AR AR - Olivia 'Janie' Ward, 16, Marshall, 9 September 1989

golfmom

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While surfing around I stumbled across this unsolved murder ... WOW, what a story. Despite national media attention nothing has ever been done to solve this crime and bring justice to Janie and her family.

http://arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/2240/index.php

Some of the evidence in this case was ignored, replaced, altered, lost, or discarded.

According to her official death certificate,
Olivia Jane Ward fell to her death from a porch, which was approximately 9 3/4" tall.

(Later) EMS Paramedics stated to investigative reporters that:
"When we arrived, we noticed that Janie Ward's body was wet from head to toe. She had sand in her hair and under her bra. Her tennis shoes and the bottom of her pants were muddy. She also had Beggar's Lice all over her body. The police never questioned us."

There was also a reported "burglary" of the Paramedics' Base office, the following morning of Janie's death ................. The only records taken from the Ambulance Base were those belonging to Janie Ward ...............

Some people have stated that before Paramedics were called, the truck (with Janie lying in the back) was taken through the car wash. (The car wash is near the bank parking lot.) .............. Time went by, as others came along, viewed Janie's body, checked her pulse, noticed her eyes were half-closed, talked about her death...while, still, not calling Paramedics.
..............
Why did the Arkansas State Crime Lab also tell the Ward family (when they requested the clothing Janie Ward was wearing) that: "We no longer have any of the evidence pertaining to your daughter. We discarded the evidence, because we did not have room to store it." (They stated this to the Ward family, the year following the death of Janie Ward.)
............
Sheriff Loggins' own nephew has called the lack of investigation a "crock of bull", and asked Mr. Ward for a handful of bumper stickers to distribute publicly.

He further stated that the case needs to be reopened, a sentiment shared by many people, including Parents of Murdered Children official; Harry Bonnell, who examined medical documents pertaining to Janie's death and declared the case a homicide, and that it should be investigated as such.

Sheriff Loggins, as the superior law enforcement authority in Searcy County, can and should open an investigation, despite the political connections of the people involved.
 
WOW! That is an interesting story. I can't believe that the death was ruled accidental. It seems pretty obvious that it isn't.
 
golfmom said:
Strange how this family just can't get anyone to listen to them.
after reading that article i got the impression that the judges daughter was somehow involved.

i have a feeling that the truth behind this will come out eventually. it seems as though there are a lot of people involved in this and although it might take years i bet one of them will eventually feel guilty and talk.
 
The coroner in this case, Fahmy Malak, is the same one that ruled the train deaths of Kevin Ives & Don Henry. To date there has been no resolution in this case either. Dr. Fahmy Malak accumulated a long list of questionable, and bizarre rulings

The bare facts of the case are these: At 4:25 a.m. on Aug.23, 1987, a northbound Union Pacific train ran over two teenagers, Kevin Ives and Don Henry, as they lay side by side, motionless on the tracks. Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak quickly ruled the deaths "accidental," saying the boys were "unconscious and in deep sleep" due to smoking marijuana. "We didn't know anything about marijuana at the time," Mrs. Ives says. But when medical experts found the explanation implausible, "we really began asking questions." The families held a press conference challenging the ruling, which received wide publicity in Arkansas.

This in turn provoked an investigation by a local grand jury in Saline County, a largely rural area between Little Rock and Hot Springs. Ultimately the bodies were exhumed and another autopsy was performed by outside pathologists. They found that Don Henry had been stabbed in the back, and that Kevin Ives had been beaten with a rifle butt. In grand jury testimony, lead pathologist Joseph Burton of Atlanta said the boys "were either incapacitated, knocked unconscious, possibly even killed, their bodies placed on the tracks and the train overran their bodies." In September 1988, the grand jury issued a report stating, "Our conclusions are that the case is definitely a homicide."
 
Thanks for posting Golfmom. Nobody may want to listen to this family, but everyone who has read this post has heard them now.
 
carolina said:
after reading that article i got the impression that the judges daughter was somehow involved.

i have a feeling that the truth behind this will come out eventually. it seems as though there are a lot of people involved in this and although it might take years i bet one of them will eventually feel guilty and talk.

I think that this was a group thing that happened and that there was more than one politically well connected teen involved.
 
This is truly a sad and heartbreaking story. The judge's daughter is supposedly a suspect in the murder. She and another girl allegedly beat Janie and she was killed her later on that night. A couple of the girls was mad about the guy Janie was dating who was shot in the shoulder at the same party. Assault charges was filed against the judges daughter a month before Janies death for attacking another girl. Visit the url below for full details concerning this case. This page contains alot of important facts that you may not find on other sites.


http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff67299.htm
 
I just saw this last night. I don't know what to think now. The third autopsy was so different from the previous two that it's so confusing (I believe the third autopsy if I remember right said she choked on something and gasped for breath for several minutes before she fell backwards and died. There was no broken neck, nose or bruising on her knuckles).

I do think the family is set on one outcome and could not accept the third autopsy results. It's such a sad situation... I can't imagine losing a child. I'm sure it would be much easier to blame someone else than accept it as an accident.
 
I just heard about this girl and her death and I am confused. How could the autopsies be so drastically different. The girl either had a broken neck or she didn't.\
Her injuries certainly do not seem consistent with someone who choked, fell less than a foot. If she was not considered one of the 'in-crowd' then why would the cheerleaders and football players of the school invite her to come to the party?
I wonder if a rape kit was performed.

Nothing flames me more than when something like this happens around a bunch of people and no one does anything to stop and it and worse no one comes forward later and tells what they saw. The people who were at that party know what happened.
 
Moved from LTWH to discussion board, originally posted by STEADFAST.

Olivia Jane Ward
Recent Article in Arkansas Democrat Gazette
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/238336/
It has been an especially difficult and frustrating journey for this simple couple from the Ozarks, who have compiled a lengthy file on how their oldest child died 19 years ago. Janie’s death has been the focus of an investigation by Special Prosecutor Tim Williamson of Mena that has dragged on for almost four years. So far, inexplicably, Williamson has withheld the results of his marathon probe, which has cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.
PRWeb Press Release
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/9/prweb80088.php
 
Bumping for Janie.

Wow, what a mess. The "investigation" -if you want to call it that- was the textbook definition of bungled. The judge's daughter sounds like a real piece of work. Definitely sociopathic tendencies (in my armchair psychology experience) at play. There's no question she was involved.

Let's bring this back to life and keep the pressure on. The link below is probably the best one for information on the case.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff67299.htm
 
This is definitely mysterious.

If she choked, maybe there was a head injury. Choking is really scary, and perhaps she just slipped, but the car wash thing and the broken neck thing may lead to other conclusions.

Sent from my Life One X2 using Tapatalk
 
I live not far from this town and have heard its common knowledge that she was beat up by judges daughter and 2 other girls.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Really? Wow. Hey neighbor.

Sent from my Life One X2 using Tapatalk
 

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