America is the most violent democracy in the world. It's something that's met with great shock, horror, and mystery when I travel to other countries. They ask, Why are there so many shootings in America? Why does everyone own a gun?

When I was at college there were two things I vowed I'd never do. One was go to a funeral and the other was deal with computers. And then I ended up being a computer programmer in a morgue.

Thoughts are odd misfires.

With DNA, the ability to find out a lot more with a lot less has increased our ability for identification.

The dead have never bothered me. It's the living that I fear.

Grief was like a seizure that shook me like a storm.

When I was in second grade, my mother moved from Miami to this evangelical conservative environment in western North Carolina, two miles down the road from Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth.