Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Pastor, 86, Married 5 Times, Buried 4. Now Suspect In Deaths of First Two Wives!

Episode Date: August 23, 2026

Retired Pastor John Bridges has been married 5 times. His first four wives all died, and police are now investigating the deaths of his first two wives, Joyce Bridges and Astrid Bridges, who died 21 years apart. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the cases and how after decades, these two deaths, that were originally ruled "accidental", are now ruled "homicides". Highlights 00:01.360  Everybody's Got a Story 00:33.800  The Five-Times Married Pastor 02:06.400  The Exhumation Process 04:57.560  Mabel's Mysterious Death in 1972 12:27.400  Astrid's Fatal Fall in 1993 13:35.640  Reopening the Cases After 20 Years 25:12.840  The Role of Water in Forensic Analysis 32:45.840  Investigating Husbands with Multiple Wives 44:25.640  Closing Thoughts and Call for InformationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Body bags with Joseph Scott Moore. Everybody has a story. It goes without saying, or as a friend of mine was offered her to repeat, everybody's got somebody done somebody wrong song story is what he used to say. And we do. We all think that ours trumps the next one. But everybody's story is their own. Today, Brother Dave and I are going to talk about an interesting case or should

I say cases that have popped up on our radar over the past week. And the reason it's interesting is that it involves a fellow who's up in age. And over the course of his 86 years on this earth, he's been married not once, not twice, not three. but five times. Now, four of those wives are deceased. But I'm very interested in two in particular, that now, after many, many years, the police seem to have an interest in as well.

This story will blow your mind. and hey, it even involves an exhumation. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and this is Bodybacks. Dave, I got to tell you, Brother Dave, there's something about, I used to, it's really weird. I'm going to give you a little insight into my crazy mind here. Oh, right? Oh, yeah, I know, right? I would particularly get excited when I was asked to assist in exhumations.

And it's a weird thing. It almost feels like, and I'm talking about from an intellectual, investigative, scientific perspective, kind of felt like Christmas morning to me. And I know that's weird because, you know, Morgan, how in the world? Can you think of it? But just think about this.

You have cause, right? We talk about cause, right? What's the motivation behind thinking this ain't an acting class? You know, what's your motivation? No. Motivation is, you investigators, DA, whoever it is, has come into information that they have presented before a judge. And that judge says, hmm, okay.

Yeah. I'm digging on your vibe here. I see what you're doing. I'm actually going to order an exhumation, which is something they don't like to do. So when I would get involved in these things, I like the process of seeing a grave opened and then having to transport the body. And then this is the weird part. Really? Now we're going to get weird.

None of this before here was. Okay. All right, fine. Let's get weird. Flipping those locks on that cap. basket lid and pushing that thing up and then looking at all the remains before you. And you really wonder, you know, because in the immediate, you can make an assessment about things relative to, has there been any kind of water intrusion? How good a job? Did the mortuary staff do all those years

ago? How were they dressed? So, yeah, I mean, again, you know, I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. of the history guy on YouTube. And he always says, every great story involves a pirate. And in my case, for me, every good story involves a mystery that can be solved through science, Dave.

Okay. Well, this case is going to probably involve a couple more axiications, too, just throwing this out there based on the research I've done of the last few days. This is a story joke that,

Hey, by the way, for those of you who might be fairly new to body bags, Joseph Scott Morgan doesn't get giddy about exhumations because he's freaky. It's because judges really hold tight to may you rest in peace. Okay. And to ex-to-exume somebody, it is a, it really is almost an act of Congress. It's a big deal. And in this particular case, we have a pastor. And I'm going to say this right at the beginning because it needs to be said out loud.

And that is, Jesus did not say, follow my followers. He said, follow me. Right. We're talking about a man who was an elder in the church during his first marriage. And somewhere along the line became a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We don't know where. We just know that in Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, back in 1972, this suspect, we can call him that, John Bridges, he's 86 now, by the way. But back in 1972, he and his first wife, and by the way, her name was Joyce Bridges, but she went by Mabel.

