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PUBLISHED SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2002
Autopsy reveals few clues in suspected starvation death
Toxicology results may take 8 weeks
Carmen Paige@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
It could be two months before police investigators know exactly why 18-year-old Chester Lee Miller died.
A three-hour autopsy Friday revealed Miller was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 100 pounds - nearly 40 pounds more than estimated when he was taken to Santa Rosa Medical Center a week ago.
A toxicology report is needed to determine the entire cause of his death, and that could take six to eight weeks.
Miller's mother, Lyda, 37, and her boyfriend, Paul Hoffman Sr., 38, of Hazleton, Pa., have been arrested. They are accused of starving and abusing him.
"I only have a partial cause of death," said Dr. Andi Minyard, associate medical examiner for District I. "It will be listed as peritonitis due to a gastric rupture due to ... and that's the part I don't know yet - why his stomach ruptured."
Peritonitis is inflammation of the membrane that lines the wall of the abdomen and covers the abdominal organs, according to the American Medical Association's Encyclopedia of Medicine. It is a serious, usually acute and painful condition, almost always rooted in bacterial infection caused by another abdominal disorder.
An 18-year-old male who is 5 feet 4 inches tall should weigh 140 to 150 pounds, said Dr. E.W. Sutton, medical director at the Santa Rosa County Health Department in Milton.
"It sounds like his stomach ruptured, and he had an infection inside the cavity," Sutton said. "It could be connected to starvation. Or, perhaps after he starved for a long period, he ate a lot and that created a problem. Either way, it could be connected to starvation, if in fact he was starved."
Minyard said Miller's weight does seem low but said more study is needed.
"We'll be looking to see if he ingested any toxic substances," she said. "Then, we'll wait for more investigation from the police standpoint."
Miller arrived in Milton by bus from Pennsylvania a week ago, looking for his father, Robert Lee Miller. Janice Goodman let him into her home after he knocked on her door asking for a shower and a nap. Miller told her he was dropped off at the Quinn Bayou apartment complex and told to go find his father.
Goodman said he "looked like a Holocaust victim." Goodman called her mother, Norma Douglas, who in turn contacted the Milton Police Department. Emergency medical service was notified, and Miller was taken to Santa Rosa Medical Center, where he died Wednesday morning.
This case is being investigated by the Hazleton Police Department. The charges against Lyda Miller and Hoffman could be upgraded to homicide, depending on the results of the toxicology report. They are charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, and they are jailed in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 cash bail each.
Services for Chester Lee Miller are set for 1 p.m. Monday at Pace Assembly of God Church in Pace. Trahan Mortuary Services of Pensacola is handling the arrangements. Miller will be buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Pensacola. Each organization donated its services.
"It will be a public service," said the Rev. Glyn Lowery, pastor of Pace Assembly of God. "We have schoolteachers who want to come but can't because of the time of the service. They will send a written story, and it will be read from the pulpit. The story will give a little bit of background about the tragedy of this little boy's life."
I wonder who's going to pay the preacher? I know damn good and well he isn't going to do this for free. When my father died,his one request was he wanted his brother to preach at his funeral. The younger brother he worked and put through school. The one who rented us one of his houses for a minimum profit when we lived in the same state he does.The brother who told me he "would give me a discount,seeing as we are family." I made him a offer he couldn't refuse,and he preached for free.