Also, can someone answer 2 questions for me:
1. Are autopsies usually done in the actual funeral homes or does the ME have a different location and then they are transferred to funeral homes once the autopsy is completed? Do ME's work for funeral homes?
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Hopefully someone with more knowledge that I have will be able to answer. All I know is things I've read over the years.
In Jane's specific case, her autopsy would have been handled by the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. It's completely separate from any funeral home. (
http://www.co.wayne.mi.us/hhs_meo.htm ) This is what they say about themselves:
The purpose of the Medical Examiner's Office is to provide forensic death investigations, autopsy, and toxicological services to the general public and medico-legal community so they can have documented, timely, and accurate cause and manner of death.
I would assume that police would have been directly involved with this office regarding Jane's death and should have been given the evidence found on/with her body.
In smaller towns, a local dr/ME may go to the funeral home to conduct an autopsy simply because they are already equipped for handling a body and/or the area is so small and remote, they can't justify having a dedicated ME office. I've heard of that happening mostly in cases from the 80s or earlier, tho. In Wayne County, which is highly populated and includes Detroit, there's no way this could be done. Their volume is so high, they have to have a dedicated facility.
My husband has a client who is a doctor in a very small farming community in south MI. I've met him and visited at his home. He and his family are very nice folks. He acts as the local medical examiner and, IIRC, has done some smaller ME type work at a local funeral home, but, and I'm assuming the following, I would think that if he came across an obvious murder, he'd call the State Police or whatever legal governing body would be appropriate so a complete investigation, including a full autopsy, could be done.
I've been following a cold case murder for over 20 years (Keith Warren) where the clothes went missing. The victim was murdered but the police picked a funeral home and sent the body there instead of to the ME office. His body was not examined and was immediately embalmed. The family was not given the victim's clothing because the body had been so decomposed, the clothes had to be destroyed. Years later, they found out that his body was found not even wearing his own clothes, his body was in very good condition and not decomposed at all, and they had to have him exhumed to finally have an autopsy conducted. Among people who discuss that case, we're divided between deliberate cover up or police incompetence.
Now that the clothing is missing in Jane's case, I can't decide between those two. Is it a cover up involving bb's friends in high places, or are the officials so incompetent that they would lose evidence in a murder case that was one of the most high profile I've ever seen here. I don't even watch the local news and you still just can't get away from how highly publicized this has been in the area. Every one of the people directly involved had to know how big this was when they were processing all the evidence they "lost".