Even in the 70s, Mabel was an old name. It was an old name. I was shocked to see that this was not her given name. It was Mabel. We'll call her that instead of Joyce. Yeah. Had something. But anyway.

Now, Joyce is 33 years old. Mabel is 33 years old. And according to John Bridges, he comes home and finds her unconscious. He doesn't call the police. He doesn't call fire arrest. He didn't call anybody. He just puts her in the car and takes her to the hospital. where she's pronounced dead.

This is in 1972. He is an elder in the church. And one thing I was able to look at was because there was no clarification on how she died, Joe. There's no police report. There's no EMS report. There's no nothing. There's just a guy got home, found his wife unconscious, and took her to the hospital, and she was dead. John Bridges was an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

there in Louisville, Kentucky at the time. And his wife worked with him on church things. And it was actually in a church newsletter where I found the only inkling of what happened, where they mentioned that Mabel did a lot of church work with her elder. He was an elder in the church, then John, and that she had an accident. A tragic accident happened, and she's no longer with us. That's his first wife. I don't remember, I mean, I,

1977, I mean, I remember the day and time all that, but you know what I mean? I don't remember what it was like for EMS back then. I remember the television show Emergency with Kevin Ty and Randolph Mantooz and Dixie at the hospital. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, that was a great show, but I don't remember, I don't know if that happened like in Louisville, Kentucky. If they had paramedics standing by at the ready where everybody knew you have a problem, you call them. You want to hear something very interesting here? Yes.

Do you know who many ambulance services back then were run by? No idea. Funeral homes. Oh, wow. Funeral homes. You know that and just think, no, think about it, brother. I'm just thinking, got a funeral home that's kind of in financial difficulty, and they go to pick up a guy in an ambulance, he just broke his leg.

All things to all people. That's a pretty bad break, you know. Well, I listen. Don't go to the hospital. Go ahead and take into the funeral home. We'll take care of the rest. Well, hey, you'd be really surprised the utility that funeral homes have. And think about, you know, back in the day, you know, back in the 60s, what did those ambulances look like?

Station wagon horses? It did. I think it's the same frame, right? Yeah. I had a buddy mine in college that had. I think Ghostbusters. Yeah, like Ghostbusters. And it was not in common.

to find those vehicles that were out there being used. I got another story for you about funeral homes relative to this. Years ago, the coroner in Clayton County, Georgia, got hooked up on federal charges because he not only had, he was a funeral director that was the coroner for Clayton. And if you don't know Clayton County, George, it's a big county. Densely populated. It's where the airport is. It's where the Atlanta airport is.

South of Atlanta then. Yes, south of Atlanta. So not only did he have a funeral home business and he was the local coroner, my man had a non-emergency medical transport system that got paid from the feds to take patients like to their appointments. And there was some funny business going on with the books relative to, you know, getting like Medicare, Medicaid money, you know, for this. Sure. So you think about a funeral home back then or an emergency system. How was it set up?

You know, the 9-11 system was still years away. By the way, interesting fact, I think the first 9-11 call ever placed was in the state of Alabama. I think I've heard that before. But that system was not in place yet. And so you had... So is it normal for people to just load up somebody that was unconscious and take them to the hospital? Look, look, brother, it still happens today. Well, you can have two things that will happen.

You can have events where you'll have a ramp, what they refer to as a ramp dump, where somebody's involved in something they shouldn't be involved in, and somebody goes unconscious. or they get traumatized, you'll have somebody to pull up in a car and just open the door and, you know, push them out. At least they went to the hospital. Then you'll have civilians that show up and they'll say, my mother's having trouble breathing, she's got chest pains, this sort of thing.

She's in the car and, you know, you go running out. Then you have cops. You have cops that they'll just start somebody because they know time is of the essence. And they're going to blast off like that. So I find it interesting in this particular case. case, he transports her to the hospital. Right. But in the newsletter, repeat what you said, brother.

They said it was a tragic. It was, well, I think in the church newsletter, when they were talking about her passing, I think the tragic part was that she was an active member of their church and was married to an elder in the church. I think that's what they meant by tragic, that there was an accident, a fatal accident. That's how it alluded to an accident. But that's it. And that's in a church newsletter.

