Bridgeport, CT (PRWEB via PressReleaseHelp) November 7, 2006 -- Dr. Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, will complete an autopsy on the body of William McAllister at 12:30 p.m. EST on November 8, 2006 at Lakeview Cemetery (885 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport, CT). The autopsy should provide insight into McAllister’s improper burial by Downer Funeral Home in Stamford, CT, 13 years earlier. McAllister died on December 28, 1993, and was allegedly buried approximately four months later by the funeral home, without notifying the McAllister family. After years of protracted litigation, the McAllister family won a $1 million judgment against Downer Funeral Home for losing McAllister’s body and improperly handling the burial (Mary McAllister v. Nick J. Downer, dba Downer Funeral Home, Case # CV940314924S).
The McAllister family’s initial concern was that William McAllister’s body was not buried at the gravesite. However, last May, Dr. Henry Lee and a forensic team from the University of New Haven, conducted DNA testing on the body and determined that it was in fact the body of William McAllister. During this disinterment, questions were raised about whether or not the body had been tampered with prior to burial. William McAllister’s body will be exhumed and examined on Wednesday for the final time.
For years, the McAllister family has attempted to find out why the burial was mishandled, and what happened to McAllister’s body during the four month delay. The family also wants to know why the funeral home, when it chose to finally bury McAllister, did so without notifying the family. The family questions why Woodland Cemetery, in Stamford, CT - where McAllister was initially buried – also failed to notify the family of the burial.
This autopsy will provide the family with the opportunity to gain answers to their questions. According to a cemetery supervisor, “The body is always stored at the cemetery.” But this raises the question of where the body was during the four months it was missing. The McAllister’s have sought answers from the State government, without success, and some have wondered if the matter "would have been handled differently if William McAllister were not African American."
According, to the son Darrin A. McAllister, “Finally my family will have an opportunity to get answers to our questions. How would you feel if this was your father or husband? For over twelve years we have written and appealed to various Connecticut State agencies including: the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Public Health, the Connecticut State Bar, and the Connecticut State Court. When the Connecticut Medical Examiner, Dr. Carver examined my father’s body in 1995, there were inconsistencies in his report between my father’s physical description, and his actual appearance. No one has been able to or cared enough to get to the bottom of what happened to my father. Just because this happened years ago doesn’t mean we don’t think about him. What happened to my father haunts our family each and every day.”
Attorney Dori N. Bye, the McAllister family attorney is the contact for this matter. She can be reached at 310.308.0329 or via e-mail.
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