The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "autopsies" ...
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Solano County: Autopsies and Prosecutions
This was a great experience for me in investigative reporting, it required not only shoe-leather reporting and extensive public records requesting, but it also was an exercise in writing as there were a number of revelations I felt were important that were difficult to line up together in a coherent narrative. In the end, I think it turned out well and further solidified full-time investigative reporting as my future career goal.
Tags: Government; autopsies
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Who Killed Doc?
KSTP found that "commanders ignored warnings, botched investigations, and failed to protect service members on their own base - where they should have been the safest. As a result, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner says it has changed the way the remains of service members killed worldwide are tracked, to ensure that families of the fallen are notified of changes to their love one's autopsy or cause of death."
Tags: military; military deaths; service members; death examination; military bases
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The Body Shop
Questionable hiring, misidentified bodies, sexual harassment charges and refusal to provide autopsies to defense attorneys are a few of the many problems facing the Adams County Coroner's office. Jim Hibbard, who heads the office, was elected to his position, but had a history of conflict as a former police officer. He appears to have brought that conflict to the coroner's office in the form of sexual harassment, ruined evidence and regulatory violations.
Tags: Coroner; Adams County; autopsy; medical examiner; Jim Hibbard; sexual harassment; identity; defense; police; problems;
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Dead Wrong: What's Really Killing America
Inaccurate data on what kills people in this country is rampant. There are some cases where cause of death is fraudulently invented, but in most cases autopsies are simple conducted incorrectly to the tune of at least a third of death diagnoses. In many cases, cause of death is never determined and these patterns are exacerbated along disadvantaged socioeconomic lines. Such inaccurate data on deaths is feared to skew research on preventative measures.
Tags: death; autopsies; diagnoses; inaccurate; reporting; inexperience; research; medicine; heart disease; fraud; medical examiners; investigation; conduct; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
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The Mysterious Death of Janie Ward
This hour-long report is a result of a five-year investigation into the death of a 16-year-old girl 20 years ago in a small town in the Ozarks. It's about two daughters -- one wealthy and popular (a cheerleader and beauty queen); the other poor and self-conscious. It's about two fathers -- one a powerful judge who allegedly shielded his daughter from the law he's sworn to uphold; the other a bail bondsman who is trying to avenge his daughter's death. And it's about one family's fight for justice against what they believe is a corrupt judicial system that closed ranks around the powerful judge to cover-up a murder. When 16-year-old Jamie Ward fell off a 9-inch porch in the woods near Marshall, Ark., on September 9, 1989, her parents refused to blieve that the fall had killed their healthy teenager. Instead, they began to suspect to suspect she was murdered by the judge's daughter. After years of demanding an investigation into her death, an independent medical examiner associated with Parents for Murdered Children exhumed Janie's body a second time for an extremely rare third autopsy. Because the case was 20 years old, most of the files were not digital; rather, the investigation focused on old-fashioned reporting: finding and interviewing eyewitnesses (all of whom had not been reinterviewed since the original investigation); analyzing inconsistencies in the witness statements, double-checking the forensics with independent experts.
Tags: autopsy; unsolved death; forensic science; criminal justice system; reopened cases; Arkansas
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Shielded From the Truth
This investigation documented how the Chicago Police Department, civilian investigators and local prosecutors routinely clear officers in shootings before all the witnesses are interviewed, autopsies conducted or basic evidence, including fingerprints and ballistics, analyzed. Over the last decade, not a single on-duty police officer has been charged with shooting a civilian.
Tags: police; shootings; city government; courts; justice department; law enforcement
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The Final Hours of Miguel Contreras
Labor leader and Los Angeles power-broker Miguel Contreras was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Los Angeles, the week before the 2005 mayoral election. No autopsy was performed, and doctors were pressured to sign a death certificate. The article outlines political power bases in Los Angeles, and speculates how various issues would have had different results if Contreras had lived.
Tags: organ harvesting; autopsy; botanica; 911 tape; labor leader; coroner; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; LAPD; United Farmworkers; UFW; Centinela Freeman Memorial Hospital; Daniel Freeman Hospital
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Taking the Cuffs off at Carswell
Fort Worth Weekly reporter Betty Brink has been covering medical and sexual abuse of female inmates at Carswell Federal Medical Center, in Texas, since 1999. As a result of her coverage, and his own investigation, a retired judge, Ross Sears is asking for a Congressional investihgation into the deadly conditions at "the only prison hospital in the country for mentally or chronicallly ill or dying women who have been convicted of a federal crime."
Tags: medical negligence; sexual abuse; Carswell Federal Mediacal Center; medical records; Bureau of Prisons; FOI requests; U.S. Office of Special Counsel; Dr. Roger Guthrie; Ross Sears; retaliation; compassionate release; John Peter Smith Hospital; Tarrant County Medical Examiner; autopsies; prison deaths; women inmates; femaile prisoners; Baylor Regional Transplant Institute; Huguley Memorial Medical Center; brain damage; whistleblower complaints; medical malpractice; sentinel event; rape;
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Rebreathe Deep The Gathering Doom
Using human sources, detective reports, inspection notes and the autopsy report, reporter Ashley Harrell tells the story of the death of divemaster Zak Jones. An experienced diver with a penchant for using a rebreather rather than a standard Aqua-Lung, Jones died off the coast of Florida, spearfishing with some fellow experienced divers at a depth of 200 feet. The story details the possible ways Jones could have perished, with discussion of his diving equipment and other divers' reaction to finding him floating in the water. Yet, the article also notes the possibility that Jones' diving rig may have been tampered with after his death, thus calling into question the facts of an investigation.
Tags: Zak Jones; Pro Dive International; rebreather; diving deaths
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Hiding Homicides?
Murder rates in Chicago have been reduced, with the city citing better police tactics. But a WBBM-TV investigation found that that "the department may be reducing its murder rate by hiding homicides by downgrading murders." They uncovered dozens of cases where cause of death was, for instance, indicated as "Non-Criminal death or Death Investigation," though the victim showed clear signs of having been strangled. This included a particular case where the official cause of death was a heart attack, but the pathologist determined that strangulation was the true culprit. The results of the investigation put the police department at odds with the Medical Examiner's office.
Tags: Muder; homicide; police; murder rates; false autopsy report; cause of death