I mean, she could have been sick from the flu. And it was, you know, I mean, it could have been any number of things. They just happened to call it an accident. And that actually plays into the next part of the story. Because, see, I couldn't find anything on, on Mabel Bridges. Again, you got a 33-year-old woman in 1972 who, Joe, you just don't expect somebody that young to die. Now, I don't know if it was different that long ago. but in this particular case, that happened on July 5th, 1972, okay?

Gotcha. Now, I want you to fast forward almost to the day to 1993. Okay? You with me? I'm with you, brother. 21 years later on July 2nd, 1993. Astrid Bridges, 45 years old, in Gresham, Oregon. She is the second wife of John Bridges,

who is now working as a pastor in the church in Gresham, Oregon, which is outside of Portland. In this case, she reportedly fell from a ladder. John found her and took her inside. He wasn't home when it happened, apparently. But he found her, took her inside, and in that case, they did call police, but she was dead at 45, and they just ruled it as an accident, Joe. Now, if there was any suspicion, they overcame it fairly quickly. There was no real investigation.

By the way, this is coming from neighbors and historical significance that it's been how many years since 1993, you know? And we're talking about this today because the case just got opened up. So I think the neighbor was right. There was not a lot of investigation done in 1993 with regard to Astrid Bridges. Now, I wrote this down because I wanted to make sure that I was specific on this, okay? She died after reportedly falling from a ladder outside the couple's home first ruled the death an accident. Grash and Morgan police have now reclassified the death as a high. homicide. This isn't happening right now, Joe. Here we are in August of 2026. This happened in July of 93.

And hers has been classified homicide. But Joe, pull back the way back machine. Because Mabel died in 1972, no investigation, no police reports, no EMS, no nothing, just taking the hospital by her husband where she was declared dead. Something happened in 2015. And police in Louisville, Kentucky, they got some information. And it wasn't, they won't tell us what it is, but Joseph Scott Morgan, the information that the Louisville Police Department got about the death of Mabel Bridges in 1972. By 2015, it was enough for a judge to rule, open it up.

We're going to have to take a second look at Mabel and see what happened. And you know what they did, Joe? They got her body out of the ground. How many years is that? From 2015 to 72, you're talking about 28 and 15. So 38, 43 years. 43 years, Mabel Bridges was in the ground. And they get a tip and they go and exume her body.

And they change the ruling from accidental death, to homicide. Joseph Scott Morgan, you're going to prove to all of us why you are the greatest in your profession, why you were called the professor, because this makes no sense to me, and I need you,

we need some spawning if you can handle it. Well, I'll try to spain as best I can't, but before I do that, I got to tell you, what we're looking at right here are two cases, I'm not going to say seemingly innocuous, but when you see them on their surface and you think about there was something that made them rule these cases as an accidental

to begin with, what force of nature is out there that would compel them to change that ruling to homicide? The new Red Bull Drag. Dragonberry and tropic berry energizers now at McDonald's. Made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor. The all-new Red Bull Energizers. Now at McDonald's.

This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details of McDonald's.C.A. at participating Canadian restaurants excluding Quebec. Exhumations are curious things. First off, it draws a crowd. I don't know. I think that in every exhumation I've ever been involved in, there were at least more than 10 people standing around.

And that's a minimum, okay, because you've got the workers. Because you're going to have to, if there's a slab on the ground, like a concrete slab, that's got to come up. Then you have to dig the backfill out, okay? and get down to the actual concrete crypt that's under the, under the ground and, you know, has the lid on it, you know, that's been inserted. And then, of course, the casketed body goes inside of that. So they have to lift that up.

Because do they all have cement? Do they, do they all have that? Or is it where they, is there a, is there a part where they would just take the casket and put the casket in the dirt? Or is there always going to be? No, those cases have, have happened over the years. We're actually

cycling back to that now. Right. Because of there's this new move of foot where people are not getting embalmed and they do biodegradable containers. I mean, they're caskets,

but they have a different feeling. So the body literally goes back into the earth. And there's no preservative, you know. And so And years ago, they had that same. I've actually had, I was trying to reflect. I actually had a case where we pull back the top of the earth.

