A needle couldn’t be dropped at the presentation of professor dr. Michael Tsokos forensic expert, medical director and celebrated true crime writer at the Pécs Medical School Aula on April 13. He was the invited speaker at the Motivational Speech organised by the English-German Student Council. Participants could learn about forensics through chilling crimes, acts of terrorism, war crimes, natural disasters and weird life events worthy of a crime novel during the 90-minute presentation, and also get to know the writing career and personal philosophy of dr. Tsokos.
written by Viktor Harta
- Objectivity is a cornerstone and an essential prerequisite of forensic medicine – said Michael Tsokos in the introduction of his presentation: during his career, he encountered unsettling acts of crime and the destruction of war and terrorism, but also weird cases that experts in the field find quite interesting.
However, remaining objective even knowing everything there is to know in the field is sometimes really difficult. Dr. Tsokos used a double child murder in Germany in 2015 as an example, which stirred up the general public quite a lot: a then 32 years old man, S. Silvio kidnapped, sexually abused and then murdered two immigrant children, age 4 and 6. The body of 4 year old Mohamed was found in the man’s car, and the 6 year old Elias, who disappeared months before, was buried in a garden. The body of Elias was exhumed by Tsokos and the police; he conducted the necessary examinations to explore the circumstances of death afterward. As he said, he had a son of the victim’s age at that time, and he inevitably thought of his own child during the case.
The many photos used in Tsokos’s presentation allowed a case-by-case demonstration of forensic medicine. He was not only called for cases of criminal nature or suspicious circumstances. He worked on the identification of the Srebrenica massacre in 1998, and took part in the exhumation of mass graves in Kosovo in 1999. After the intense earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Southeast Asia and East Africa in 2004, he worked on identifying victims with his team in Phuket, in hellish circumstances. After the 2016 terror attacks claiming over 40 lives in Istanbul and later Berlin, he worked on examining the victims of both attacks.
He talked about twists and turns worthy of a crime novel when it came to a case in Kazakhstan, where he was investigating a serial killing with a potential political thread. In 2017, he examined the body of Jean-Marie Benoît Balla catholic bishop at the request of Interpol in Cameroon, to exclude the possibility of murder, pointing out the deficiencies of previous examinations in the process.
Dr. Michael Tsokos talked about his career as an author as well. As it is known, the professor is also a successful author; he has published several volumes of non-fiction, thrillers and crime stories, sometimes in collaboration with other authors or experts. These days he is a celebrated member of the true crime genre, especially loved by medical students. Several of his books became bestsellers in Germany; his podcast series titled Die Zeichen des Todes (The signs of death) is also widely known and liked.
Tsokos emphasized – with examples to prove – that based on his experience, there is no chilling fiction that could not be surpassed by real life in its weird and random way.
At the end of the 90-minutes presentation, he shared his own life philosophy with the listeners. As he said, it is important to live with open eyes and an open mind, to recognise chances that could shape our lives at the foundation. It is important to not be afraid of the new and of change, to be brave enough to start new things and to strive for synergy. The most important thing, however, is to dedicate our lives to what moves us and fills us with passion – this will allow us to enjoy every minute of our work, taking everything life throws our way as a challenge.
Photographs taken at dr. Michael Tsokos’s presentations were taken by Dávid Verébi.
