August 10, 2010

It was eight months before they found Sid Frome. “Sheriff, we found a body in the woods. I think it’s Sid. There’s the flannel cap, the black pants, what’s left of a ski vest. What a mess!” The Sheriff picked up the telephone and called the medical examiner’s office. “Hello, Mac, this is Sheriff Burnett of Fauquier County, better get Laura down here, we’ve got a hot one.” A few minutes later, the telephone rang at the Sheriff’s office, it was Laura, “I’m on the way, Sheriff.”

Several hours later, Laura looked at the skeleton in front of her. The stench was not too bad because there wasn’t much left. A few bits of tissue remained, but the animals, birds and bugs had done their work. No broken bones, no signs of foul play, The body looked like several that she had seen that had died of exposure. She took her camera, took pictures of the body, and took samples. The clothing was torn and spread all over the area, obviously by animals. She took pictures of the bits of clothing as well. “That poor man, he died out here, all alone. Why in the hell did his kids let him go out alone?”

August 15, 2010

Laura finished Sidney’s autopsy. She checked fluid levels, chemical levels, and looked for signs of foul play. There were slight evidences of frost bite in the tissues that remained, but then he supposedly died in a snowstorm.

She put her notes aside and rubbed her neck brushing back her red hair as she did so. She glanced at her watch. “Oh my gosh, I have a date in 45 minutes!!” She put the body back in the drawer, and her notes in the file, the file into the cabinet, and the headed to the parking lot. She jumped into her red sun-drenched convertible. “Gee, I haven’t been out all day”, she thought. She put the top down and pulled into the evening traffic.

Brian Peterson left the meeting room rolling his eyes. The Chief Counsel had briefed all of the estate and gift tax auditors on the 2010 changes in the law. In one month the first estate tax returns would come rolling in. The Service enacted a temporary procedure requiring that tax returns be filed for any estates exceeding One Million Dollars. It seemed like a useless exercise, but the Chief Counsel said there were two things that we should review. First, note which estates had the so-called Dynasty Trusts. These estates were exempt from estate and generation skipping taxes through the second generation. After that they would become taxable when the second generation died out. Thus, by documenting them for taxation down the road, they were protecting the treasury.

Second, confirm the date and cause of death. The Chief Counsel opined that suicide in 2010 by someone worth more than $1 Million could theoretically be viewed as tax evasion if the suicide was linked to a desire to evade taxes. Some people might also lie about the date of death, so the death certificates must be reviewed.

As he walked down the hall, Brian looked at his watch, “I’d better get going or Laura’s going to be mad as a wet hen, if I’m late”, he thought.

Laura and Brian went to a nice chain seafood restaurant in Reston, Virginia. After eating, they went out for a drink. “So Brian, tell me about your work”, said Laura. “I work at the Estate and Gift Tax Branch of the IRS. Its very hyper-technical and kind of boring work. Although we’re in a tax year where mischief could abound. For example, if a billionaire died in 2009, his family would owe hundreds of millions in estate taxes, but if he died in 2010, he’d owe zero estate taxes. The chief told us suicides might even be considered tax evasion. I guess we’ll be relying on you coroners this year a great deal.” Laura smiled. Then her face got serious. “You know I just had a case come across my desk this week that’s weird. A sick old man went for a walk on New Year’s day, got lost in the snow and died. His body was found this summer, badly decomposed and mostly eaten by vermin, scavengers and bugs.” “Sounds appetizing”, joked Brian. “The guy was a billionaire. I was going to put the date of death down as August 10, 2010, the legal date of death since that is when the body was found, it was likely January 1, 2010, since a witness supposedly saw him and his family called the sheriff to say he was missing on that day. But obviously, they would have a great incentive to lie about his going out, wouldn’t they? And I’ve been troubled by the fact that no one went out with that sick old man on a snowy day in January.” “Yeah, I suppose you’re right”, Brian said. “Do you have to put a date of death on the death certificate?”, he asked “Yes, our regulations require it, and the date we found the body is the legal date of death ” she replied. “And if you never found the body, what would the date of death be?” asked Brian. “Sounds like a stumper to me, but your determination would be binding I guess. What if for example he had been dead for a week or a day before New Year’s Day, how could you prove that he died before New Year’s Day, eight months later?” Laura smiled and said, “absent some really clear information to the contrary we can’t.”