And the casket was in the ground and was collapsed. And it was covered with chicken wire, which I was fascinated by. I know. And so you had bits of chicken wire everywhere. It's just, it's super bizarre. I don't. Okay. I didn't mean to derail that.

I just was kind of curious because I know that. You never know what you're going to get. Yeah. And so, but I do know that, you know, legitimate graveyards, they do actually keep a grid pattern. They know where everybody is and how deep and all that. They keep records of all that. Not because you're planning on exhuming the body later, but there has to be proof. If somebody did have to challenge, they got to be able to find it.

So, yeah, they do. Interesting that you've had to do that. And there, I wonder why they had some of people standing around, for real. I've seen the pictures. Yeah. Every single time there's in South Carolina. Yeah, it will draw a crowd for whatever reason. The workers obviously are there and they have a specific purpose.

You can have law enforcement there. And they would have to be there, right? Wouldn't police have? Yeah. And it's kind of interesting. I've seen images. It sounds horribly self-centered, but I've seen images of myself at exhumations where I'm, I'm captured in the image as we're working to get the thing out of the ground. and kind of guiding it along to get it on, you know, to convey it and do all that stuff.

And then going back, if you've got a grave that's collapsed in any way, there's elements that you want to try to collect. And it does draw a crowd. And trust me, many times there's non-essential personnel that are there. Right. You know, a looky-lose, you hear me use that term a lot that I robbed from my northern friends. And I love the term because it just really, you know, You know, it's like rubberneckers, you know, at, you know, going down the highway in an accident. You have looky-loos that are at crime scenes.

You'll have them at exhumations like this, too. But, yeah, so that's a long time. I mean, you're talking about 1972 where someone is placed in the ground. And, you know, the big thing here is to try to understand, you know, what in the world could they have been looking for? and how intact, I think, that would be a big question. How intact could her remains be? That's the big question I have for you, Joe. I was looking at that.

And again, you're talking over 40 years. Yeah. And, you know, I think you're the one that told me about when they involve, like Lee Harvey Oswald and, you know, people that are involved in huge famous crimes like that, that great care has taken. And I wonder what type of care is taken on a 33-year-old woman who, dies without any investigation by police or anything. Nothing. I mean, it's just sad that she's gone. Let's take care of. And what kind of would there be any soft tissue? What could there be left that

would allow the examiner to determine that her cause of death was now homicide, 43 years after she was buried without any concern for homicide? My knee shirt. Thank you, brother. You're right. That was my sign, man. I got it. My knee jerk is going to be going to the throat. First off, again, I'm going back to the great mystery of Mabel's death. By the way, I dig that name.

I like Mabel. I like that term. I like that name. When you get into the body, I think that this is probably going to have to involve the bony structure. That's what I think. The big mystery with her, though, is that her case was, in fact, actually ruled as an accidental death. So I find it hard to believe in today's, in context of today, okay, that anyone would be buried without having had an autopsy perform where the cause of death or the manner of death has, in fact, been.

ruled as an accident, I would want to look at the original death certificate because, yeah, you can put accident on there all you want, but you have to have causal connection here like the primary. Like, what's, what are you looking at here to call this an accidental death? Because it's more than just like the investigation by the police, okay? Right. Follow me here. because if you're calling this an accidental death, guess who gets involved in this? Insurance companies.

