Silent Witness

A Forensic Investigation of Terri Schiav

By: Mark Fuhrman

Narrated by: John Hinch

We all watched Terri Schiavo die.The controversy around her case dominated the headlines and talk shows, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House and the Vatican.

And it's not over yet. Despite her death, the controversy lingers.In Silent Witness, Mark Fuhrman applies his crack detective skills to examine the medical evidence, legal, and police records. He conducts exclusive interviews with forensics experts and crucial witnesses, including friends, family members and care-givers.

Fuhrman will answer these questions:

• What was Terri and Michael Schiavo's marriage really like?
• What happened the day Terri collapsed?
• What did Michael Schiavo do when he discovered Terri unconscious? How long did he wait before calling 911?
• What do medical records show about her condition when she was first admitted to the hospital?

Fuhrman has complete cooperation of Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings, as well as their medical and legal advisors.

The legal issues and ethical questions provoked by Terri Schiavo's extraordinary case may never be resolved. But the facts about her marriage, her condition when she collapsed, and her eventual death fifteen years later, can be determined.

With Silent Witness, Mark Fuhrman will go beyond the legal aspects of the case and delve into the broader, human background of Terri Schiavo's short, sad life.

Read by John Hinch

Surprisingly Balanced

Given Fuhrman's association with Fox news, I expected this book to push a conservative point of view, and maybe even a religious point of view. Instead, we get a very balanced, logical account of events, reflecting Fuhrman's career as a homicide investigator, with a focus much more on how Terri ended up brain damaged, and very little on the right-to-life/right-to-die debate. For many people, attacks directed at her husband were seen as merely a means to an end, to keep Terri alive. This book shows that there was much more to the controversy.

On the other hand, the book was clearly rushed to print, and could use a heavy dose of editing. I found this difficult to understand. If the publisher just waited a couple of weeks, the book could include information from the autopsy (even though this information had little relevence to Fuhrman's argument), or gleaned some information from the investigation going on in Florida.

So I give this book a marginal thumbs up, but I expect better books will be written about this subject in the near future.

Very detailed account of the Terri Svhiavo case

Having lived in Florida during the 15 years the Terri Schiavo saga unfolded, it was a story that resonated with almost everyone. Mark Fuhrman goes into exhaustive detail at times about the medical issues that may have occurred which caused her condition. He does an excellent job bringing the reader into the mind of the detective. What is lacking is Fuhrman's personal involvement in the case itself. "Murder in Brentwood" was a success because Fuhrman was part of that story. As good as this book is in bringing new facts to light, it does suffer by his personal absence.

A Case Not Suited for Analysis

I have read his books previously and have found them interesting. But I found this book disappointing. His other books have had forensic evidence which could be studied and a police investigation which could be analyzed, but this case lacked both. And I disagreed with so much of the "evidence" being based on doctors' notes as to the time of the events - it is evident to me that the various doctors just wrote the course of the event generally without any consideration that one day it would be used to prove malicious intent or deception. I would skip this book.

Sad For Terri!

This book really explained the case. Sometimes there are no answers, but I was happy to have the insight.

Full disclosure

Mark Furhman gives a well researched view of a daughter caught up in a self-described, unhappy marriage that ends in tragedy. The details of living on after communication skills are lost are thought provoking. As a society, we should strive to be better overseers so that a person does not suffer at the hands of a partner who is not equipped with compassion for invalids. Being cut off from parents who wanted to lovingly embrace their daughter was the most difficult truth found in this book.