Posted on 03/23/2010 4:26:39 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Why did a former Hennepin County pathologist keep the skull of a murder victim on whom he conducted an autopsy in 1978?
No one knows. Dr. Kenneth Osterberg took the answer with him when he died in 2000.
But the discovery of Ricky McGuire's skull in Osterberg's garage two years ago not only raised that question, it has now spawned a federal lawsuit, filed this week against the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, the Hennepin County Medical Center and the mortuary that buried the body.
McGuire's family never knew they'd buried the 17-year-old without his head. No one ever told them. No one had ever asked for permission to remove it, said Jeff Sieben, the family's attorney.
McGuire's mother didn't find out until she got a call from the county -- on April Fool's Day 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Why is this a federal lawsuit?
I get the being pissed off bit by the family, but where does the violation of their Constitutional rights come into play?
Good question....
Possibly because they are suing the local government, they might have to go federal, a higher jurisdiction....I’m guessing...
The deceased doctor was known as a cut up that wanted to get ahead.
I guess he was rabid
I know they do sometimes keep a body part in a murder, just not in a garage. yikes.
It’s a clear violation of habeus corpse.
The Dr. sounds like a head case.
Wrong! It’s a violation of minus headeus.
Abby Normal.
yes master...
This is not the only case of its kind. There was a very well know forensic anthropologist named Robert Maples who IIRC was head of an institute connected with the University of Florida. Someone connected with the university told me that after Maples died there was a big uproar when two heads or skulls of murder victims that he had autopsied were found to still be in his possession when the families thought they were buried.
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