Questions About a Mysterious Death? Exhume the Body for a Second Autopsy

There are so many things that Vickie brought into my life, years after her own death. Her story was always one of the urban legends in our town. She supposedly "fell" from a cliff on Rock Crusher Mountain. I lived on that mountain myself for the first 9 months of my life.

The story of Bertram's death broke in the Thursday Oct. 7, 1976 edition of the Livingston Enterprise. According to the article, on September 10, 1976, the 16 year old girl fell to her death into the rock quarry on Rock Crusher Mountain.

But did she?

This was a fall of more than 100 feet. The original autopsy claimed..."No broken bones." Is this possible? Imagine the years of turmoil for those who knew and loved her.

I first became involve when her brother, a local deputy in 1998, came to my door and ask for help. I knew Ryan Allred from school, but I had not connected him to this old story. He was older than me, but I remembered him as a bitter person. It was only when I heard the rest of the story I knew the reason.

I knew the only way to know for sure was to exhume the body. We worked to acquire local permit..and we exhumed the body to transport to the University of Tennessee, more specifically the legendary "Body Farm."

I was disappointed that Ryan, now one of my closest friends, was the only deputy on the scene of the exhumation. His peers not there to support their peer in one of his most difficult tasks. He himself helped to lift the remains of his sister form her grave. He did what he knew he had to do for his sister.

The 2nd autopsy....many years after the initial autopsy, did indeed reveal broken bones. But were they enough to confirm a fall of more than 100 feet into a solid limestone basin?

Did Vickie die in the stone quarry, or was she places there to cover a more sinister scenario?

Will we ever know?

-Todd

A poem by Vickie - -shortly before her death -

Dismissed

I know that I shall soon fade away,
as the day fades into the night.

I am not afraid for all things that begin
must surely draw to a close.

I wonder why all my possessions
seem so like treasures and jewels
that just so recently I have uncovered.

I watch each day in silent solitude
Quietly as so not to disturb
even the smallest of molecules.

I (at first) would long for one more decade
to fulfill and satisfy the ambitions and
expectations of my forefathers.

In the beginning I would weep in awesome agony
with a desire to rid myself of
this evil illness.

I know, at least have expected my fate
as you would have to endure a broken heart.

Seven months and three days have passed
since I have learned of my new nature.

I feel myself slowly slipping from this reality
into the reality of the universe.

Each minute reveals the answer to a question
that hasn't been asked, before, even in the greatest books.

Today is the day I must leave and go
to the place where they have been calling
and waiting for me.

I walk slowly into a field of sunshine
Fields of tall waving grass,
delicate flowers and tumbling hills.

A field like the one where my brother and sister passed
there time running, jumping and playing.

Mine eyes have suddenly gone blind to this landscape
as the wind blows, I fall into the grass
softly and peacefully.

My spirit is gone from my bones and flesh
I see myself lying ever so gracefully in a bed
of green satin.

As I descended into the clouds
I feel no sorrow that I must leave
only regret that I couldn't give more love
to my home and my friends.

-Vickie Bertram