Mountain of the Dead by Keith McCloskey Read Free Book Online

some of the injuries he suffered, the cause of death was given as hypothermia. The skull fracture may have been caused by a fall or could have been caused by a blunt object hitting him. It was observed in the autopsy that the blow or fall that caused the skull fracture would have resulted in shock and a loss of co-ordination, which would have accelerated his death by hypothermia.
Lyudmila Dubinina
    Belonging to the second group of bodies, Luda Dubinina was found close to the den that the second group had tried to create. She was in a kneeling position, lying against a rock by a stream. The injuries sustained by her were the worst and were almost inexplicable. Her tongue was stated as just being ‘missing’, along with the muscles of the floor of her mouth. The autopsy does not state that her tongue was torn out. There was 100g of coagulated blood in her stomach, which is taken to imply that her heart was beating and blood was flowing when her tongue was removed. The results of her autopsy were:

     
Tongue missing.
Soft tissue missing around the eyes, eyebrows and left temporal area with partially exposed bone.
Eyes missing.
Nose cartilage broken and flattened.
Four ribs were broken on the right side with two fracture lines visible.
Six ribs were broken with two fracture lines visible.
Soft tissue of the upper lip missing, teeth and upper jaw exposed.
Massive haemorrhage in the heart’s right atrium.
Bruise in the middle left thigh measuring 10 x 5cm.
Damaged tissues around the left temporal bone measuring 4 x 4cm.

     
    Luda was wearing two sweaters, two shirts – one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves, underwear, long socks plus two pairs of smaller socks and another single sock, plus a small hat. She was not wearing any footwear and in an attempt to protect her feet had cut a sweater in half and wrapped one half around her left foot. The other half of the sweater was found lying in the snow. Her cause of death was stated as haemorrhage into the right atrium of the heart, multiple fractured ribs and internal bleeding. Her fractures were symmetrical and are believed to be impossible to have been caused by falling onto rocks, quite apart from the lack of any external marks on the skin.
Semyon Zolotarev
    Also in the second group found, the body of Semyon Zolotarev was found close to the den that this group had created. He too, like Luda Dubinina, had suffered serious and seemingly inexplicable internal injuries. The results of his autopsy were:

     
Eyeballs missing.
Missing soft tissue around the left eyebrow measuring 7 x 6cm with bone exposed.
Flair chest with five ribs broken on the right side with two fracture lines.
Open wound on the right side with exposed bone measuring 8 x 6cm.

     
    Zolotarev was found to have three tattoos: on the back of his right wrist at the base of the thumb, a tattooed male name, GENA; on the back of the right forearm, a tattooed outline of a beetroot and the letter C; on the back of the left forearm, two Cyrillic letters, plus separately a combination of eleven Cyrillic letters and the number 3, a five-pointed star, four more Cyrillic letters and the year 1921. The year probably refers to his year of birth.
Alexander Kolevatov
    Another member of the second group, the body of Alexander Kolevatov was found close to the den. The results of his autopsy were:

     
Lack of soft tissue around the eyes.
Eyebrows missing.
Skull bone exposed.
Broken nose.
Open wound behind the ear, size 3 x 1.5cm.
Deformed neck.
Intravital subluxation of the foot [which was bandaged with a piece of cloth].
Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle
    The final member of the second group, the body of Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle was also found close to the den. The results of his autopsy were:

     
Multiple fractures to the temporal bone with extensions to the frontal and sphenoid bones.
Haemorrhage on the lower forearm measuring 10 x 12cm.
Bruise on the left side of the upper lip.

     
    A fall of some kind onto a rock as the