And insurance companies don't like to pay out. You know, welcome to the real world, all right? Like a good neighbor. Yeah. You know, dig into it. You know, and so if they're going to have to, if this is an accidental death and she had life insurance, okay? Okay. First off, I would want to go back in time if that's even possible.

possible to try to determine if this individual, the husband, received a payout from this. Because I can tell you, I've worked with enough insurance companies and spoken with them and their investigators, their adjusters, and they'll take autopsy reports and they'll say, what does this mean? Explain this to me so that I can understand it. How did you rule this as an accident? And is there any other connective tissue here that could make it something other than an accident. Because, you know, they're a business. They don't want to pay out. They want to get the premiums, but they don't want to pay out. So if her death is ruled as an accident, Brother Dave, I got questions about how was there not an autopsy performed because she's very young. I mean,

what did you say? She's 35. 33. 33. My Lord. Yeah. And we know that she just didn't fall over dead, you know, and that be ruled as an accident. There has to be some kind of contributing force. So when they get in here, and I'm glad that you brought this up, yeah, there would still, there would be something. Okay. Now, I can't really address to what degree it would be there. Water is going to play a huge role in this case. So wherever she's buried, you have to understand the movement of water. You know, Louisville is, it's not up in the mountains, okay?

Louisville is like near, what is it, the Ohio River or whatever, they get flooding in that area. So where's your, where's your cemetery or graveyard, where she has been laid to rest? How many major floods have occurred over this period, Tom? Is there intrusion into the casketed remains?

that has affected it because you can have a body inside of a casket, Dave, and the body will rise and fall with water intrusion into the casket. And the lid will never pop off. They'll just go up and down. Oh, my goodness. They might lay in there and float until the water eventually drains out. Isn't that kind of disgusting, you know, to think about that? I kind of think about that happening in around New Orleans, you know.

Well, yeah, that's why we bury our dead above ground. But even, you know, if you look at Katrina. right? There's not enough mausoleums to, you could have one that's way, way up in the air, you're going to get water, okay? And not to mention the harsh conditions with all of that, but back to this case, was she floating in there? And what else was left? Because water is one the most destructive forces on the face of planet. I don't have to tell anybody that. And it's not just rushing water, it's the exposure to an aquatic environment. So that would, be a big question for me. So what could be left? The upside is, is if she's casketed and also inside of

a crypt that's in the ground, you've got containment. So you pointed to your throat. I got to ask you, what element of the throat are you thinking of? The Hioi bone, that little bone that we talk about every time there's any kind of strangling. That's a hanging curveball, man. You lost it. Because I'm looking at this, And I'm thinking, okay, but you know what? There's something that really gets me because look, man, after 43 years to exhum this body, again, a very big deal. And even bigger when you come up with, well, yeah, we're going to change this ruling, you know, from accident to homicide now. 43 years after the fact, we're calling it a homicide. Yeah.

But Joe, they did not, and I mean this, even though they changed the cause of death. Manner. Yeah. Even though they changed manner of death from accident to homicide, Joe, they did not immediately open up an investigation. That didn't happen until a few weeks ago. They just now got around to investigating this as a homicide. And so police have not said what tip they got that caused them to be able to go in front of a judge and exhumed this body. And think about it.

You have a pastor by 20. I mean, again, 11 years ago. That's how long it's been since they exhumed the body. And they've just now started the homicide investigation. It was ruled a homicide 11 years ago. They won't tell us the tip, but I'm guessing what it is, Joe. What's that, brother? Somebody called it the police.

Lisa said, hey, I always worried about my aunt, my cousin, my sister. When she died, she was 33, and I never liked her husband. But you know what? His second wife died almost 20 years to the day, 21 years to the after. And I think there's something to it. And maybe that was enough. Yeah, just so I have had this right in my mind. Yeah. We might not be dealing. here with merely physical findings on the remains. These could be confirmatory findings based upon circumstantial information. The police have, or I guess it's circumstantial information they've come into by somebody dropping a dime on somebody and saying, hey, you know what?

I've got to tell you something. You know, this has never felt right to me. Right. You know, maybe they've come into the knowledge. Suddenly, you lose a loved one. And I think a lot of our friends can identify with this. You lose that loved one that has meant so much to you throughout your life. That's kind of a watershed moment in your life.

