Holy Jesus in Heaven. I'm reading Mary Couey's (formerly Warren) notes. I'm literally just started reading through this & already think the le botched this on purpose. Sorry, just being honest. In this PDF, first page of the entire thing, Mary tells about a girl that said a suicide happened in the basement of a house, then paramedics get there & a man says the body's actually in the woods, after the man says the body's in the woods is when the young lady says she discovered it while walking her dog & provides no explanation as to why she initially said it happened in the basement. An address is given. Here's a snip of it but I'd suggest reading all 9 pages of the PDF. I'm thoroughly disgusted! My gish, no wonder this family won't let it go - I wouldn't either! Not in a million years!
Snipped:
Thursday, July 31, 1986
Paramedics at the nearby Fire and Rescue station received a call from a girl who claimed a suicide had been committed in the basement of the house from which she was calling. The address is 14655 Tynewick Drive, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Rescue personnel arrived on the scene with paramedic Dallas Lipp in charge. Three people, including Mr. Chip Wynn who resided in the house, were seated at the kitchen table. A young lady named Claudia "Michelle" Lawson, who was Mr. Wynn's girlfriend, was also present. It was Ms. Lawson who had called and reported the suicide in the basement.
Mr. Lipp informed the people that he was responding to the girl's call about a suicide and asked to be directed to the basement. He was advised that the body was in the woods a short distance from the house.
Mr. Lipp then asked the men at the table to accompany him to the body in the woods. They declined and told Ms. Lawson to take the paramedic to the scene. Ms. Lawson reluctantly agreed. Giving no reason why she had called saying the suicide was in the basement, Ms. Lawson changed her story and told the paramedic that she had been walking her dog in the
woods and came upon the body hanging from the tree. However, upon arrival at the hanging and making close observations, paramedic Lipp remarked, "This does not look like a suicide."
Montgomery County Police Officer Luther Leverette from the Wheaton-Glenmont Police Station responded to the scene and took charge. It appeared that Officer Leverette knew my son Keith and also knew Chip Wynn.
This officer did notfollow proper police procedure and secure the scene by cordoning off the area. Why? Bystanders described his acts as being "hasty" and "unprofessional." Officer Leverette even said, "Why would this have to happen on my lunch break?"
Officer Leverette immediately ruled my son's death a suicide. Via telecommunications, Officer Leverette contacted the County Coroner, John Rogers, and told him there was no need for him (the Coroner) to come to the scene, and that he should just mark the death down as a "suicide." Officer Leverette stated in his report that Keith had "Apparently jumped off of a log." The paramedic stated that there was no log or any other thing from which Keith could have jumped.
Officer Leverette had the body removed from the tree and sent to Collins Funeral Home in Silver Spring with instructions to have the body embalmed immediately. Again, proper police procedure was not followed. Why? In accordance with proper police procedure, an autopsy and toxicological tests should have been performed on my son's body. Neither an autopsy nor a toxicological exam was performed. Why? Further, even though three forms of identification were found in my son's pockets, it wasn't until seven hours later that I, the next of kin, was notified of his death. Why? My next door neighbor gave Officer Leverette my work number and the use of her phone. He refused to call me and told her to have me call him when I returned home from work that evening.
My neighbor called me at work and said that an Officer Leverette was looking for me and to call him. She was upset, but wouldn't tell me why. I called and was told that Officer Leverette was out on another call and would not be available for at least two hours.
Two hours later, Officer Leverette showed up at my place of work and produced a swimming pool ID card of Keith's and asked if that was my son. I confirmed that it was, and that my son had been missing for two days. I asked if the officer had found him. Officer Leverette responded that yes, he had been found and he had committed suicide. He questioned me as to any reasons why Keith would have committed suicide, preying upon the innate pain and guilt that any mother would feel when receiving such a message. I cooperated with him the best I could while agonizing over this revelation. At the time, I trusted Officer Leverette. Even though I could not think of any reason why my son would take his own life, I tried to think of any recent disagreements between my son and me. The only thing that came to mind was my strong objection to Keith's choice of a car. Officer Leverette later exaggerated my statement and used it to substantiate his own creation of a reason.
It was Office Leverette's idea that Keith had become depressed over this and committed suicide. Although Keith had no history of drugs, I asked Officer Leverette several times whether or not drugs were involved, given the fact that the area of Aspen Hill in which we lived had reported drug activity amongst teenagers. He emphatically replied, "No." Upon his departure and hour later, Officer Leverette handed me a business card from Collins Funeral Home in Silver Spring and told me to contact them after 9:00 a.m. the next day.
I called my brother who immediately went to the funeral home to identify the body but was denied entry three times and told to come back the next day.
Twenty-four hours later, on the fourth attempt, we went to the funeral home and were finally allowed to briefly view Keith's remains after he had been embalmed. I was later sued for payment by a funeral home I did not choose and for services I did not order. I requested Keith's clothes and was told by the funeral home director that they (the funeral home) had destroyed his clothes because my son's body had severely decomposed and deteriorated the clothes. I have never heard of that happening within two days, and I make my living working in pathology. I then requested the noose and rope. I was told that it was in the possession of the Montgomery County Police.
My brother and I went to see Officer Leverette who gave us a brown bag containing the rope and Keith's brown boots which he said Keith was wearing at the time he was found, along with a few other items.
A few days after the death of my son Keith, the Montgomery County Police went to the woods and chopped down the tree, stating that they needed it for evidence. My son's death was ruled a suicide, and the police called it an "open and shut" case. Why then did they need evidence? Were they worried that someone else would have looked at the tree and been able to determine that this was not a case of suicide by hanging, but that my son died elsewhere and was later put in the tree?
I have never believed my son committed suicide and have constantly pursued an investigation with each of the Montgomery County Police Chiefs, the State's Attorneys, and the County Executives in office from the time of Keith's death to the present. I am always met with cordial expressions of sympathy, only to be cut off soon after. People who confided to me that they thought something was suspicious and that they would investigate now avoid communications with me as though they have been silenced by an empowered authority.
The following defensive or inappropriate remarks have been made by several Montgomery County Police Officers: "I don't care how many lawyers she hires, it will not change the ruling of suicide." "If you had been a better mother, this wouldn't have happened." "She is an emotionally distraught mother who cannot come to terms with her son's death." It is implied that I am having a hard time letting go.
Let me at this point assure you that I have completely accepted the fact that my son is dead and have let go of any false sense of guilt. What I have not let go of is the fact that there is more to this story than I am being told!
A lot more at this link:
http://keithwarrenjusticesite.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/personal-notes005.pdf
