DOUBTFUL DEATHS - Hundreds of 'pending' cases leave questionable deaths unclassified

Thursday, 21 May 2009 23:45

By Stephen Janis

When the body of 50-year-old Lawrence Brown washed up in front of the Maryland Science Center last week, there was little evidence of foul play.

With no visible signs of injuries and the downtown surveillance cameras not working, according to police reports, there were few facts to help explain why Brown – a diabetic suffering from depression – ended up in the harbor.

Baltimore homicide detectives designated Brown’s case as "pending," one of 186 such cases involving questionable death already recorded in 2009. The pending deaths are not quickly ruled homicides because of lack of evidence or ambiguous circumstances.

“Generally when a case is pending, it means we are waiting for a ruling from the medical examiner’s office or additional evidence on the cause of death so the case can then be classified,” said Baltimore Police spokesman Troy Harris. “Once we have the necessary information the case is then re-classified.”

But the wait to classify a case can be long, records show, creating a backlog of pending cases that keep many questionable deaths into the record-keeping equivalent of purgatory,

So far, 137 of this year's 186 pending cases remain open, according to police records reviewed by Investigative Voice.

Of the 462 pending cases notched in 2008, 194 are still classified as pending, according to police records; a number that Frank M. Conaway, Baltimore's Clerk of the Courts, said adds more doubt on just how accurate the city’s homicide rate is.

“You already have enough uncertainty with all the undetermined cases; I think this just raises more doubts in my mind how many people are being murdered.”

Conaway has been critical of the high number of “undetermined" deaths – cases the medical examiner cannot conclusively classify a death as homicide, accident, suicide, or natural causes.

At last month’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Conaway grilled police officials, seeking more details on the thousands of undetermined cases still technically unclassified.

Baltimore City averages roughly 300 undetermined deaths per year, a majority of which involve people who are intoxicated with heroin, cocaine, or alcohol at the time of their death. Conaway believes that lost in the overwhelming number of unclassified deaths are homicides.

“I am supposed to hear back from the [police] commissioner next month on why so many deaths remained undetermined, and I will probably raise questions about pending cases as well.”

But whether the high number of pending cases, including the 194 cases from 2008 are sundetermined, accidents, or simply impenetrable mysteries is not clear, according to Cindy Feldstein, spokeswoman for the State Medical Examiner's Office.

“Some may be undetermined,” she said after the reviewing the records, “but our case numbers are different.”

The murkiness of pending cases can leave nagging questions unanswered when corpses wash ashore in Baltimore’s popular tourist destinations.

So far this year, at least five bodies have been found floating in harbor areas including the Pratt Street Pavilion, and two locations along historic Thames Street, according to police records.

At least four of those cases are still pending, including the cases of two Hispanic males whose bodies were found three days apart.

On March 19, Ivan Armando Lopez-Kestler’s body was found near the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream stand near the Light Street Pavilion at Harborplace. The body of Jamie Portillo was found on March 22 in the water off a pier on the 1400 block of Thames Street.

Both men were from Guatemala and were in the United States on temporary visas, police later learned.

According to police, Lopez-Kestler was last spotted by a friend dancing at Iguana Cantina on the evening of Feb. 7. The friend said Lopez-Kestler was intoxicated and disappeared on the dance floor -- never to be seen again.

Meanwhile, a relative of Portillo said he had been missing since Feb. 14.

The medical examiner has yet to rule on Lopez-Kestler’s death. According to police records, both deaths are still "pending cases.”

"It makes us worry,” said Dave Collington, 50, who is homeless and said he sleeps at various locations around the Inner Harbor. “We don’t know why these guys are ending up in the water, and we don’t know if it’s someone causing this or just accidents.”

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Comments (10)

Honestly, the first thought that came to my mind, when the cause of death for all five of these bodies was deemed to be not homicide, was man those homicide detectives sure must be happy. That's five less deaths that they need to investigate. It's definitely a numbers game, and it's a sad statement about the value of a life in the city.

