POLICE
FACE TO FACE
Copenhagen, Department of Forensic Medicine
Hi, Frank.
Hi, Bjørn.
- What do you want? - You've got a Jane Doe?
Right there. I didn't know it was your case.
Andersen's kid is sick. I'm helping out.
I brought the dental records of a girl gone missing 14 days now.
- Will you check if it's her? - Sure, when I've got time. Bye.
Can't you reveal what we've got here?
Suicide.
You're off duty. There's no case. It's not even nine yet.
- Funny. - I can be.
Give me the extended version for Andersen.
- You wanna see her? - Just tell me what you've got.
Young woman, stabbed to death.
Several hesitation wounds of varying depth around the heart, so...
- She was afraid. - Suicide?
A girl stabs herself in the heart and Frank deems it suicide.
Bjørn, we go through this every time.
If you wanted to be a medical examiner, you should have stayed in school.
Every day, about 20 people try to commit suicide in Denmark. 2-3 succeed.
Many of them choose to stab themselves in the heart, so...
Afraid you say. How do you know?
I don't. But the term "hesitation wounds" implies it.
She searched...
Maybe she searched for a reason not to plunge in the knife.
Or maybe she searched for that last reason to plunge in the knife.
She stabbed herself around the heart several times before she plunged it in.
- Choose the motive that fits you. - You are sure she's dead?
- So long, Bjørn. - You've been wrong before. Remember?
Fine. I'll make sure to check out the dental records.
Bjørn, what's going on?
It's...
It's my...
It's my little Christina lying there.
You shouldn't be in here. Let's go outside.
Richard, Frank speaking, from the morgue.
Listen, the girl that was brought in last night from Amaliegade...
Bjørn's here with me -
- and I think it might be his daughter.
Thanks. Yes, of course.
Bjørn, Richard wants to talk to you.
- Bjørn. - Bjørn...
Go sit outside. I'll be right over.
Are you there? Bjørn?
What happened?
- I just told you... - So tell me again.
Explain why my daughter is lying there.
Bjørn, I don't know.
What happened to her? What happened to her? Answer me.
- I don't... - You claim she committed suicide.
Everything indicates suicide. I did a routine examination.
Routine?! Handling a colleague's daughter isn't routine!
I didn't know. I can't know who she is, can I?
Bjørn, let's get out of here.
Listen to me.
Let's go over this from the top, okay?
- Where was she found? The address? - Amaliegade.
And what happened on Amaliegade?
I don't know.
- You were present at the find site? - Yes.
What did you see?
Christina didn't live on Amaliegade. So what was she doing there?
- I don't know. - Where was she lying?
It's in the report.
I told you we'd take it from the top. Talk me through this, okay?
Listen, Bjørn.
It was an ordinary find.
She was found alone in the living room.
She'd been lying there for a couple of hours, bleeding through the floor.
The lady downstairs calls it in because blood is dripping from her ceiling.
She's lying face down. It was executed standing. It's a clear case of suicide.
A clear case?! She's lying in an apartment without any kind of ID.
Isn't that just a little suspicious?
- How the hell should I know? - Use your head!
Why is Christina lying in an apartment without ID, bleeding through the floor?
Bjørn, I'm a medical examiner. I describe what I see.
You're talking about police work. Okay?
- Was she dressed? - Yes.
She didn't have any scratch marks or any signs of struggle.
- What else did you find? - The usual livor mortis.
Blisters between epidermis and dermis. Petechiae in eyes and gums.
There's not a lot to find in suicide cases.
Hesitation wounds? You hesitate because you're afraid, right?
Yes, because you're afraid, doubtful, uncertain.
When people slit their wrist or throat -
- we see six-seven superficial wounds before they apply force.
You like talking about it, huh?
What do you mean? It's my job.
- But you like the words? - What words?
The words that describe death. The words that make my daughter dead.
They're technical terms.
But the technical terms satisfy you, don't they? You like them.
This ends now. Please open the door.
Bjørn, open the door.
- Show me how you hesitate. - Give me that scalpel.
My daughter wasn't technical terms, livor mortis and hesitation wounds.
She didn't commit suicide. She sure as hell didn't take her own life.
- How do you hesitate? - Stop that. Please.
How many centimeters? One centimeter?
One, one and a half. Give me the knife. This is pointless, stop it!
Is the angle important? Does one angle mean suicide and another murder?
Do the degrees determine whether she committed suicide or was murdered?
The angle is important, but there's no doubt. Everything indicates suicide.
The knife was still in her heart when we found her.
- But she was lying on her stomach? - Yes.
So it must have been deeply lodged for it not to fall out on impact.
- She wanted to die. - That's not what I asked you.
We're far from there, okay? If the knife was lodged deeply -
- the handle would've twisted on impact, making twist wounds in the heart.
- That is the right term, twist wounds? - Yes, twist wounds.
- And you checked for that, right? - Yes, of course.
- So let's check. - What the hell are you implying?
Let's check.
- This is the one you usually use? - Yes.
Petichiae, scratches around the right eye indicating a fall.
Based on the lessening...
Find where you talk about twist wounds.
- What do you think happened? - Someone killed her.
Someone stabbed her in the heart and placed her on the floor.
Scratches in the nasopharynx ...
Marked twist wounds in the heart from impact with the floor.
Satisfied?
The bruises and the scratches?
- Old injuries. - Perhaps from someone hitting her?
Yes, in principle, or maybe from a fall. They aren't related to her death.
But someone could have hit her and made the twist wounds.
You're reaching, Bjørn.
Stab her, twist the knife and leave her.
Bjørn, with all due sympathy -
- forensic medicine is mathematics. A body isn't someone's daughter to us.
We reduce an equation, eliminate the unknowns and pass it on in the system.
- Open her. - No...
Open her.
I want to see her heart. I want to see the twist wounds.
Then you can reduce it to an equation and eliminate the unknowns.
- I want to know the truth. - It's not gonna happen.
- Is this where you start? - Don't... Stop it.
Stop it. Stop it!
Let me do it!
You've wound up in an absurd situation, but this just isn't right.
- You don't know me. - I know your daughter. I examined her.
Her organs and her nasopharynx show signs of substance abuse.
Do you feel you've let her down, is that it?
If you want us to cut up your daughter to exonerate yourself -
- you're just a coward.
Shut up and open her.
- Where are you going? - This won't do.
I need scissors, retractors, suture. I need to patch her back up.
- What the hell are you doing? - This ends here.
- Frank! - Give me that key.
Bjørn, stop.
Damn it!
- Someone murdered her. - Richard!
- Someone murdered her. - Let go!
- My daughter didn't commit suicide. - I just did my job. Let me go!
- Someone murdered her. - That hurts!
- Let me go! - What the hell's going on?
Richard!
- Stop it. - I won't have him meddling in my work!
Get out of here. Go!
- Bjørn... - She didn't commit suicide.
- Frank's incompetent! - Save it.
- Put someone else on the case. - Bellahøj is taking over from us.
- Was the apartment sealed off? - Yes. It's been sealed off.
I'm here as your friend, Bjørn. You shouldn't be here.
You shouldn't. You and I can talk.
We can cry. I'm here for you, but you shouldn't be here.
Let's go and call Susanne.
Christina was afraid. I wasn't there for her.
She was afraid, and I wasn't there for her.
That's not how it works. It's not your fault.
Let's go. Come along.
- Give me two minutes with her. - I can't. Let's go.
You can.
As a friend.
Two.
That's it. I'll be waiting right outside.
My little girl...
Door opened on Amaliegade
Subtitles: Helle Schou Kristiansen Dansk Video Tekst