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 "Coroner" ...
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Failed Justice: Investigations in Minnesota
An MPR News investigation of an obscure murder case in rural Minnesota revealed shoddy work and incorrect testimony by the state's most prominent medical examiner, who has testified at more than 100 murder trials over the past three decades.
Tags: Minnesota; Coroner; Death; Incorrect Testimony; Shoddy Work
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Post Mortem: Death Investigation in America
"This series focused on the nation's death investigation system, the more than 2,300 coroner and medical examiner offices responsible for probing sudden and suspicious fatalities. They found a profession plagued by a widespread lack of resources, a lack of national standards or regulation, and a drastic shortage of qualified doctors."
Tags: post mortem investigation; coroners; medical examiners; broadcast
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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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Fatal Flaws
"Nebraska has no state oversight and few standards to ensure quality death investigations by coroners or law enforcement. As part of two-week series, The World-Hearld detailed 15 botched cases that illustrate weaknesses in the system."
Tags: police; investigation; murder; coroner; law enforcement; death-investigation; suicide;
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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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Dying For a Job
While workplace insurance boards across Canada claimed workplaces are safer, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigated workplace safety. They found that "the number of workplace deaths had increased by about 7 percent from 1993 to 2004." In addition, coroners' suggestions on making workplaces safer for workers have largely been ignored, and are "not shared from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in a manner that would help make their workplaces safer." The investigation also found that health care and social services workers were in more danger than others, "anywhere from six to 12 times more likely to file claims related to violence on the job, mainly from patients." This is higher than even the rate for police and security.
Tags: Worker's compensation; workplace safety; worker safety; labor laws; on-the-job injuries; Canadian workplaces
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Seeking Justice for Jill: The Behrman Murder Investigation
WXIN-TV reporter Kimberly King spent most of 2006 looking into the police investigation of the death of Jill Behrman, an Indiana University-Bloomington sophomore who disappeared in May 2000. Her body was found in 2003, "miles from where detectives thought (she) had been killed." For the intervening three years, "investigators built their case around a convicted woman's false confession." But after the body was discovered, a lead detective sealed the public records regarding the case and did little to pursue it further. Spurred by a request from a relative of Behrman, WXIN worked on the story for three years, finally spending 2006 blowing it open. As a result, police moved further on the case.
Tags: Murder; Indiana University; police; homicide; closed cases; homicide investigations; missing persons; false confession
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Death and Destruction
A collection of statistics-based stories including: state and local coroners offices that disposed of unidentified cadavers without informing authorities, the early death of professional athletes due to dramatically increased weight, the natural disaster declarations by presidents seeking re-election, and the elimination of helmet-use among motorcyclists.
Tags: Statistics; helmet law; cadaver; John Doe; weight gain; professional athlete; natural disaster; re-election; motorcycle; coroner
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Crying Shame
Record numbers of people died on the streets of Phoenix during the heat wave of July 2005. Rubin investigated the background of one of them, Carl Gohlson, who had been loved in his community as a street musician, and who had battled mental illness his whole life.
Tags: mental health; courts; heat-related deaths; extreme weather; coroner's reports
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What Happened to Molly?
The results of the South Carolina Law Enforcement investigation said Molly Wrazen's death was "most consistent" with suicide, but the county coroner and Wrazen's family were not satisfied with this answer because of the lack of evidence. As a result of this article's publication, the coroner held a rare coroner's inquest. Follow-up articles archive the reversal of the cause of death from suicide to homicide and how the SLED admitted mishandling the case.
Tags: South Carolina Law Enforcement; SLED; police; crime; suicide; homicide; murder; coroner; investigation