13. Autopsy Report on Nurse Brigid Henry

[24 July]

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"...Ms Brigid Henry (the "Deceased") was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital on the afternoon of 18 July. She had suffered heavy injuries to the face. These had macerated the bone structure on the left side of her face to such an extent that the Deceased was not immediately recognised by the nurse who admitted her or the surgical team who operated on her, all of whom had worked with the Deceased.

The Deceased was found to have suffered severe brain damage as a result of the massive contusions to her skull. These contusions were initially attributed to a fall that the Deceased was alleged to have suffered at her house or in a public park. On closer examination it is difficult to see how any fall could have occasioned the injuries that the Deceased sustained. These injuries were confined to the face and any fall that occasioned such injuries could reasonably be expected to have caused additional bodily injury. However, there was no injury of any nature to the Deceased's body apart from some bruising of the right wrist and the left knee.

The nature of the injuries to the Deceased's face and the absence of any other injury apart from limited bruising of the right wrist and the left knee suggest that the Deceased was beaten around the face with a blunt weapon while lying on her back. The bruising on her right wrist and left leg suggest that her attacker held down her two hands with the hand that was not wielding the instrument which struck her - probably the left hand - and that he held down her two legs by kneeling heavily on the left leg (the right leg being trapped underneath).

I have been asked to comment expressly on whether the other injuries suffered are consistent with the accused being held down in a car whilst simultaneously being battered about the face with a hammer. It is my professional opinion that they are.

The autopsy examination reveals severe cranial, cerebral and arterial damage that occasioned massive internal bleeding and would have resulted in the Deceased being reduced to a severely vegetative state had she survived.

The report of the operating surgeon reveals that despite every effort being made to halt this bleeding and to resuscitate the Deceased she died at 2.15 p.m. It is my professional opinion that this was the near inevitable result of the injuries that the Deceased had suffered and that, if she recovered consciousness, she would have suffered continuous and irreversible brain damage that would have rendered it impossible for her to enjoy any semblance of "normal" life. That the Deceased survived as long as she did after her admission to hospital is perhaps best ascribed to her own fighting-spirit and also to the quality of the surgical team who operated on her.

.

Cause of Death: Cerebral haemorrhage.

Proximate cause of death: Assault with a blunt weapon, consistent with hammer injuries.

Any other injury noted: Limited. Bruising of the right wrist. Marked bruising of the left leg (immediately below the knee joint) consistent with some form of restraint.

Blood tests: Clear.

Any other comment: The Deceased was in the very early stages of pregnancy (2-3 weeks)."

12. Extract from Washington DC Radio's "News at 5"

[23 July]

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"...Presenter - Okay, we're going over now to Toni Rogers for breakking news in the Nurse Henry investigation which Toni has been covering for us. Toni?

Reporter - Hi, Bob. I'm at a shooting-range outside Martinsburg, West Virginia with Irv Holstein, the owner of the range and Irv, you're responsible for a breakthrough in the Nurse Henry investigation, aren't you?

Mr Holstein - Well, we think so, yes.

Reporter - Why do you think that, Irv?

Mr Holstein - Well, we're a pretty small operation here. We have a loyal group of regulars who come shooting here once or twice a week but they're mostly from hereabouts so we know them all, know some of them all their lives. So the other day this fella' turns up looking to become a member and asking if he could look around the range. So I started showing him around but he just didn't seem right.

Reporter - What do you mean by he "didn't seem right"?

Mr Holstein - Well, folks that come to a shooting-range tend to fit into one of two categories. They either have a police or army connection or the like. Or they enjoy hunting. This fella' didn't fit into either category. In fact he didn't seem that interested in guns at all and being interested in guns is kind of a prerequisite to getting the most out of a firing-range. Plus he was kind of funny too.

Reporter - In what way "funny"?

