Comments: (Coroner)

As stated in regional record 331982.2, Master George Lee Steffan, a seventeen-year-old male, was stipulated to be a suicide. The forensics of this case, however, has led the consultant psychologist to restate this death as an accident. The psychologist's statement follows:

Comments: (Forensic Psychologist)

George Lee Steffan was an employee at the Calgary Stampede, an annual celebration held in Calgary, Alberta. Mister Steffan was hired as a groundskeeper. Evidence presented at the coroner's inquest (site: RRs 331982.2) has shown that on the evening of June 22, Mister Steffan was told to place a protective covering over a large muddy area in front of the portable woman's lavatory. With the help of three other groundskeepers, Mister Steffan placed a 3 x 4-meter pine platform of 5cm.thickness on the mud in front of the ladies' portable lavatory. The awkward wooden rectangle required four men to move and place flat in the mud. The wooden platform was unbending. Sometime after sunset (approx. 11 PM), Mister Steffan (from here on referred to as "the deceased") raised the wooden rectangle far enough for him to slide his body well under it. There he lay upon his back spread-eagled so as to keep the platform from appearing tipsy while he lay beneath it. His body was found the following day when the platform was removed. He appeared to have been crushed into the mud. At first, the deceased's actions were deemed a suicide. Upon further examination it is concluded that this death was an accident. It is so concluded for the following reasons: The deceased could have had no reasonable expectation that this action would have cost him his life. A few women walking over the platform would not, under normal circumstances, posed such a threat. But then, what could have been his motivation for placing himself under the wooden platform? It is argued here that the deceased suffered from a rare crush fetish. Those exhibiting a crush fetish desire to be dominated or overpowered by the weight of one or more women. Such men often fantasize of being trampled by many women or of being somehow shrunken by a woman and crushed underfoot. Crush fetishists are almost always men and the fetish appears to have its origins in early childhood, although the mechanisms of its development are poorly understood. The deceased, then, was attempting to achieve sexual satisfaction by placing himself in a situation in which one, two, or even a few women might place their weight upon his body as they walked upon the mud covering to cross to the lavatory. As further evidence of this, it is submitted that the freshly drilled hole in the "platform" was to serve the purpose of a peephole so that the deceased could observe the women approach and walk upon him. This observation is supported by the fact that the rounded edge of the peephole made a deep "cookie-cutter" impression about the deceased's eye socket. The deceased was most likely thrilled to feel himself pressed into the mud (which would symbolize his low status) by the crush of the woman, and to know that they were unaware that he was under their feet (further showing his lowly status in that the women took no more notice of him than if her were an insect). The miscalculation that lead to the death of the deceased is believed to have occurred just after 1 AM when the roundup dance ended. At that time a large number of women left for the lavatories and formed a queue. The deceased was not observed to struggle or make his presence known because he most likely had no opportunity to do so. One can imagine that he had gotten used to women walking over him and then stepping off once they had crossed the cover. Having not considered the possibility of a queue forming in front of the lavatories, it must have seemed strange when one or two women walked onto the "platform" and then came to a halt at about the position of the deceased's head. It is reasonable to assume that the deceased remained quiet so as not to give himself away while waiting for the women to step off of him. But instead, more women stepped onto the "platform" enlarging the queue. In short order he would have been under enough weight to prevent him from breathing, or even perhaps crying out (there was loud music playing at the time, so should he have managed a cry it would most likely have gone unheard). His body would have also been firmly pinned by the time he realized what was happening. A little after 1AM a light rain began to fall and the queue thickened as women gathered on the "platform" to avoid the mud. There may well have been upwards of 20 woman on the "platform" at any given time. Although the deceased was lying in a thin layer of mud, there was hard packed ground beneath that. As each woman added her weight the total apparently grew to well over one ton. The coroner has determined that such a weight is sufficient to crush a man to death and that, in this instance, crushing was the cause of death. It is therefore recommended that this death be reclassified as an accident.

Mr. Ree