Worst Type of Murder

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," April 21, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: The shocking details of Jessica Lunsford's tragic murder. The body of the 9-year-old Florida girl was found buried near her home on March 19th. Now, a 292-page evidence report reveals the sick details of her final moments. We have the report and the details will horrify you.

Joining us from New York is forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, hello Dr. Baden.

DR. MICHAEL BADEN FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Hi, Greta, how are you?

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Dr. Baden, people must think we're a little bit nuts talking about this report since apparently it's being reported that he confessed to the crime but we still have to go through the trial, the process, the medical examiner.

BADEN: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: And the case has to be proven. Looking at this report, I know you've looked at it, tell me what it says.

BADEN: What the report says is that the police, the police who were present at the autopsy, the autopsy report hasn't been released but the police who were there made certain information available, is that the autopsy confirmed and corroborated statements that John Couey made as to how he killed her.

I've been doing this a lot of years, Greta. This is about the worst type of murder that I've seen that she was kidnapped. She was alive when she goes into the trailer. There is some blood at the trailer anyway that's being further investigated in his bed, in Couey's bed.

And that she may have been alive two times when the police came to ask questions of the people in the trailer and then she was apparently alive when she goes into the plastic bags and she then suffocates as she uses up the oxygen in the plastic bags and is buried where he pointed out to the police that he had buried her. And everything he says seems to be corroborated so far.

VAN SUSTEREN: And in looking at the report, just to give the viewers some idea, I don't know if they can see the 292 pages, I mean it's unbelievable the volume, but even if you in terms of so that you understood the way that these cases are presented, the sheriff collects evidence.

Let me just give you one example is that I'm looking at the property receipt from one report and it says "Brown bag containing one ligature removed from victim's wrist."

So what happens is that the medical examiner and the sheriff's office they actually collect every piece of information and they record it, don't they, just like that?

BADEN: Yes. At the autopsy, as the medical examiner removed the plastic bags, he gives the plastic bags to the crime lab people. There may be fingerprints, blood, all kinds of things on plastic bags that are very valuable.

There were wires, ligature wires around the wrists. Those also are given over to the crime lab and they look when they go back to the trailer and other places that Couey was to find out where that could have come from.

She had clothes on. She was dressed. She had a training bra on, tank top, pants, panties on and presumably the initial information was that when she was kidnapped she had a pink nightgown on and that has to be worked out.

VAN SUSTEREN: We only have a minute left, Dr. Baden. You know they have to do this. The medical examiner has to do this. The D.A's got to do his job. Everyone's got to do it. But as a medical examiner, how do you do this? This is the worst one. How do you do these?

BADEN: The easy part is the medical examiner because when we see the body the person is dead and is not suffering. It's the act of dying that's so upsetting and it's the responsibility of the medical examiner or the police to have that body give information and talk to us so that whoever did it can be properly punished for it.

And so, it's a horrible thing. It's a horrible thing to think about but the medical examiner doing the job is saying, hey, we're doing something that's going to benefit society, that's going to benefit the family. The family can bring a little bit of closure to what happened and to make sure that this doesn't happen again, at least from this person.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right and, of course, all the sheriffs and all the law enforcement usually are sleep deprived doing the search, always heartbroken.

BADEN: It's a 24-hour thing, right.

VAN SUSTEREN: It's very tough on them as well. Dr. Baden, thank you.

BADEN: Thank you.

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