Oblivious coroners miss a murder – TWICE!

One’s left shaking one’s head in disbelief at this report from Kansas City, MO.

A Kansas City man who investigators had said died of natural causes instead has become the city’s 16th homicide of the year.

That’s after funeral home workers found two bullet holes in his head, and now many people are wondering how such a shocking mistake could have been made.

Neighbors say that Anthony Crockett, 49, was a man who went out of his way to help those around him. Helped his neighbors with their homes and worked hard to keep his yard in good shape, and mowed the vacant lot across the street. So when he suddenly died last week, neighbors like Hattie Green Hardaway could not believe it.

“Anthony was good to everybody. If you needed something, Anthony was the type of person who’d go out of his way to do it for you,” said Hardaway. “He always had a laugh on his face. He’s always joking with you. He was just an all around guy. He’s gonna be missed.”

But now Hardaway says she’s shocked to learn that Anthony didn’t die of natural causes. Funeral home workers found three bullet holes in his body, including two in his head. This marks the second time in 17 months that a Kansas City funeral home returned a body to the county medical examiner after workers found evidence of foul play that disputed an official ruling of death by natural causes.

“How did they not know he had been shot?” asked Hardaway. “You’re gonna wait til you remove a body, take it to the medical examiner’s office. You don’t know a man had been shot?”

As you said, Ms. Hardaway . . . and note the sentence in bold print. I can’t understand this happening even once – but twice???

Clearly the emergency personnel who examined Mr. Crockett’s body on-scene didn’t examine it very closely. Another report indicates that there was blood on his head, but that this was presumed to be the result of a fall, and states: ‘A paramedic told police he believed the death was natural after finding prescription containers for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes in the home’. I wonder if that alleged ‘paramedic’ even stood close to the body?

I’d be tempted to nominate all the responding personnel for one of our ‘Doofus Of The Day’ awards, but since this particular incident involves murder, I won’t. I’m not that insensitive. Nevertheless, I submit that they all deserve a swift official kick in the patootie for failing in their duty.

Peter