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 "suspicious death" ...
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What Killed Arafat?
This 50-minute film was the result of a nine month long cold case investigation into the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, Palestine's iconic, revolutionary leader. After obtaining Arafat's entire original medical files, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit, led by producer and reporter Clayton Swisher, crossed continents to track down and interview the French, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian doctors who had worked to save Arafat's life. Part I of "What Killed Arafat?" was able to easily shatter popular myths about what caused Arafat's precipitous decline from the onset of his illness on October 12, 2004 until his death on November 11th. Testimony from Arafat's doctors conclusively ruled out liver cirrhosis, cancer, even rumors of HIV. The scientific, evidence-based discoveries made in the Part II result from the work performed by a team of forensic pathologists, toxicologists, and radiation physicists from the University Center for Legal Medicine and Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland. Working without payment, they agreed to run a battery of sophisticated tests on a large gym bag containing Arafat’s last personal effects. The scientists discovered significant levels of reactor-made Polonium 210 contaminating areas of Arafat's personal effects that came into contact with his biological fluids. When the final results came back in late June, Al Jazeera hosted Mrs. Arafat in Doha to watch the Swiss explain the results on set. Upon witnessing their testimony, Ms. Arafat made a resolute, unanticipated surprise announcement, calling on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband's body for testing. Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed on November 27, 2012 so that the final samples could be retrieved. Whether the causes of Arafat's death are determined to be natural, inconclusive—or even murder—suffice it to say that Al Jazeera’s "What Killed Arafat?" and the resulting investigations and exhumation will have inched the world closer to understanding what did not, and possibly for the first time, what did claim the life of this historic and controversial personality.
Tags: Science; death; biology; investigation; exhumation; testing
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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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Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Jails series
The series examined individuals who have died suspiciously while in the custody of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who proclaims himself to be "America's Toughest Sheriff." Specifically, the stories examined the death of an inmate, Juan Mendoza Farias, who entered the county jail in good health and arrived at the county morgue two days later--covered with bruises and lacerations. The series also covered ongoing federal class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU against Arpaio. During the process of that lawsuit, Arpaio lost his federal jail accreditation, which is require by Arizona law. Dickerson has been covering the lawsuit since 2007 and broke the story that the county's top lawman was himself breaking a state law by losing the accreditation of his jails. The series also investigated the care of pregnant inmates and their babies in the jail, finding that many women are malnourished and miscarry as a result of the jail conditions and food.
Tags: police misconduct; sheriff's office; pregnant inmates; prisoner abuse; Arizona
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A Hidden Shame: Danger and Death in Georgia's Mental Hospitals
This series exposed problems in Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals. At least 155 patients died under suspicious circumstances related to neglect, abuse and poor medical treatment. Furthermore, patients are often discharged to places where their continued treatment is doubtful, such as homeless shelters, bus stations and street corners.
Tags: hospitals; health; psychology; state government; mental illness
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Broken Promises, Broken Lives
An investigation finds "widespread mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri, including sexual assaults, beatings and neglect in thousands of incidents that led to hundreds of injuries and 21 deaths." Further, the state has not followed its own law and policies in the investigation and reporting of the mistreatment, drawing the ire of the federal government. In addition, the police and prosecutors did not always do their own investigations "of suspicious incidents." The newspaper also discovered that "the public and private system of care relies on underpaid, overworked caregivers in dangerous jobs with little training."
Tags: Mentally retarded; handicapped; sexual assault; beating; neglect; sexual offenders
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Return of the Black Widow: Seductress of the Saints
This profile of Sandra Bridewell maps out her cross - country journey of fraud and deceit. Nicknamed the "black widow", Bridewell left a trail of lies, debt and suspiciously dead husbands behind her. Whitley, who has covered Bridewell's story from the beginning, picked up the investigation again once she learned that the aging Bridewell has fallen from a wealthy socialite to a homeless religious fanatic.
Tags: murder; death; suicide; evangelism; evangelists; fraud; lies; insurance fraud; widow
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A Pattern of Suspicion
This fourteen month investigation into racial profiling began with the 2001 death of Timothy Thomas, an African - American teenager in Cincinnati. Thomas had fourteen police warrants before he was killed, all of which stemmed from unpaid traffic tickets for non-moving violations. These sorts of violations are often used as a pretext for seeing if suspicious motorists have drugs or guns. In nearly every city Dateline looked at, blacks were stopped or ticketed for non-moving violations at least twice as often as whites.
Tags: racism; profiling; traffic tickets; police corruption
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Children in State of Neglect
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer documents "how abuse and neglect are killing more children across Washington than officials have acknowledged and that too little is being done to prevent -- or even investigate -- such deaths... Part One, Fatal Neglect, told the story of how dozens of children who were supposed to be protected by state Child Protective Services died of abuse and neglect over the last five years in homes known to be unsafe... Part Two, The Truth Dies With Them, examined the flaws in how legal and medical authorities investigate the suspicious deaths of young children across the state."
Tags: Washington; Child Protective Services; law; legal; medicine; medical; state agencies; children abuse; neglect; death; foster care
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Georgia's forgotten children
In 6 years, 844 children died after their families were reported for mistreating a child. Many died suspiciously or from neglect. Most of their lives and deaths went unnoticed. The article explains five ways Georgia reforms failed children: inadequate training, records remain closed, abusers still get away, unanswered pleas, fatality review ignored.
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2002 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #3
1) Valeri Williams (WFAA-Dallas/Fort Worth) WFAA-TV follows up its 2000 IRE Awards entry with this return investigation into Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital. Reporter Williams and producer Schucker continued their investigation, focusing on Dr. Lydia Grotti and her connection to suspicious and overlooked deaths in the emergency room. As a result of WFAA-TV's investigation the Texas Department of Health began conducting its own investigation and discovered additional deaths that took place in the ER. The county district attorney's office called in a special prosecutor to examine a total of eight suspicious deaths in connection with Dr. Grotti at the hospital. 2) Robb Leer (KSTP-Minnesota) An investigation reveals that state adoption laws have loopholes that allow mothers of out of wedlock children to give the babies up for adoption without the father ever knowing. 3) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that a Florida man claiming to suffer from a rare conversion disorder that makes him act like a child is actually defrauding the state. 4) Jim Strickland (WSB-Atlanta) An area smoke detector salesman plays off the fears of senior citizens and sells them alarms at an inflated cost. 5) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that insurance companies can sell nearly-destroyed cars as though they weren't damaged. The cars are then repaired and end up in the hands of drivers who don't know they're driving dangerous vehicles. 6) Laure Quinlivan (WCPO-Cincinnati) A clip from the hour-long Visions of Vine street documentary on Cincinnati's deteriorating urban core. WCPO-TV tells the story of "Vine Street, the crumbling centerpiece of a neighborhood called Over the Rhine, ground zero for the April race riots that attracted national media attention." 7) (WTTG-District of Columbia) The city's DMV routinely charges two drivers for the same parking ticket or issues illegitimate tickets. The system is so bad that one lawyer spends all his time fighting parking tickets. 8) Vic Lee (KRON-San Francisco) An investigation reveals its not hard for employees at the San Francisco airport to sneak in knives. 9) (CBS 11-Dallas) Workers at a U.S. Post Office in Dallas are shown stealing from the mail. 10) (CBS 11-Dallas) Coverage of a fony charity called Kid Wish USA. The scam took money from donors who thought they were giving to dying children.
Tags: TAPE; San Francisco; conference; no transcripts; IRE