Mr Holstein - Well, not funny ha-ha, that's for sure. He was dressed in fancy clothes. Looked like he was going to a garden party with the Queen of England. And he spoke like the Queen of England too. Very posh. As if he was born better than the rest of us. Anyhow, I asked him if he'd like to let off a few shots on the range and he said that he would. But when I gave him the shot-gun he didn't know how to aim and fire. He looked as if he hadn't ever lifted a gun in his life.

Reporter - And had he said that he knew how to fire a gun?

Mr Holstein - I don't recall that he'd ever quite said as much but he'd never not quite said as much either. In any event, I took the shot-gun from him and let off a shot. At which point he said that he was more a revolver man than a shot-gun man. But when I asked him what kind of revolver he liked to use he couldn't name a single type. Which told me that he'd never fired a revolver either. It made me quite uneasy.

Reporter - Why?

Mr Holstein - Well, he was a strange type. Looking for a gun. Pretending he was something he wasn't. Swanning about in his strange clothes and with that funny way of speaking. I wasn't sure what to make of him or what he was up to, except that I was sure he was up to no good.

Reporter - So what did you do?

Mr Holstein - I told him that he looked like he needed some shooting-lessons and that we didn't offer lessons, so he'd need to go elsewhere.

Reporter - How did he react to that?

Mr Holstein - He told me what a "good fellow" I was for showing him around and then - strangest thing - he asked me if I would sell him a gun. When I asked him why he wanted to buy a gun he said that he'd need it if he was to do shooting-lessons. This from a fella' who'd been lording it around as though he was born with a silver gun in his mouth.

Reporter - And did you sell him a gun?

Mr Holstein - I'm not licensed to sell firearms and even if I was I wouldn't have sold one to this fella'. Why he'd likely shoot me once I gave it to him. When I told him that we don't sell guns he said that if we didn't do lessons and we didn't sell guns then he might as well leave. I told him that he might as well and off he went.

Reporter - Did he have a car?

Mr Holstein - No. Given all his airs and graces I wouldn't have been surprised if he had a chauffeur with him but all he had was a pedal-bike. Said it was better for the environment.

Reporter - What did you say to that?

Mr Holstein - I said that maybe it was better for us all if he left. He gave me a vicious look when I said that but headed off without saying anything more. It gave me a land that look. Showed me the true nature of the man.

Reporter - When did you realise that you might have been speaking with the man police want to talk with about the Nurse Henry murder?

Mr Holstein - The next time I was in Martinsburg. The sheriff's a friend of mine and I called in to the station to see him. When I was there I saw the "Wanted" poster on the notice-board and I knew the "Wanted" man was the fella' I'd met.

Reporter - When did you see him?

Mr Holstein - Three days after that girl was murdered.

Reporter - And he was looking to buy a gun.

Mr Holstein - He was.

Reporter - There you have it, Bob. Police believe that this was a sighting of the man they have been looking to speak with about Nurse Henry's killing. They are obviously concerned that he was looking to buy a gun and are even more concerned that he may have managed to acquire one by now. They are warning that anyone who sees the man should treat him as armed and dangerous and make no attempt to confront him.

Presenter - Worrying news, Toni. Is there any sign that the police are any closer to catching this man?

Reporter - The official line is that the police are following a number of lines of enquiry, Bob. However, privately some officers admit that they are not an awful lot closer to arresting this individual than they were when this whole sorry saga began.

Presenter - But they're not looking for anyone else?

Reporter - No they're not, Bob, and that tells us something.

Presenter - It certainly does, Toni. Thanks for that and do let us know if anything new arises.

Reporter - Will do, Bob...".

11. Extract from statement of Louis Babcock

[23 July]

"...I am an ambulance driver at Georgetown University Hospital.

