As a death investigator, Barbara Butcher speaks for the dead—and sometimes the most telling clues can be found on the body itself.
Sandra Bonaventure was found dumped in a New York City tunnel in the summer of 2002 in a heartbreaking case at the center of an all-new The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher, airing Saturday, Oct. 18 at 9/8c on Oxygen.
“When a garbage bag containing a young woman’s body is dumped in a NYC tunnel,” an episode synopsis explains, “Barbara Butcher and a rookie homicide detective unravel how a seemingly straightforward crime conceals a chain of forensic contradictions—and a killer no one saw coming.”
What Was Sandra Bonaventure’s Cause of Death?
Investigators get one of their first clues in the case after Bonaventure is brought to The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner and an autopsy determined that the 20-year-old suffered a fractured hyoid bone in her neck.
“This evidence is consistent with manual strangulation,” Butcher explained in a preview for the episode, titled “Two Hearts Stopped.” “So it’s probably likely that this was someone she knew and didn’t fight back initially. Perhaps she was surprised.”
The victim’s abdomen was also “very distended.”
Although bloating can be a symptom of decomposition, Butcher explained in the sneak peek that in Bonaventure’s case, the enlarged stomach had an entirely different cause.
“On the opening of the womb,” she noted, “they find that she is seven months pregnant with a baby boy.”
The discovery made Bonaventure’s death all the more tragic.
As NYPD homicide detective Brian MacLeod recalled, “That’s an ‘oh s–t’ moment. You’re talking about a little kid. A baby that hasn’t even been born yet. What the hell did this little kid do, you know?”
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The development also sparked a new mystery as investigators tried to piece together the circumstances of Bonaventure’s death.
“We’ll certainly take DNA samples from the fetus and the mother and we’ll develop a profile with it,’ Butcher said. “The big question: Who is the father?”
To find out more about the harrowing case, watch The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher Saturday, Oct. 18 at 9/8c on Oxygen.
