GUILTY MI - Paul DeWolf, 25, fatally shot in Ann Arbor frat house, 23 July 2013

[black_squirrel]

That's what I'm thinking since I read the gunshot wound wasn't obvious until he was being autopsied. That's a strange yet specific detail of this case.

There are somewhat contradicting statements about how the body was found. It is best to go with the official police press release:

On July 24, 2013, Police responded to the 200 block of North Ingalls where, Paul DeWolf, a 25 year old U of M medical student and Air Force Second Lieutenant, was found deceased in his apartment by a coworker who had been sent to check on him after he did not report for work.
Upon Officers’ arrival, the apartment was orderly and valuables appeared to have been untouched. The Medical Examiner’s Office was notified and subsequently responded to the scene. The cause of Mr. DeWolf’s visible injury was unknown at that time and would require an autopsy to determine cause of death.
On July 25th the autopsy conducted by the Washtenaw County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that Mr. DeWolf had suffered a single gunshot wound. No firearm was found at the scene.
The Ann Arbor police are actively investigating this crime. Anybody with information is asked to call the Ann Arbor Police tip line 734-794-6939, or e-mail [email protected] or Crimestoppers at 1-800-SPEAK UP.

So the injury WAS visible. However, it was not clear what caused the injury.
Perhaps it was a big caliber, and it wasn't immediately obvious whether this was a gunshot wound or a stab wound or something else. WoodTV reported somewhere that he was found "in a pool of blood".

 

[black_squirrel]

When my husband was a resident he realized that an attending on one of the services was claiming to see patients (and charging for it) when he was actually not. It was a very sticky political situation.

Nobody got killed, obviously, but I can see where if Paul had stumbled upon something really shady and was threatening to expose it, his life very well could have been in danger.

Probably not the most likely scenario, but a possibility nonetheless.

eta: this particular situation with my husband occurred at a private hospital, but the VA was a huge part of his training - residents/med students have the same supervision at both (a little more leeway at the VA and public hospitals, but still closely supervised by upper levels and attendings)

How did your husband deal with this and what happened to the physician?
I know of physicians who went to jail for this. If the patients were paid by medicare, it would be medicare-fraud, something that is not taken lightly.
If some renowned physician did this, and the hospital found out, they might just cover it up (correct the wrong billing, and give the physician a slap on the wrist), because they do not want to loose the doctor.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

Maybe there are no state laws against guns on campus grounds, but I believe that the University of Michigan does not allow it. However, I think I read somewhere that the fraternity is not on campus grounds. (just outside the border of the campus). So it would have been legal for DeWolf to keep a gun in his room.

Oh I didn't know that the frat house isn't on campus. Aren't they usually located on campuses? Was it you who posted that the physical frat house had been relocated across the street at one time? Did they dig a new foundation for the basement? Or, how does that work?

 

[Woe.be.gone]

That is an interesting link. If he had been shot by a small caliber gun, only an artery or vein would have been severed, and he would still have about 2 minutes to live. But wouldn't he have cried for help, or make noise in some way to get the attention of other people in the house? Or perhaps it was a large caliber and death was immediate?

Not sure. We'd have to look at an anatomy of the neck image and figure out where exactly that artery is located. Is it near the vocal cords and those could have been hit too? Also we don't know how soundproof or not the rooms are - sometimes older buildings have thicker walls and seem less hollow making the rooms more private.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...XyAHMpIDQDA&ved=0CDQQ9QEwAw&dur=2336#imgdii=_

Man, interesting but hard to look at when you know how bloody, slimy and mushy stuff is inside a body. There is an artery on both sides going up towards the front of the neck - like a Y into the head. The vocals would be in the middle of the Y part or in the back of the throat (I think). Still, the blood would flood the area quickly I bet and interfer with other mechanisms nearby. I see the right side has a pathway to the thyroid that falls into the area of general surgery studies.

Someone who knew what they were doing could pull a little gun from their pocket, hold it near to where the artery is on either side and shoot all in one fell swoop. We don't know if he was found slumped off a chair, in his bed, near his doorway or where, right? From looking at the pics though, I don't believe he'd be shot from behind in order to hit the coratid artery. We don't know where the bullet entered. All pure speculation.

IMO a woman might own a small caliber gun too.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

There are somewhat contradicting statements about how the body was found. It is best to go with the official police press release:



So the injury WAS visible. However, it was not clear what caused the injury.
Perhaps it was a big caliber, and it wasn't immediately obvious whether this was a gunshot wound or a stab wound or something else. WoodTV reported somewhere that he was found "in a pool of blood".

