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Felbaum Case Testimony

POSTED: 2:59 pm EST March 13, 2001

Editor's note: This story contains graphic testimony.

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According to court documents filed with a district justice in Slippery Rock, police were called to the Felbaum's trailer home in Harrisville, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, on Feb. 25 to investigate a possible drug overdose.

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When paramedics arrived, John Felbaum was vomiting a brown fluid and they saw bloodstains "on the bedding, clothing and medical bandages, all of which were scattered about the room," the court documents said.

John Felbaum later died at a hospital in Grove City, Mercer County. An autopsy by the Mercer County coroner said that he choked on his own vomit -- and showed he had undergone a "very crude" castration some days before his death.

Police said that a search of the trailer home found blood-soaked bandages, bedding and clothing, as well as medical books and surgical equipment, including scalpels, sutures and forceps.

They also said in court documents that they found a signed note from John Felbaum saying that he asked his wife to finish the castration which he had started.

Police said that Tammy Felbaum told them her husband "had initiated a castration on himself but the procedure was not being performed properly. She indicated that the victim asked for her assistance."

A pathologist, Dr. Karl Williams, who examined the body said it was "highly unlikely" John Felbaum performed the procedure on himself.

Williams said that the castration played a role in John Felbaum's death. He said, according to the court documents, that the pain John Felbaum would have experienced -- plus the level of painkilling drugs he had in his body -- would have suppressed his gag reflex, allowing him to choke on his vomit and die of asphyxiation.

Police said that the mobile home "had neither running water or a functioning heat source. There were dead animals and animal feces and urine throughout the residence." Police said there was "an overwhelming stench" throughout the home.

The court documents also said that a man who knew John Felbaum had come to the trailer home two days before his death to ask about buying a van. While in the home, the man told police, he saw John Felbaum in bed and stitches on his genitals.

The man offered to take him to the hospital, but John Felbaum refused, saying that he couldn't afford it, according to the court documents.

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