On 18 July I was returning to the hospital after bringing an elderly patient to her home on the Waterfront. As usual there was a tailback at Washington Circle. I joined the queue of traffic and waited for it to start moving. I was listening to the usual chatter on the ambulance radio when I noticed that there was a woman bleeding in the car beside me. I got out of the ambulance and cautiously approached the car. The man driving the car was clearly in distress. He rolled down the window and asked if I could help him get to the hospital. He had a foreign accent when he spoke, I think an English accent. He sounded educated and when I noticed a Georgetown University Hospital Parking permit on the windscreen of the car I assumed that he must be a doctor. It occurred to me that it was a little odd that I hadn't seen him around the hospital previously but I assumed that he must be new. He told me that the woman in the car had been working at home when she fell and injured herself. The woman herself tried to speak once or twice but she was drifting in and out of consciousness and I couldn't make any sense of what she said to me. I told the man to follow me, then jumped back into the ambulance, turned on the siren and made my way to the hospital. as quickly as I could.

There was one strange moment on the way. When we got to the turn-off from M Street onto Memorial Bridge the man braked his car and put out his left indicator as if he was going to turn towards Arlington. Then immediately the indicator turned off and he continued following after me.

When we got to the hospital I pulled up the ambulance in front of the rear entrance. A couple of aides ran out and, together with the man, we managed to lift the injured woman onto a trolley. One of the aides asked the man how the patient had suffered her injuries He replied that she had fallen in Rock Creek Park. This was not the same story that he had told me and this immediately made me suspicious of him. So I let the two aides and the man continue pushing the trolley through to the casualty unit and quickly ran off to fetch a security guard. There was something about the man's manner that I found unusual and it was troubling that he had told two different stories about how the woman came to be injured.

I told the security guard on duty that there was a man in the casualty unit whom I thought might have hurt the woman who had come in with him. The guard radioed this through to the DC police - he is required to do that - and then he came with me to the casualty unit. However, by the time we got there the man was gone. The nurse-in-charge told us that he had gone out to move his car so that it wasn't an obstruction. By the time the security guard and myself got out into the parking area, the man and his car were gone.

I have seen police sketches of the man believed to have killed the woman whom I helped to bring to the hospital. I have no doubt that this man and the man whom I helped to rush through the DC traffic are the same person. He is a young to middle-aged man of pale complexion. He has greying hair and a red beard, though I believe that his beard may be dyed. He is of medium height and build and speaks with a foreign accent, I think English...".

10. Extract from statement of Dwayne Olveira

[23 July]

"...I work as a printer at the DC Sunday Post. I usually work nights. On 17 July I worked through the night on a very long run. There was a special supplement being published on the economic crisis and these kind of supplements always take a lot of time. Anyhow, as a result I didn't leave work until about 10 a.m. on the morning of 18 July. This was getting close to the time that my wife finishes work. She has a part-time job as a guide at the Old Stone House and finishes work around 12.30 every day. So I decided I'd suprise her by meeting her after work and save the cost of a bus-ride home in the process - my wife takes the car to work each day so that she can collect our daughter from school on the way back. Anyhow, that gave me a couple of hours to spare. So I went into Rock Creek Park to grab forty winks. I lay down in the sunshine behind some high bushes near the 23rd Street end of the park. I set the alarm on my cell-phone for 12.15 - Old Stone House is quite close by - and then took a nap.

At 12.15 the alarm on my cell-phone started ringing. I turned it off and lay for a few minutes more in the sunshine. To be honest, I was still half-asleep, though not so asleep that I didn't hear a strange conversation going on over the hedge. I heard a man say something like "This is a hold-up". I don't think those were the exact words but I am certain that I heard a woman say "Is this some sort of joke?". The man then asked if the woman had a car. She said yes and he told her to take him to the car. Because I was still half-asleep I didn't appreciate the significance of what I was hearing. Once I realised what I had just heard I got up to see if I could spot the man and woman I'd heard talking. However, there was no-one behind the hedge any mote and no-one else around. I mentioned the conversation to my wife when I met her but thought no more of it. We spent the last few days out-of-town in Chincoteague. When we're there I go fishing with my friends and my wife spends all the time gossiping with hers. The end result was that neither of us saw much television. It was only when we got back and I saw the death of that young nurse smeared all over the papers and heard the details on the television that I realised that I must have overheard a conversation between the nurse and the man who killed her. I called the police immediately and was asked to make this statement...".

