Police, medical personnel missed gunshot wound
Homicide investigation opened after funeral home found elderly man’s death not from natural causes
At first, no one realized 78-year-old George Garth had been shot to death.
Police saw no signs of forced entry at his home on Central Avenue, and there was no obvious blood. Even the medical personnel who responded to the report of a body found on Sept. 22 missed the gunshot wound to the chest.
It was not until Garth’s body was taken to John P. Franklin Funeral Home that workers there discovered he had not died from natural causes.
The funeral home alerted the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s office, and, about four or five hours after his body was found, police started an investigation into his death and roped off his home as a crime scene.
Police say the about-four-hour period when the home wasn’t secured as a crime scene shouldn’t have much impact on the ongoing investigation. But it could raise questions in court if someone is ever charged in Garth’s death, attorney Jerry Summers said.
“The question is, was the crime scene secured, first of all, and secondly, was there any indication it was altered during that period of time before the funeral home discovered the gunshot wound and advised police?” he asked. “That is the critical question in my mind. Some defense lawyers often will try to allege that police did not do their job.”
Defense attorneys could question the integrity of evidence found at the crime scene because of the time the home was left unsecured, he said.
But Sgt. Michael Wenger said police take into account the possibility that a scene could have
been tampered with any time they investigate a death.
“With any homicide, the police are rarely on the scene when it occurs, so our investigation almost always starts hours and hours or even days after the fact,” he said. “So that’s how our scenes are processed, with that in mind, knowing things could have been changed, things could have been moved. So we consider that throughout the investigation.”
Although police that day labeled Garth’s death a homicide after finding a bullet, Wenger said last week that investigators haven’t yet determined whether Garth committed suicide or was killed by another person. The medical examiner has not finished Garth’s autopsy.
Police do not have a motive for Garth’s death or any suspects, Wenger said.
He said police prefer to set up a secure crime scene as soon as possible and added it’s rare for first responders to mistake a violent death for a natural one.
“It’s fairly unusual,” he said. “I’ve seen it two or three times in my time in the violent crimes bureau, which has been seven years.”
Summers said the impact on any potential criminal case will depend largely on what police find and how they build the case against any potential suspect.
“It could be this one just slipped through the cracks,” Summers said. “Human errors do occur, but whether it in any way prejudices the prosecution or the defense in the matter, that will just have to be determined [in court] if anybody is arrested.”