I agree. I hadn't read this report and wasn't aware there was any visible marks on him before he was examined but figured if he was shot there should have been. Interesting the word 'visible' was mentioned though. Were they thinking hypodermic needle, gun shot or screw driver?

Anyway, this is only one theory based mostly on the fact that the military got involved with the investigation AFTER civilian LE asked them to take a look.

 

[black_squirrel]

Oh I didn't know that the frat house isn't on campus. Aren't they usually located on campuses? Was it you who posted that the physical frat house had been relocated across the street at one time? Did they dig a new foundation for the basement? Or, how does that work?

Yes it was relocated:
http://www.umich.edu/~phirho/History.html

From the title of the following article it is clear that it wasn't on campus.
http://www.annarbor.com/news/official-u-m-student-found-dead-in-off-campus-apartment-was-a-talented-medical-student/
In the picture, the large red brick building behind the fraternity and the trees, is 300 N. Ingalls building, which belongs to the university.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

http://medicine.umich.edu/medschool/about/history

This is so interesting!

"In the late nineteenth century, the U-M Medical School embarked on a mission to involve students as active participants in their education, rather than passive observers."

In 1850, the first class of medical students paid $5 a year for two years of education. They had to have knowledge of Greek and enough Latin in order to read and write prescriptions. The second year repeated what they learned during the first year.

Read the whole history. You'll see U-M prides itself on early clinical contact with patients when other hospitals wouldn't allow students to touch patients. I'm not trying to say this has anything to do with anything - just can't believe I'm reading this due to points brought up last night.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/residents-stunned-by-neighbors-death-homicide-investigation/

Oh I see this article describes the off campus neighborhood. I had read it before too but don't absorb everything the first time around. So campus rules wouldn't apply even though everyone living in the house is a student? Guess not.

Upon googling, there are lots of articles about the housing on campuses and why some frats are losing their on campus housing, etc. Just another interesting societal change from what we're used to seeing in movies!

 

[annemc2]

How did your husband deal with this and what happened to the physician?
I know of physicians who went to jail for this. If the patients were paid by medicare, it would be medicare-fraud, something that is not taken lightly.
If some renowned physician did this, and the hospital found out, they might just cover it up (correct the wrong billing, and give the physician a slap on the wrist), because they do not want to loose the doctor.

Semi-prominent physician, prominent hospital. Husband had to report it, as residents were basically unsupervised. He was rather intimidated. As far as I know it was swept under the rug. Pretty scary.

(just googled it - the doctor is still working there. so there's that...)

 

[SapphireSteel]

http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/residents-stunned-by-neighbors-death-homicide-investigation/

Oh I see this article describes the off campus neighborhood. I had read it before too but don't absorb everything the first time around. So campus rules wouldn't apply even though everyone living in the house is a student? Guess not.

Upon googling, there are lots of articles about the housing on campuses and why some frats are losing their on campus housing, etc. Just another interesting societal change from what we're used to seeing in movies!

Fraternities and sororities seem to be a uniquely American invention.

Personally I think they stink - for every "brother" or "sister" you have 4 or 5 who have been rejected.

The flip side of acceptance and belonging is exclusion and bullying.

Talk about cliquey. No school should facilitate this sort of "them and us" mindset.

:cow:

 

[OldSteve]

I think it's more likely whoever shot just missed wherever they were aiming but still happened to hit Paul. I don't know if any of you shoot but hitting an area so small as the carotid in the neck would take some major practice to hit since it would be a moving target and you would have a limited amount of time to shoot. I doubt Paul had someone that had enough intelligence to know extensive anatomy, and plan on shooting in the carotid and planned to make it not look like a gun shot, that is also a sharpshooter. I think it's more likely a miss to another part of the body that was targeted.


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BBM - I agree firing at a person and hitting a spot on a person using a conventional sight - the hesitation, nerves, and tendency to simply hold the gun out without using it's sight - lucky to hit anything if there's any distance.

 

[danzn16]

Thanks, besides that, is there anything you can think of that may come into play along the process that leads to that? Could something be consistently missing? Anything like that?

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking. But the cadavers are soaked in formaldehyde and prepared at a site separate from the medical schools so there's not really a process at the school. They are delivered to the schools already prepared. If that is what you mean?


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[danzn16]

Do you have experience in the military system? Socialized medicine? The VA?
<modsnip> Liberties are taken in that other world, trust me.

We don't have socialized medicine in the US so no I don't have experience with that and neither did Paul more than likely. I have had experience in VAs and therefore the military but not a military base or on duty. Med students are supervised in the same manner at all of these sites as they are in a private setting.


