BLOOD HAS A VOICE: Tales from the autopsy table - Dr Hestelle van Staden

Blood has a voice. That is the title of a book written by one of South Africa's top forensic pathologists, Dr. Hestelle van Staden, who has conducted thousands of autopsies - and is one of between only 60 and 70 qualified specialist forensic pathologists in the country. As such she is often the last voice of a deceased person, a victim’s only chance for justice, a family’s only hope for answers. And in this interview with BizNews, she speaks about how the dead speak to her. Dr van Staden, whose expert testimony in court could mean the difference between a guilty verdict and an acquittal, also details “the most harrowing case” she has been involved in; reveals how a person who is found hanged in an apparent suicide can “tell” her that he or she was in fact murdered; and explains why a person found with a gunshot wound and gunshot residue on his hand, may not have committed suicide. “…you simply cannot assume that what you are seeing is exactly what is there,” she says. - Chris Steyn

Photograph of Dr Hestelle van Staden by Theana van Bruegem