Um, so, did you know him?
Another mysterious death related to auto racing. 
He was a registered driver, and no one knew his name? or was he a bystander?
It rather struck me that an autopsy is not so much performed on a table as on a oversized shallow sink. Whereas procedures on an operating table are somewhat geared to keeping fluids inside, autopsies don’t really bother about such niceties.
So things like restraints for an operating table are probably not going to be much of a fit.
Restraints are useful for stuff like laprascopic surgery where gravity is used to shift stuff around to improve access, and tables are designed to provide significant control of angle. Unzipping a cadaver to inspect the insides doesn’t really need such a gentle approach. Unless I guess, there is some specific injury site that requires great care in dissection to elucidate the precise morphology. But given there is no need to be gentle, there are many more options than retaining a whole body when performing the investigation.
Nope. Don’t know if he was ever identified or why he had a 5 year old newspaper clipping.
The crowning glory of this excellent thread is that it’s the OP’s first post for a year. What have you been up to in your absence, Dr Frankenstein Ranger Jeff?
Showing restraint, perhaps?
I’ve been in restraints, in hospital, more than I like to remember. But if I ever wake up in the morgue I’ll look and get back to you. Somehow.
(Of course there’s always the bungee cord solution)
I can’t restrain myself from pointing out that it is advantageous during an autopsy to keep as much of the, um, effluent inside the body cavity as possible to simplify cleanup.
And there can be considerable excess fluids encountered during surgery, necessitating either built-in drainage features for surgical tables or add-ons, such as the eloquently named Uro-Trapper (my impression is that urology is among the specialties most concerned with this problem).
But what about positioning aids?
In the Robert Crais novel “The Forgotten Man”, Elvis Cole (a detective) has a similar thing happen. It’s a good book.
Also Philip Marlowe and Spenser. If not a newspaper clipping it can be an address or phone number scrawled on a matchbook or piece of paper.
It’s a known literary device for bringing cops to the private detective’s door.*
*In such instances, it’s good form to offer them a slug of rye or Scotch.
Look, in some professions it’s frowned upon to ask one’s superiors questions. Questions like “Mathter, where am I thuppothed to find 100 virginth at thith time of night?”
Capice?