Posted on 10/28/2005 5:02:52 PM PDT by Ellesu
New Mexico sheriff's deputies who helped out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina say they saw the body of a woman, possibly a nurse, who they believe was raped and murdered in a flooded New Orleans hospital.
A team of deputies found the woman's decomposing body in early September, blood around her head and her pants around her ankles, in the emergency room of Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said Friday.
"Sure, we understand there are people who didn't survive the flood, but it doesn't explain why there would be this pool of blood around this woman's head," White said.
"We understand that holding people accountable for what took place during Katrina, that's not very likely, but there's still a family involved," and that preys on his deputies, White said.
Interim New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said the possible murder had not been reported to him.
"We even checked with the coroner's office to see if one of those bodies appeared to be murdered or raped," Riley said Friday. "They aren't complete, but the autopsies to this point said there was nothing to corroborate the report. But if there is, we will investigate it fully."
On Sept. 5, New Orleans police asked a Bernalillo County team who had been rescuing people from the water to help out at the hospital. Several boats had been spotted outside the hospital, and there was a concern looters were stealing prescription medications.
"We had basically been told at that point we would encounter bodies, and we did encounter bodies" that appeared to have been left behind in the hospital, White said.
But in the emergency room, they came across the body of the woman, dressed in scrubs, who appeared to have died violently, he said. The deputies said she possibly had been sexually assaulted and died of trauma to her head; one thought she had been shot, White said. The deputies described it as "a very grisly scene."
They had no way to process a possible crime scene and passed the information along to local authorities, White said. They were told bodies would be left until a mortuary plan was in effect and autopsies could be done.
"The way it was put, very explicitly, we could only save the living," White said.
The Louisiana death total from Hurricane Katrina is listed at 1,050. In addition, the Department of Health and Hospitals says 12 deaths handled at the state morgue were not caused by the storm.
ping
Hard to believe this story is just coming to light. Odd description, "possibly a nurse." Hospital employees across the nation wear or carry photo ID indicating the department where they work.
BS check before I forward this to my "progressive" friends - why is this an article about Katrina title about NO from New Mexico from an Alabama website?
I read that it will cost almost as much to repair Charity Hospital than to build a new one....and that they are still paying everyone full salary, and about to go under because of it.
Writer is AP, don't know why. Often that site has Louisiana news first.
You are right. The eyewitness reports from those traumatized by the brutality are just now starting to get out. People around Charity Hospital feared for their lives during those first several nights.
I heard this from a man who just returned from NO. He had been down to see what was salvageable from his home in the Garden District. He heard many tales of horror from his neighbors and acquaintances down there.
He was fortuante to evacuate before the hurricane hit. He believes, after what he has seen and heard, that much of the city will never be rebuilt.
The city is full of Mexicans, as they are the only ones willing to come in and risk their health to wade through the muck and mire to clean up the area.
Granted, the average sheep citizen will usually fall for it, but if there is any validity to stories like this they will be preserved and archived somewhere - and used against the offending politican in some future campaign.
Aggravating, isn't it?
All the more reason for us at FR to be the watchdogs that investigate, report, and get the truth out.
We need more Buckheads.
My buddy is a truck driver and he had to work in there (post-storm) at night. He said the Red Cross was telling him he better have a gun. I can't believe that the MSM is trying to rewrite history and say nothing happened in new orleans, that it was all exagerrated. Yeah, right. I was there 2 weeks before Katrina and witnessed the local riffraff. Upstanding citizens-NOT.
The LSU official in charge of the state's charity hospital system says it would cost $258 million to repair Charity Hospital and $395 million to replace it.
A few homes down my street had their roofs replaced in 2 - 3 days, and it was the same crew of "you-know-whos".
Not only were they quick in getting the jobs done, but I went look at their work and it was pretty darn good.
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