It is for me, I know. And then you move on with your life from that. Okay, you don't necessarily, you might go back and you'll grieve and you'll think about it. But all the other principles that you were connected to, say, per your loved one, maybe you're a nephew or a niece, maybe a sister or whatever, you lose track of that person. They that are connected to them, maybe by marriage, move on with their lives. Sometimes they move on all the way to Oregon. New Red Bull, Dragonberry and Tropicberry Energizers now at McDonald's,

made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor. the all-new Red Bull Energizers. Now at McDonald's. This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details of McDonald's.cai at participating Canadian restaurants, excluding Quebec. Dave Mack, I was thinking about what else could they have found with Maple. And for me, I'm thinking, well, if there was some kind of agent that was used, some kind of poison,

I don't know unless it's some kind of heavy metal that might have set in the hair or the nail beds. I don't know back in 72. Also, here's another complicating factor. You know, the formula for embalming has changed. Oh. No, I didn't know that. Yeah.

There were some really toxic things that were utilized. And I can't remember when that change took over. Yeah. So even if you've got some kind of poisoning agent, which I know, you know, because our friends are pretty bright folks that follow our show. Yeah. They're thinking, they're probably thinking about this as well, as well, you should. Would there be any evidence of that?

You know, could we, because there's not going to be any blood. You know, you're not going to be able to do a blood draw. This is good. That would rely solely on tissue examination. Would there be any hair? Would there be any hair? Yeah. Yeah.

You'd be surprised in a post-morm state how resilient hair is. Okay. It will hang around long after. I was actually involved in the exhumation of a lady that was born in antebellum times. And I think the 1850s and Dave, when we got her body out of the ground, she was 18 years old and she had black hair that was this long, still braided. Wow.

And I'm talking about Raven Black. Right. And had a comb, a decorative comb in her hair made out of whale bone. And you could still see every inch of her hair. And she died in the 1850s. Isn't that something? Wow. Well, in this case where we're dealing with, as you're talking about with Mabel, having passed away in 1972, taken to the hospital by her husband, no investigation, no nothing. Time goes by. In 2015, police get some type of a tip that makes them go in front of a job. judge exhumed the body and find out, nope, this was not an accident. This is a homicide. But no investigation from there. Then you go back to, and I believe this was the part that got it. Now, remember here, John Bridges, you said this at the beginning of the show. John Bridges has been married five times. Four of his wives are dead. He is currently married to his fifth wife and they live in Missouri. You know why I know that? Please.

Because they went and visited John at 86 years old. And they being the Gresham, Oregon police, they're the ones that got everything really moving forward now. And they're the ones that are investigating Astrid Bridges, the second wife's death in 93. One of the neighbors that still lives there, Joe, on the same street in Gresham, Oregon. She didn't give her name, but she lived there in the early 80s all through the time when the bridges moved in. and after the passing of Astrid. And the rumor in the neighborhood was that John Bridges' first wife died by drowning in the bathtub. That was the rumor running around the neighborhood.

But there was, amongst the neighbors and those who knew John and Astrid, there was concern that her death was not an accident. It just didn't seem right that she could be working on a ladder outside on her own and fall and that John would be the one to find her and bring her inside. It just didn't make sense. Yeah. But there wasn't enough there for them to go on. So when an investigation stops, okay, you know, they've ruled, she passed, it was an accident,

she's in the ground. What does it really take to start an investigation years later? Because in both of these cases, you know, it was 43 years in the case of Joel, you know, in 2015 when they exhumed her body. But then it laid there again, after all that time, changing the cause of the manner of death to homicide, and then nothing? Well, they just reopened that case,

and it came at the same time as Astrid Bridges. Both of these cases are back in the news at the same time. And I believe they're feeding on one another, Joe. And I'm glad, you know, nothing hidden won't be revealed. And I believe that as the investigators in Oregon, it was just sitting there on their head going something's not right. And I think family or friends, somebody was picking out of the phone, somebody in the church maybe. Somebody not happy about a pastor having five wives and four of them being dead.

Boy, I mean, what an anomalous thing. You know, it's amazing to me when I do genealogy and I'll see, you know, my ancestors that were married three and four times. And when you look back at the rolls, you'll see that, Many times the spouses died of some kind of horrible disease. But that was back during that time with that medicine they had. To have, you know, it's almost like women dying in childbirth that happened a lot back then. You don't hear about it now. I mean, it does happen.

