Across North Carolina, medical examiners fail to follow crucial investigative steps, raising questions about the accuracy of thousands of death rulings...
A Charlotte Observer investigation, entailing the most comprehensive analysis of state death rulings ever conducted, found that examiners regularly close cases without following recommended practices.
_They dont go to death scenes in 90 percent of cases they investigate.
_In one of every nine deaths, they violate a state requirement to examine the bodies.
_When an elderly person dies, theyre even more likely to take shortcuts. Since 2001, more than 40 of the states counties went at least three years without a single autopsy on a person 75 or older.
