Sacrifice Page #2

Oh, Jesus.

Oh, Jesus.

- Tora Guthrie?

Detective inspector Mckie.

- Hi.

- This is d.S. Tulloch.

- Hi.

- What can you tell us, Steven?

- Well, at first glance,

what we have here

are the remains of a female

aged somewhere between 25

and 35 years of age.

Her skin has been tanned

by the peat, but

from her bone structure

and the shape of her skull

I'm pretty sure

that she's Caucasian.

- What are those markings?

- They look like runes

that have either been carved

or branded into the flesh.

From the position, I say they

couldn't have been self-inflicted.

- You sure about that?

- Sure as I am..

...that she didn't die

of natural causes.

- I had no reception.

Are you okay?

- Did you hear that her heart

was cut out?

Gives me the creeps to think of

her lying downstairs right now.

- What are you doing?

- Dr. Hamilton,

you shouldn't be in here.

- I'm sorry. I, I just..

You do realize

this woman gave birth

shortly before she was murdered?

- This is

a police investigation.

- No, that's okay.

Go on, doctor.

- The uterus contracts..

...between one and three weeks

after delivery

depending on the age

of the mother

the younger the woman,

the faster this happens.

In my opinion,

this woman gave birth

between a week to ten days

before she died.

- You're sure about that?

- Well, if you look here,

you can see that

that she was nursing.

- Is she right?

- Hm, it seems

your talents are wasted

on the living, Dr. Hamilton.

- So, what do we have so far?

- We only know

that the victim's rib cage

was split open

with some kind of blade

and that she died

of a massive hemorrhage

when her heart was cut out.

- Why take the heart?

- Maybe someone was

trying to harvest her organs.

- This was no harvest.

Pulmonary trunk and semi aorta

were both

quite badly hacked out.

Also, there's trauma

on the wrist

the upper arm and the ankle.

Probably from

some kind of restraints.

- So, she was probably still

alive when they did this to her?

- Jesus!

- Oh, these islands were rife

with this sort of thing

way back when the druids,

the Norsemen..

They all performed

ritual sacrifices.

- Do you think she's that old?

I mean, she looks so...

- preserved?

Well, she's a bog body.

Buried in peat.

After death..

...putrefactive bacteria

secretes digestive enzymes

which decompose the body, but..

...sphagnum moss in the peat

chemically reacts with the

enzymes and immobilizes them.

- If you have to guess?

- I found..

...these strawberry seeds

in her stomach.

Wild strawberries haven't grown

around these parts

in over 200 years.

- 200 years that..

...hardly seems possible.

- Google Tollund man.

Dug up some time in the '50s.

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