Kansas City, Mo. Police and medical examiners who thought a man died of natural causes changed their minds after funeral-home workers found bullet holes in his head.
The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that three bullet wounds -- two of them in Anthony Crockett's head -- were noticed after the man's body was embalmed Friday. The funeral home returned the 49-year-old Kansas City man's body to the Jackson County medical examiner's office, and police counted the death as a homicide.
Detectives and Jackson County medical examiners never visited Crockett's home to inspect his body. 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.
Crockett's girlfriend, who had called police after finding his body, told authorities that he had heart problems for years. Police noted blood on Crockett's face, but victims can bleed from natural causes or a fall. They did not collect forensic evidence, and by the time the mistake was realized and investigators secured Crockett's house as a crime scene, relatives already had cleaned it.
It was the
second time in 17 months that a Kansas City funeral home returned a homicide victim's body mistakenly ruled a natural death by the medical examiner's office.
LinkHow incompetent is this MEs office?
