THE ASSASSINATION OF KING TUT – Discovery Channel

King Tutankhamun died at the age of 18 over 3,000 years ago – he was hastily mummified and buried. Why?

For over two years, two of America’s top criminologists criss-crossed the globe in the first-ever criminal inquiry into Tutankhamun’s death. As part of their investigation, pioneering computerized reconstruction techniques were used to create the most forensically-correct interpretation ever of what Tut’s face might have looked like — a visage much different than the image personified in his famous golden death mask. At the conclusion of their investigation, the detectives believe they have enough evidence pointing to murder to take the case before a grand jury.

The investigation — and the reconstructed facial image of Tut — will be featured in the upcoming Discovery Channel world premiere documentary, THE ASSASSINATION OF KING TUT, airing Sunday, October 6 from 9-11 PM (ET/PT). The two-hour special is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor John Hurt.

Detectives Gregory Cooper (former FBI agent, chief of police and civil defense director of Provo, Utah) and Mike King (former director of the Utah criminal Tracking and Analysis Project at the Attorney General’s office, Salt Lake City) were given special access to the off-limits lower chamber of Tut’s tomb, and the actual X-rays of his body taken in the 1960s (other scholars have examined copies only).

Using old-fashioned detective work and the latest forensics analysis, Cooper and King treat the case as they would a present-day death investigation, systematically considering potential causes for Tutankhamun’s demise, including accident, natural causes, suicide and murder. To build their case, they examined the scene of the crime by visiting tombs and cities in Egypt; looked at the victim’s body via actual X-rays and autopsy reports; recorded circumstantial evidence before, during and after the victim’s death; viewed crime-scene photographs; conducted interviews with living “witnesses” (scholars); and utilized criminal profiling and crime scene analysis. With the help of leading Egyptologists, forensic psychiatrists, medical examiners, neurologists, defense attorneys and criminologists, the detectives methodically established both manner and motive for Tutankhamun’s puzzling death.

Aren’t there any more recent unsolved deaths they could have investigated? Oh yeah – they wouldn’t have been paid by the Discovery Channel.