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October 12, 2004
Small Town Mystery
Jennifer was kind enough to alert me to the latest on the investigation into the death of Janie Ward. (Registration req'd, but you can use 'bugmenot' 'bugmenot'. The story is worth the aggravation BTW.)
Olivia Jane "Janie" Ward died Sept. 9, 1989, near a home at Zach Ridge in Searcy County while attending a party. Friends said Janie died after she fell off a porch that was 9 inches high.
Autopsy results by former state Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak on Sept. 11, 1989, initially indicated Janie died of an "upper spinal cord and neck injury." Malak's opinion was later changed by the state to read "undetermined" after two independent pathologists said they could not rule out a "natural rare disease, drowning or some other cause of death."
I was still living in Marshall when this happened, and knew pretty much everyone involved. Her parents have been fighting all these years trying to get an independent investigation of her death. And based on the pathologist's interview released today, looks like they may finally get one.
A Searcy County teenager was killed 15 years ago by a blow to the head forceful enough to break her neck, according to a private forensic pathologist who called the death a homicide....Bonnell said his autopsy revealed an impact to the left side of the face, with bruising of the left cheek, fracture and bleeding in the cartilage of the nose and bruising of the left forehead.
Olivia’s body also exhibited an injury Bonnell said is sometimes referred to as a "hangman's fracture," a hyper-extension injury in which the head is knocked so far backward it causes a spinal fracture.
Further, Bonnell said, he found no evidence of an impact to the back of the head, as described in the original autopsy. "Since the injury found at autopsy does not agree with any of the stories provided by witnesses, I consider this to be a homicide," he said.
If Dr. Bonnell's name sounds familar, it's because he performed the autopsies in the Laci Peterson case. And if you'll Google Malak's name, the doc who performed the original autopsy, you'll find that he was basically run out of Little Rock on a rail after evidence surfaced about his incompetence and multiple botched autopsies.
Like any other unsolved death in a small town, this has spawned a multitude of questions, rumors and rank speculation over the years. (As my daddy allus said about small town gossip, you can hear everything but the meat a'frying.)
Maybe now there'll be some credible answers.
Posted by Rita at October 12, 2004 08:09 AM
Comments
Thanks for pointing me to the nwatimes story...I hadn't read that yet. So now that it's a homicide what happens? It sounds like it's still up to Searcy County officials if the investigation gets reopened.
I hope this family gets some answers, 15 years is a long time to wait.
Posted by: Jennifer at October 12, 2004 12:38 PM
I'm not sure if Arkansas has a mechanism to force a prosecutor to convene a grand jury or not. I'd have to look that one up.
My guess is that H.G.'s pretty much gonna be forced to call one though, with all the publicity this is getting and considering that Mr. Ward has hired one of the 'big dog' law firms in the state. Plus I have a helluva lot of respect for the judge who signed the exhumation order. He's a good judge & wouldn't have signed it without some basis or evidence.
I'm really curious to see what happens next.
Posted by: rita at October 12, 2004 01:00 PM
Sounds like a kick to me. Roundhouse, maybe....
Posted by: Bill at October 12, 2004 04:45 PM
Rumor has it that it was a baseball bat. But that's just rumor at this point.
Posted by: rita at October 12, 2004 04:47 PM
Horrible. I hope they catch the bastard.
Posted by: Jim at October 12, 2004 08:39 PM
Or bitch, as the case may be.
Posted by: rita at October 12, 2004 09:57 PM