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[danzn16]

Okay I have to get personal here. I had an intern at an Army hospital rip a three foot long drain out of my body without any warning or bracing (like the nurses do when removing a throat tube). As he began pulling it I felt as if my guts were being ripped out along with it and I screamed (I mean, I screamed!) and he stopped. He had no idea what that felt like and looked surprised. My knees bolted upward towards my chest possibly causing irritation/scar tissue. He looked like a walking zombie most of the time and I know he didn't do it on purpose but he was acting alone with no assistance. I'm almost positive I was his first abdominal drain removal! (A civilian surgeon told me later that drain wasn't even necessary in my case therefore, I conclude, I was used to provide experience.)

I am so sorry to hear that! An intern is a graduate from medical school and is a physician. They need supervision from an attending but not directly like a med student does and they can perform certain procedures on their own unlike a med student. Just to put it in perspective.
Again, sorry to hear of your bad experience!


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[LambChop]

Fraternities and sororities seem to be a uniquely American invention.

Personally I think they stink - for every "brother" or "sister" you have 4 or 5 who have been rejected.

The flip side of acceptance and belonging is exclusion and bullying.

Talk about cliquey. No school should facilitate this sort of "them and us" mindset.

:cow:

With most college students today their priority is getting a good education and not on the "them and us". I think they pretty much could care less. The only one's concerned are the one's belonging to the Frat house, IMO. And it certainly isn't about bullying but it is about cliques. Cliques are a fact of life no matter what age group or where you go, live, work, etc. You just need to learn to get over it and enjoy your own life. jmo

 

[black_squirrel]

Fraternities and sororities seem to be a uniquely American invention.

Personally I think they stink - for every "brother" or "sister" you have 4 or 5 who have been rejected.

The flip side of acceptance and belonging is exclusion and bullying.

Talk about cliquey. No school should facilitate this sort of "them and us" mindset.

:cow:

I believe, getting admitted to a fraternity/sorority can be competitive. I thought that a rejection to the phi rho sigma house could be a potential motive. Paul was a recruitment chair at another fraternity before this, but he
wasn't at phi rho sigma around the time he was murdered. So now I think that this motive is less likely.

 

[OldSteve]

Thinking more about the single shot.

I am assuming that LE has thoroughly checked to see there were no other shots fired that missed and went into walls...

A single shot tell us -

Could be someone pointing a gun to threaten or kept him at bay and the gun unintentionally or intentionally is fired to scare him off... such as an armed robber
entering his room thinking it's empty.

Could be someone who is angry, mad, or arguing and fires the shot only to realize what they had just done.

As for a deliberate killing - would have to find him asleep or be able to catch him off guard and pull out the gun and fire..

 

[Woe.be.gone]

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking. But the cadavers are soaked in formaldehyde and prepared at a site separate from the medical schools so there's not really a process at the school. They are delivered to the schools already prepared. If that is what you mean?


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Thanks anyway. I'm not sure what I'm asking either!

 

[Woe.be.gone]

I am so sorry to hear that! An intern is a graduate from medical school and is a physician. They need supervision from an attending but not directly like a med student does and they can perform certain procedures on their own unlike a med student. Just to put it in perspective.
Again, sorry to hear of your bad experience!


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Thanks. I won't relay the whole experience, because it isn't relevant, but it was bad on so many levels. It was the system at the time I believe (Walter Reed). Some of the attitudes around there stunk. Anyway, some cases bring up subjects that trigger personal experiences. Sorry.

Luckily for me, a Gastro Doc out of Arlington Hospital saved my life. Everything there seemed good along with caring professionals doing their jobs. Comforting.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

We don't have socialized medicine in the US so no I don't have experience with that and neither did Paul more than likely. I have had experience in VAs and therefore the military but not a military base or on duty. Med students are supervised in the same manner at all of these sites as they are in a private setting.


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We're headed that way and, imo, the military comes closest and could be considered a training ground for socialized medicine. In that system, the patient doesn't have a choice of where, when or whom once specific care is needed. You take what they give you and sometimes have to fight for what you suspect you need. It's the one regret I have for marrying a soldier, in that, I gave up my own freedom (which, until I became ill, I never looked at it that way). While he served, most of our life was rich and unique, although disruptive and scary at times too. I just wasn't prepared when a Doctor said that caring for me was a benefit not an entitlement (like it was for my husband). Say what? Sorry, not used to being a second class citizen and didn't know that's what I committed to when I married. There were many years I worked my arse off for the betterment of an Army unit as we were expected to be a team.

Now I'm all worked up!

Will they solve this case or not? They have many heads onboard between the civilian, university and military authorities. Still, can't figure it out? Or, do they want the murder to be forgotten/pushed under the rug for some reason?