Yep. It can be wrong. It does. But with as great frequencies that have in the past, you've got, yeah, thank good. You've got four dead now. Yeah. That's going to raise, that's going to raise suspicions. And I agree.

I think that it is feeding off of this. And when we think about Astrid, you know, they're talking about her, her death being ruled an accidental death. Okay. So, and we're talking blunt force trauma here. Is it the accident was falling from a ladder? How hard and how high do you have to fall to die after falling off a ladder, Joe? I have had people that have fallen from,

I had one guy that fell and broke his neck that was cleaning his gutters. Oh, man. Yeah. But he hit on a concrete surface as he was falling back. I've had several cases of people falling off roofs, single story structures. But I've had people that have survived falling from three stories. Everything, this is when it comes to falls, this is, these are some of the elements that come into play. first off, what's the impact surface? Because, you know, hitting on a patch of St. Augustine or centipede grass

ain't the same as hitting on a concrete sidewalk or an asphalt driveway, all right? And I think that we can both agree on that. So the impact surface is going to come into play. And also, the physical attitude of the individual as they're falling through space, what exposed areas do you have? I mean, just think about it. How many times have you and I been walking along and we slip, right? You slip and you don't, you know, your arms or all akimbo and you don't know where you're going to wind up. At any moment time, you say, you know, Jesus take the wheel, you know, because you don't know where you're going to wind up, dude. And so if you're falling through space, it's not like you've, your precision diver off of a dive board.

right. Some people land on their feet. They're like cats. You know, some people land on their shoulders. Some people land on, you know, hit impact on their ribs as their arm is raised and they wind up dying of a flail chest because their lung gets punctured. So you never can't tell. Here's the thing, though. 1993, you know, there's a state, let me get this straight. This was in Oregon. State of Oregon, if I'm not mistaken, they have a state medical exam. examiner's office. There, as a matter of fact, I don't think that they're any longer a coroner state. If you, and she's relatively young as well. She's in her 40s. Am I correct? Yeah, she's 43. Yeah, she's 43. 10 years older than the first wife, right? But still very young. Actually, it's funny when you look at it this way, Joe. Yeah. In 1972, Joyce, the first wife was

33 when she died. Yeah. 20 years later, John Bridges married to a woman. woman who is 10 years younger than his first wife. And she's 10 years older when she dies at 43. Both happened the first week of July and separated by 21 years, 72 to 93. Holy smart. Whereas in the first case of Joyce, you know, we did have the, the exhumation where a tip. And again, they won't tell us who, what, when, where with the tip.

Just we got a tip. Had to be a pretty strong tip to go in front of a judge and the judge say dig her up. In Astrid's case, they didn't happen, Joe. In the case of Astrid Bridges, they opened up the case and looked at what they had. And based on the evidence they had and follow-up interviews, investigators dug in and it got reclassified, how difficult is that to go from an accidental death to a homicide without reexamining the body? Well, and here's what I'm interested in. And what I was saying, the state, because she's so young, she's 43, she falls off. a ladder or that's what's being alleged.

I don't see any circumstance, certainly in my universe, where I'm signing that body out and the body's not going to be examined by a forensic pathologist. Okay. Because understand, it's not just homicides that we do. We do all five manners. We'll roll in because particularly with a trauma case, you're not going to get there. Do you know that if she had a private physician, okay? all right and the private physician let's just say she went to go get her heart medication

refilled every time and she's getting six-month checkup right did you know if it's a trauma relay death private physician cannot sign the death certificate no i didn't know that yeah i assume they could no it'll be rejected immediately the state will reject it if you're not a coroner or a medical examiner um private physician cannot sign the death certificate and I think that that's pretty uniformed all over the country. And it makes sense, right? If you're treating, and most people die of natural disease. The reason I know this is that part of our job at the medical examiner's office is trying

to coax a private physician to sign a death certificate, it's amazing how many want, even though they send patients home with sacks and sacks of medications. I have no idea. I wasn't there when they died. I can't sign the debt. You weren't there when they were born either, but you're treating them now, aren't you? And so a private physician can't sign a trauma-related death certificate. So this body had to have been viewed by the medical examiner at some point in time.