On more than one instance a dead body has popped up that could go either way, such as accidental or suicide, and the plea has been made to "give us a break" on the murder count. It's not an everyday thing, maybe only 4 or 5 times a year, but one less murder stat is one less murder stat. Guy gets shot in 1989 and expires in 2009 and ME rules it a homicide, complications from that gunshot.......a Homicide commander puckers, it's another number come Comstat day. People, it's all about numbers. We won't even get into the shooting stats!

How many "accidental" overdoses are hot shots? A bad batch of heroin hits the streets, 10 or 15 overdoses pop up. Bad mix, poor cutting agent, or deliberate high percentage of heroin to get rid of some problem children who may be suspected informants? I know it sounds like a Kennedyesque conspiracy theory but it has gone on for years. Dancers on The Block that turn up as an OD but were suspected of stealing, drug touts that were off on the count found with a spike in their arm, or the neighborhood junkie that Harry Homeowner was sick of seeing with the nods on the front steps, all of these would be ruled as an OD but how many are murder, not homicide (the taking of the life of another) but murder (with malice aforethought). Just a little food for thought. Twain said it best....there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!

A couple months ago, someone went in the Marriott-Courtyard, right there around the corner from Whole Foods and stole money from their register. Downtown is not as safe as they want us to believe. The City wants to make money..property taxes and all. I am still afraid from the experience I had one 4th of July. I was so frightened; I walked....... swiftly to my car. Never, again. That night, I realized that these gangs don't care about police. Police presence was strong and still they were running in front and beating on cars.

It more than they admit to. It's hundreds. My brother was killed just off of Presidents Street; shot in the neck from his car window-carjacking. We were told by detectives that it was a gang involved. Haven't heard from them since. Funny, when it was told by the news-it did not match some of the statements that the detectives told. The news never reported he was killed while he was in Downtown Baltimore, they only mentioned where his body was dumped. We were told that where he was found is a dumping gound -S. Edgecomb Circle-Park Heights. How do you go downtown to a restaurant and end of dead, dumped in West Baltimore-that's horrible. It will be three years in August..... w/no follow-up. They have more murders to solve that a little bit. My cousin saw someone floating in the Harbor, and that never made it to the news. Never know what happened with that. Does that even make sense?

Part journalism, part opinion editorial, part narrative non-fiction, part literature. Janis is the man!

My previous comment centers on two things. First, from all the sites that I have seen reporting on bodies in the harbor, they all say 5 people have been found since January. It seems unnecessary and unfounded to say "at least five bodies have been found." That implies there could be another fifty stuck in some drain pipe, or hung up on the keel of the Constellation. When you're addressing the black eye of unsolved murders in Baltimore, I think sticking to the accepted numbers is best. My other issue is the use of the term "impenetrable mysteries." Is that a category the State medical examiner can check off? I guess what I'm saying is the first category you use in that sentence (undetermined) seems to mean an "impenetrable mystery." Why add this third category. I think it takes away from the substance of the piece. Obviously, I have too much time on my hands. My comments aside, I do enjoy your site. Thanks for your work.

I love the writing style. The Baltimore Sun tells a story, except that the story is reprinting the news release of the Office of the State's Attorney as though it were fact. By way of thinking, this is simply an alternative perspective and better writing to boot!

For the latest updates, subscribe to our rss feed in the "Top Stories" section and/or join our mailing list. Enjoy the site and thanks for the feedback.

I'm happy to have found your website. I do have one criticism that I think applies to this article as well as some others. There are some parts that feel like you are telling a story, providing a narrative plot, rather than presenting the facts as they are known. I am intrigued by the fact that there have been five bodies pulled out of the harbor since January. The "undetermined death" category, A.K.A purgatory, is an interesting topic that needs more investigating. Thanks for the new site to add to my regular stomping grounds.