well as bonus content, by subscribing to Crime X+ today. Like the show? Get more at Advertising enquiries: newspodcastssold@ Questions for Gary: icatchkillers@ Get in touch with the show by joining our Facebook group, and visiting us on Instagram or Tiktok.