I'm hoping they did an autopsy at that particular time. And when you say this ruling has been changed, this is very important because the medical examiner would have to be involved in this now. Because they would have to go to the medical examiner and say, hey, Cous, let me show you what we got. All right. They would have to compel or they can't necessarily compel. They would suggest, all right.

Okay. Probably need to look at this. This needs to be reclassified as a homicide. They've come into other information, but they haven't exhumed her body, though, have they? No, the medical examiner's office, they reinvestigated the case. and it was the medical examiner's office based on all of the information they collected and they reclassified her death as a homicide. The change in that from accidental to homicide, of course, has reopened the case.

And that's what has led to this, the reason we're doing the story now is because it was Astrid's case in Grashe, Morgan that led the investigators to John Bridges' home. with his first his fifth wife now in Missouri at 86 years old he's a retired preacher married and they went and interviewed him interviewed his fifth wife and by the way the Gresham oregon officers Joe showed up with a search warrant now I'm going to guess they were getting everything from DNA to whatever but something's afoot here and there are rumors about wives three and four I do not know we don't play the rumor game. I'm just telling you that if you see information about numbers three and four, there is nothing confirmed. These two cases of wife number one and wife number two,

and if you're a family member, please understand I'm not being disrespectful. I'm just trying to keep things in their proper order. But you've got Joyce who went by Mabel and Astrid, two women who were very young when they died, both ruled accidental, both changed to homicide. And here we sit, Joe. Both cases are active. And by the way, the Louisville Police Department is asking for help. They're asking the community. Since 1972.

Wow. Yes. And think about that, Joe, because at 72, she dies, 2015, and they'd get her body up. And then is now, in the last few weeks, then now they're investigating it as a homicide. Something has happened. I'm wondering if it's a possibility that Astrid is going to be exhumed. I mean, the ME has already changed it. So, wow, what, because I can't imagine in any universe where the medical examiner just of their own volition says,

I'm going to change this without having the police come and visit them. Because the ME is, they've moved so far on down the line from a 1993 case. They're handling cases right now. And something has come to them that has, this is a. a huge change for a medical examiner to decide to do this. I mean, it's, it's pretty amazing, you know, when you think about it. And we still don't know, correct me, we still don't know the names of the other two deceased wives at this point in time. Don't have them confirmed yet. However, I do know that one of the wives he was with was in Arkansas. In Arkansas, yeah,

he had made a pastoral stop in Arkansas. I think he had a church there. He did. And I think he had two churches in Arkansas, but I know he had one. But that's the thing we're trying to get. I'm still working on this case. We wanted to come on with it now because it is happening now and they're asking for help. And so from the standpoint of if you, somebody you know and your family lived around Louisville back in the early 70s and knew or was a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church or if you were in Gresham, Oregon in the early 90s, you got to the help, man. you know, there's information out here. These are, these homicides have been far too long overlooked.

Yeah, they, they really have and they are homicides. Now, look, I don't know if John Bridges had anything to do with this. Nobody has been arrested. He has been, but he has been named a suspect. He has been named the suspect in the death of Astrid, not in Joyce. So we've got that hanging out there. Trust me. Please believe me.

If you hear, you don't believe it. You don't believe anything else I've said today. There's so much work going on behind the scenes right now that we can't even begin to calculate it, all right? Because you've got Louisville in play. You've got Oregon in play. And I bet you dollars to donuts that folks in Arkansas have felt the heat being turned up on them. They're going to be doing a deep dive in that corner state of Arkansas. and they're going to be going back and looking at records there

and see if there was anything else that was suspicious. I got to tell you, Brother Dave, this is certainly an intriguing cluster of deaths here. And for our part, we're going to continue to probe into this and keep an eye on it and see which way the proverbial wind might be blowing. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and this is Bodybacks. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.