9. The Nomination of Saeed Yarvali

[Transcript of White House Press Conference, 23 July]

.

Press Secretary - Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

President - Good evening. Over the last month my staff and I have done a thorough job seeking a person suitable to succeed Justice Corelli to the Supreme Court bench. Choosing a member of our nation's highest court is a responsibility that I take very seriously. Presidents - and even distinguished members of the press corps - have a tendency to come and go. Members of the Supreme Court continue in office for many decades. So the person I nominate today will, if that nomination is confirmed, serve on the Supreme Court long after my administration has been consigned to history.

Our country is constructed on the rule of law. Law is the fabric from which the founding fathers and mothers and every generation of Ameicans since their time have fashioned the complex magnificence of the world's greatest democracy. Supreme Court justices, as the final arbiters of what our Constitution and our laws truly mean, have played a central, sometimes controversial, but always vital part in our nation's being. So I have approached the task of finding Justice Corelli's successor with all due consideration. I have sought to find a candidate who represents what is best about this nation and who seems best place to steward it from the rarefied heights of the Supreme Court in the months and years to come.

Contrary to speculation by journalists, including some prominent members of the press corps gathered here tonight, I have not evaluated candidates solely through the prism of who they vote for or what faith they practise or what corner of the world their forebears came from. At least, not entirely. [Laughter]. The office of President is a political office and so I cannot pretend that I have been blind to the fact that a particular candidate may hold especial appeal for one constituency or another. Nor do I deny that Justice Corelli's departure has given me a chance to change the present voting balance within the Supreme Court. Transforming it into what some would describe as a more liberal institution but what I believe will be a court better attuned to the norms and aspirations of today's America and not a Court espousing the hide-bound sensibilities of yester-year. However, in all my considerations I have sought to find a jurist of the highest character. Someone who has attained the highest distinction in the field of law, yet who has that understanding of humanity which is the universal hallmark of good judges.

I have found that combination of excellence and understanding in Saeed Yarvali. Dr Yarvali teaches constitutional law and theory at Georgetown University. He grew up in Illinois, the great state that I had the opportunity to represent in the United States Senate. Then, as a young man, he came east on a tour de force of the Ivy League, graduating first in class with an arts degree from Yale University and then summa cum laude from Harvard Law School. Giving him what President Kennedy once described as the best of all worlds: a Harvard education and a Yale degree [laughter] - a two out of three that I have yet to achieve. [Laughter].

After Harvard, Dr Yarvali returned to the mid-west. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago while simultaneously studying for his doctoral degree at Northwestern University. Later he also worked as a civil rights attorney at the Department of Justice during the Clinton and George W Bush administrations. By this time he had also begun to scale the greasy pole of academic life, teaching for a short time at the University of Chicago Law School before finally being granted tenure as Julie Eisenberg Professor of Constitutional Law and Theory at Georgetown University Law School here in Washington.

Unknown to you all, late last year Dr Yarvali declined an offer from me to become US Attorney General, choosing instead to nurse his mother through the illness that finally killed her just two months ago. Mrs Yarvali was herself a person of no little distinction. She was a distant relative of the Iranian royal family. She was also married to a high-ranking member of the late Shah of Iran's secret police. When the Islamic Revolution erupted in 1979, Mrs Yarvali's husband was soon executed by the revolutionaries. Mrs Yarvali fled to Switzerland with her then ten-year old son, Saeed, and his younger brother. A year later they came to the United States where they lived for a short time in Manhattan before moving to the Great Plains, far from the terror and turmoil of revolutionary Iran. I am told by Dr Yarvali that it was his childhood introduction of the harsh realities of life without law that eventually led him to his choice of career.

