The Viper

S. Derlick: Please state your full name and address.

B. Lanka: Bruno Lanka, 39 Carrack Avenue, Garville, New York.

S. Derlick: What brought you to this area?

B. Lanka: Deer season. I’m a hunter.

S. Derlick: Did you have permission to hunt on this property?

B. Lanka: I thought it was state land.

S. Derlick: Where did you enter the woods?

B. Lanka: Mile or so down the road.

S. Derlick: What time was that?

B. Lanka: A little before six this morning. Dawn’s good for deer. Dawn and dusk.

S. Derlick: Did you remain in one spot, or did you move around?

B. Lanka: I like to move around.

S. Derlick: Did you see any property boundary markers?

B. Lanka: No.

S. Derlick: Any reason you came in this direction from the parking area?

B. Lanka: This way was uphill. When I start out, I like to head uphill. So when I’m tired, or dragging out a carcass, it’s downhill to the car.

S. Derlick: What drew your attention to the buried body?

B. Lanka: The back of the foot, the heel. It was sticking up out of the dirt.

S. Derlick: What did you do when you saw the heel?

B. Lanka: I went over to look closer. I’m thinking it was just the back of a boot. Then I’m thinking why the fuck would somebody bury a boot? I kick away some of the dirt. I see there’s a foot in the boot. I kick away more dirt, the foot’s attached to a leg. Then there’s the stink. Could make you sick, that stink. That’s when I think holy shit, what the fuck is this? And I call 911.

S. Derlick: Apart from kicking dirt away from the victim’s foot, did you disturb the scene in any other way?’

B. Lanka: No, nothing like that.

S. Derlick: Did you see anyone else in the area?

B. Lanka: No.

S. Derlick: Is there anything else you can tell us? Anything that seemed odd. Anything else that got your attention.

B. Lanka: Nothing else.

S. Derlick: Thank you, Mr. Lanka. An officer will drive you back to your car.

Gurney thought of at least one additional question he would have asked: Of all the deer hunting locations in upstate New York, Mr. Lanka, what was it that brought you to that particular spot?

He returned to the list and found the two items involving the medical examiner, Dr. Kermit Loeffler. He began with the transcript of Loeffler’s recorded observations of the body in situ.