More about the Scene: The Pool of Mark's Blood in His Driveway

This post examines further the issue of the pool of my brother's blood found in his driveway the night of his truck fire. As indicated in the original post (September 22, 2010), Mark's blood is a troubling piece of evidence that seems not to have been taken seriously enough by the investigating authorities. Yet in conjunction with other suspicious facts surrounding Mark's death (the wounds to his forehead and to the left side of his face, the fact that he had been saturated with gasoline, the suspicious presence of a gas can in the cab of his truck, and the unexplainable location of his truck in the field across from his house), the blood on the driveway points strongly to foul play.

To help visualize the scene, I include two photos of my brother's property in Great Valley and one of Whalen Road and a section of the field where Mark's truck went up in flames and where he himself lay burning to death about sixty feet away. Clicking on any of the photos will enlarge it so as to show greater detail, such as the size of the picture windows in the front of the house.  The photo of the house here shows the living room area (with the larger picture window on the left) and the kitchen/dining area (with the smaller picture window on the right); both windows look directly out to the front yard and to the field across the road. To the side of the property is the long driveway leading to the attached garage.

The next photo looks up the driveway and shows the paved section projecting from above the middle of the driveway (the T-zone), where Mark normally parked his truck and where a pool of his blood was found that night. As these pictures were taken recently, the cars parked in the area presumably belong to the current owners; the red vehicle to the right is parked just off the T-zone of the driveway where my brother normally parked his truck.

 
The third photo shows the section of Whalen Rd. from the front of Mark's property and the large field on the other side down to the intersection with Cross Rd.

Here is the official information about the blood in the driveway as recorded in the police report:

(1) In an entry in his narrative for 9/24/03, Inv. Kalfas lists among five items taken from the scene "two cotton swabs[,] with blood samples secured from the victim's driveway—to NYSP Crime Lab Albany."

(2) In an entry for 12/12/03 referring to his re-interview of my brother's wife, Inv. Kalfas records that Susan "has no explanation for the blood located in the driveway."

(3) In an entry for 01/03/04, Inv. Kalfas records that the results for the blood specimens from the Albany Crime Lab reveal that the swabs are "consistent with human blood."  He further states that Cattaraugus County D.A. Edward Sharkey requests that "the blood kit, taken from the victim at autopsy, be forwarded to the Albany Crime Lab for DNA comparison." In addition, Inv. Kalfas "contacts NYSP Inv. C. Iwanko and relays this information. Inv. Iwanko forwards the blood kit to the Albany Lab."

(4) In a supplemental report, Inv. Kalfas records on 2/24/04 that he has received from the District Attorney's office a copy of the DNA report on the blood tested at the Albany Forensic Center. He states the following: "The Report finds the blood found at the scene is that of the victim, Mark Pavlock."

(5) In the same supplemental report, Inv. Kalfas also mentions a meeting on 03/04/04 with D.A. Sharkey, Sr. Inv. John Ensell, and D.A. Investigator Michael Malak. I quote the following verbatim: "DA Sharkey requests Member interview Medical Examiner, Dr. Sung-ook Baik, regarding a possible explaination [sic] for the blood found at the scene and a re-interview of the victim's wife, Susan Pavlock."

(6) Also in the same supplemental report, Inv. Kalfas refers to his meeting with M.E. Sung-ook Baik. I quote Inv. Kalfas's summary of the Medical Examiner's opinion about the blood: "He did suggest that, given the victim's blood alcohol concentration, and the physical effect of alcohol, the victim may have likely suffered from a nosebleed. Dr. Baik added that alcohol dilates blood vessels and a simple nosebleed could produce excessive bleeding." Inv. Kalfas notes that he "relayed this information to DA Sharkey."

It seems clear from the references to the blood in the police report that the investigating authorities did not consider any possible causes for the the pool of Mark's blood other than the explanation suggested by M. E. Baik. Yet, as detailed in the original post, Erie County Medical Examiner Sung-ook Baik's explanation for the blood ("alcohol dilates blood vessels and a simple nosebleed could produce excessive bleeding") does not seem tenable. Furthermore, the police report also indicates that prior to learning the results of the DNA tests on the blood, the District Attorney had already made up his mind about the cause of my brother's death. I quote verbatim an entry in the police report narrative by Inv. Kalfas for 12/30/03, less than a week before receiving the blood results from the Albany Crime Lab: "After examining all associated paperwork, D. A. Sharkey states 'despite rumors and innuendo, there is no evidence to support the possibility of homicide or suicide. The case will be classified as an accident, consistent with the findings of the Medical Examiner's Office.'" Given that the previous references to the blood underplay its potential significance, it is perhaps not surprising that the DNA results made little impact on the investigation. But one must wonder why the blood on the driveway did not elicit more attention initially.

The pool of my brother's blood found on the scene the night of the fire was clearly fresh. That it was a significant amount of blood was confirmed by Att. Michael Kelly, who saw photos of the scene. In addition, in July 2005 firefighter Wayne Frank told me that he had seen drops of blood in the T-zone of the driveway where Mark usually parked his truck and stated in an interview with Att. Kelly not long after that the blood was fresh. Since the police report is very elliptical about the blood and I have not been able to get access to the photos of the scene, it is not clear to me how many deposits of blood were actually discovered. But Mark must have been in the area of the driveway not long before the fire and received an injury that caused him to shed the blood found there.

The injury, moreover, must have been inflicted on my brother. As mentioned in the original post, Mark's attending physician at the Erie County Medical Center, Dr. Edward Piotrowski, told me in 2005 that when he arrived at the burn unit, my brother had deep soft-tissue swelling in his forehead and further damage to the left side of his face. The doctor did not think that the forehead wound could have caused the pool of blood. But he added that a blow to Mark's nose certainly could have and stated that there was mucosal congestion in my brother's sinus areas, which could only have been caused by a blow to the nose if he had not suffered from a sinusitis condition. Although the authorities suggested that the pool of Mark's blood may have been caused by a fall, Dr. Piotrowski told me that my brother would have to have fallen several times in order to sustain such head wounds. The only logical explanation is that my brother was attacked in his driveway. Since his blood was found in the section of the driveway where he normally parked his truck, he had presumably driven his truck there. But when did this attack occur?

According to the witness statement given by my brother's wife Susan at 11:45 the night of the fire, Mark was at home until shortly before 9 p.m. I quote her account verbatim: "At around 8:45 pm Mark left the house to go downtown Salamanca. At around 10:30 pm I was on the phone and waiting for Mark to return home.  I heard a noise in the garage and I thought it was the cats. At around that time I saw fire out the front window of our house and after taking a closer look I could see Marks [sic] truck across the street from our driveway on fire."

As her statement indicates, Mark's wife was apparently aware of nothing unusual between 8:45, when she says that Mark left the property, and 10:55, when she says that she saw the truck on fire in the field. She doesn't say if she looked out the window at any other point during that period. But, to judge by the known facts and by Susan's statements, Mark was presumably attacked in his driveway between 10:30 and 10:55 p.m. although Susan apparently neither saw nor heard anything except for a noise in the garage.