Dr Yarvali is a distinguished Iranian-American whose professional achievements and personal experiences make him a man of rare distinction. Whether as a boy fleeing a land where the rule of law had collapsed, for a time at least, or as an attorney championing civil rights in a land where the rule of law holds strong, whether as an ambitious teacher of law who has scaled the heights of academic life or as a dutiful son who declined high public office so that he could nurse his dying mother, Dr Yarvali shows a rare combination of talents and attributes which in my opinion make him a distinguished candidate for nomination to a court which is no stranger to distinction. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Professor Saeed Yarvali, my nominee for the position of Supreme Court justice. [Applause].

Professor Yarvali - Thank-you Mr President for those kind words of introduction. I do not know if I am a man of distinction but I know that I am standing beside such a man this evening. [Applause]. Only in America is it possible for a man to dream a life and then to live the dream. However, you will forgive me for admitting that while the President was speaking I had to pinch myself once or twice to make sure that I was not still dreaming. I cannot yet believe that the little boy who fled Tehran not so many years ago is now standing before you as a prospective member of this great nation's greatest court. I was very young when I was forced to flee Iran with my mother and brother but the memory of the lawlessness of revolution that we left behind us is something that I have never quite escaped. It was that brief bitter taste of lawlessness, and the misery that ensues when the rule of law collapses, that inspired in me a lifelong passion for the law and the civilising order that it brings. Of course in the years since I came to America a lot has changed. The little boy who left Tehran has been given a degree of opportunity that only the land of opportunity could afford. A top-class education in Illinois state schools. A world-class education at our nation's finest universities. A chance to plough back the profits of that education through public service in two presidential administrations. And the privilege of tenure at Georgetown University where every day I get the opportunity to nurture the finest minds of a nation that has nurtured me in every way since I arrived on its shores as a stranger.

I am grateful to the President for giving me the opportunity through this nomination to do still more to discharge the enormous debt of gratitude that all of us, and I more than most, owe as citizens of a republic that gives us all so much. I know that nomination is no sure promise of confirmation by the Senate and I look forward to answering any questions that Senators may seek to put to me before my nomination is deicided upon by them. For now I must content myself with whe dream of joining the United States Supreme Court, a dream that many an attorney harbours and which only a few can realise. I thank the President for the great honour that he has brought on myself and my family and all Iranian-Americans with the nomination that he has announced here this evening. Thank-you, Mr President.

President - Thank-you, Professor Yarvali."

8. Extract from statement of Lucy Oldfield

[22 July]

"...I am the owner of "Headcases", a hairdressing salon in Penn Quarter. At about 2.20 on the afternoon of 18 August a man came into the salon. I know it was around 2.2o because I had just seated Mrs Wu, my 2.15 appointment.

The man asked me if he could have a glass of water. I told him to take a glass from the water-cooler. I kept an eye on him as he did so. He was sweating heavily and he looked nervous. There was a part of me that wondered for a moment if he wasn't going to rob the store. He had a little tuft of red hair beside his right ear as if he had once had a beard but shaved it off. He was wearing a light summer shirt that was drenched with sweat. He was also wearing a pair of dirty black trousers.

After the man finished drinking he asked where the nearest Metro station was. He spoke well, like he was well-educated but foreign, maybe English. He seemed a bit eccentric in his manner, like he was trying to be something he wasn't. His whole manner made me quite edgy. I told him that we were half-way between the Judiciary Square and Union Station stops and told him how to get to both. He gave me a funny look and then left without saying thanks. As he walked from the store I saw that there was a red stain on his left shoe. It looked like dried blood.

On the evening of 21 July I was watching television with my husband. The lead story was about the woman who got murdered in Rock Creek Park. There was a sketch of the man police are looking for. In the picture the man had a red beard but apart from that he looked pretty much like the man who called into the salon. I immediately called the police and told the lady on the phone the same facts that I have just mentioned. She took my details and asked me to call into the Chinatown police station to give this statement...".

7. Extract from "Sell 'n' Buy" Magazine

[22 July]

"44 Magnum Colt Anaconda for sale. 3 years old. Good condition. Ideal for self-defence or home safety. Fits in glove compartment, handbag or bedside locker. $295 o.n.o. Call Josh at..."