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Barbara Butcher’s extensive career as a medicolegal expert has taken her to over 5,500 death scenes, and among these, some are etched into her memory due to their extreme savagery.
In a preview for the latest episode of Oxygen’s series, The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher, titled “She Fought Back,” airing on Saturday, November 1 at 9/8c p.m., she recalls one particularly brutal case.
The victim was 91-year-old Nellie Hocutt, who resided in the Bronx. The final moments of her life in 2003 were unimaginably horrific. Butcher describes it starkly: “She’s being waterboarded.”
The investigation into Hocutt’s murder uncovered not just the method of her killing but also the terrifying ordeal she endured in her last moments.
In the sneak preview, Butcher elaborates on how Hocutt was suffocated and the subsequent tragic events that unfolded from there.
Butcher explains in the sneak peek that Hocutt was deprived of air—and what happened next as a result of that.
“When someone is being asphyxiated, they begin to have seizures,” Butcher asserts, “and they clamp down even to the point of cutting deeply into their own tongues. That is so painful.”
Autopsy reveals more evidence
In Nellie’s case, the medical examination shows that her agony was worsened because of what her killers did.
“There are an actual laceration and contusion of her tongue,” Butcher observes. “This means that something was forced into her mouth with sufficient force.”
Evidence found in Nellie’s stomach further shocked investigators working the murder case. “In her gastric contents, there’s point six, 6 percent drinking alcohol in her stomach,” says Butcher. “That’s huge. There’s wine, there’s scotch, but more horribly, there’s methanol.”
Methanol is an alcohol that’s used as a solvent, Butcher explains. “When ingested, this causes cramping of the stomach. It’s deep pain.”
In order to poison Nellie with the mix of alcohol, her killers had to find a way to administer them. As Butcher outlines how they did that, the reality of the horror becomes clear.
“They forced her mouth open and jammed these liquids into her mouth,” says Butcher. “She’s drowning in these fluids.”
In the end, Nellie fought to stay alive. “She can’t take a breath through her nose,” says Butcher. “She can’t swallow fast enough to get air. This is beyond hideous. She’s being waterboarded.”
Who killed Nellie Hocutt so brutally and why? Find out in the “She Fought Back” episode of The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher, airing Saturday, Nov. 1 at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.
