Brief Bio:

 

I am currently a graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh's Library & Information Sciences program and am working towards a specialization in Archives & Records Management.  I also did my undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where I earned a BA in Art History, a minor in Italian and a certificate in West European Studies.  I have been employed at the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center since January of 2006.  Originally, I worked on the CONSOL mine project, which involed organizing and databasing a collection that consists of well over 4000 mine maps, blueprints, and other documents related to western Pennsylvania mines.  I began working on the Coroner Case File Project in June of 2007, but took a large portion of the summer off to plan my wedding.  I'm now back in the swing of things and happy to be working on this project with a great group of people!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working Notes:

 

As this project progresses, I've taken an interest in the more unusual deaths that occasionally pop up.  The file that sticks with me the most is of a man who purportedly died by falling on a set of railroad tracks; the death was ruled accidental.  This file was accompanied with a photograph that showed the man as he was found.  From the neck down, he was laying on one side of the track.  His head, however, was about a foot away on the other side.  His body was laying face down with its arms at its sides and legs together, giving it a very staged appearance; his hat was even still sitting atop his head.  I have a hard time believing that a living man who was run over by a high-speed locomotive would be it such a position.  Could it have been that this man was killed and posed in this way?  Was he already dead when the train ran over him?  Only speculations can be made at this point, but this case has helped me maintain a fair degree of skepticism when reading over causes of death. ~ JN, 8 Sept 2007