The Cover Up of the Murder of Olivia Jane Ward

Jillybean · Senior Member

The Cover Up of the Murder of Olivia Jane Ward

atlanta girl · Senior Member

jill story sounds interesting.where did this all take place,what town city state.all the brusing and wounds sure do not sound like one would have from a broken neck from a fall. however i do know that a fall from a short distance can cause death. if one lands wrong. for i had a very dear friend fall from a 8 ft scaffold. hitting the back of his head on a cement curb.looking forward to reading more on the ward story.

Jillybean · Senior Member

Hi Beverly,

The death of Janie Ward occured in MArshall, Arkansas in Searcy county. I can understand the possiblity of death occuring from an 8 fot fall, but we are talking 8-11 INCHES. It is impossible for this child to have gotten the injuries she sustained from a fall such as that. It was also noted in the autopsy report that Janie was soaking wet from head to toe and that she had sand UNDER NEATH her clothing, now how did she get that from a FALL? Some people took her to a car wash and hosed her off with a high pressure hose. This case stinks to high heaven of corruption.

Jill

atlanta girl · Senior Member

well i guess i didnt read close enough since i misunderstood the height of the fallis there a book written about this crime.with the snd underneath her clothes one would think there wa a stuggle on a beach.but i know here is no beach in arkansaw.but perhaps a sandy area along a lake .one would persume a struggle occurred on this sandy area along a lake.or even that body was held down in the water so that bidy was pressed into the bottom of lake.while alive and struggling.reason for sand under clothes.ill have to do some researching on the net to see if cn find anymore thingds about this story.is a shame has gone un solved all these years.starting with going back and re reading the post on this site at a time when i can really be in a frame of mind to really think about it.

atlanta girl · Senior Member

just reead post describing all the wounds on body sure sounds to me like janie was drowned by someone holding her down under the water.while she struggled for her life. was possibly beaten befor being put in the water.but nothing consistant with police report of broken neck from fall brusies on back of hands would be defense wounds occuring while victim was blocking face or bidy from being struck by someone else.was the party janie was at the time of her dath held at a lake or in sometype of woooded area.case does yell of corruption and possible cover up by local police.at his point just so many unanswered questions .am looking forwardto more info being posted about this case.was judges daughter a friend or just another kid that just happened to be at same party.was boy shot boyfriend of victim or just another kid at party. i suspect in either case he tried to protect janie

from being beaten by others at party.

itsybitsy · Senior Member

Going to do a web search on this story. Dang near sounds like she was run over or something. Will get back with ya on this case.

its

atlanta girl · Senior Member

from what i have read on other sites regardingthis cse there was a creek close to the place where the partywas held. seems others at the party claim janie and the judges daughter had a fight by the creek. the judges daughter suposedly hit janiw with a baseball bat. the autopsy reports and the wounds on body support this.but all that i read on this case fails to determine a reason that judges daughter would be so angry at janie to want to beat her in such a heartless way.with the records being stolen from the ambulance base. one could assume a coverup was taking place perhaps no one wants to be blamed for supplying alcohol to a bunch of minors . would be interesting to know who owened the home where party was held

. and who were the adults at that party.

Jillybean · Senior Member

Beverly,

The rumors going around at the time were that the judges daughter, Sara, was fighting with Janie over a boy. Only a few weeks before Janie's death, Sara and another girl beat up another judges daughter breaking her nose. The judge, hiw wife and the rest of the family tried repeatedly to have charges filed against Sara Patterson for the assault, but the PA refused to file the charges. So basically, just to make this clear, we have three girls, two of them are the daughters of a judge. The first girl, Sara Patterson and her friend, beat up the other judges daughter and broke her nose. No charges were ever filed against Judge Patterson's daughter or the other girl involved. Judge Patterson was able to "fix" it for his daughter. It has also been reported and is in witness statements that Sara Patterson had been harrassing Janie at school for days prior to her death.

It is also in witness statements that a man named Gary Snow bought two kegs the day before the party (it might have been two days before the party, I don't have the witness statement right in front of me), and I believe that he was 22 at the time. It's interesting to note that he was never charged with ANYTHING, not contributing to the delinquency ... NOTHING. Now you tell me how that works? The police had proof, the owner of the liquer store kept a log of every keg signed in or out. Gary Snows name was on there with two kegs, the owner and Gary even got into an arguement because one keg was full and the other was half full so Snow wanted a refund. The owner wouldn't give him one bc they weren't kept cold. The whole case stinks if you ask me.

Jill

atlanta girl · Senior Member

yes girls fighting over a boy. .is shame this snow guy wasnt charged with anything. i agree with you jill this case stinks of corruption .i do believe the judge did keep his daughter out of trouble for her actions. from whati read this janie was a frendly person. is such a shame she crossed the path of a spoiled im sure girl as sars patterson probaly is. gee rember when girls fought over things by pushing and shoveing a slap or hair pulled was deadliest wound one recieved when murder was never heard of being committed by girls anyway.was the boy being fought over the boy that was shot.or run out of town.is all so sad.as is usually the case when someone is murdered and no one is made to be responsible for there actions.simply because of who they are.

Jillybean · Senior Member

Beverly,

I know what you mean about fighting when we were kids, things are so much different now. I've had girls threaten my 14 year old daughters life - it's a terrifying thing. What makes it all so much worse is that NO ONE has been charged with Janie's murder.

Janie was known to friends and family as a nice, easy going, friendly girl who liked just about everyone. In all the witness statements that I read, no one had a bad word to say about her. It makes it so much harder for Janie's family to live in the same town with the suspect and her family and know that this girl probably killed their daughter and that because of her fathers position as a judge, everything was covered up.

What is a trully terrfying thought is that the cover didn't stop at the judge, it went all the way to the Gov.'s office-that is why I am determined to put Janie's story on Justice Junction so that the world can see what has happened, and what could happen to your own family when we give our elected officials too much power.

Jill

atlanta girl · Senior Member

i hear you jill yes this case does need to be on this forum for the whole world to see.the same as another case on this forum. that hasnt seen justice yet due to family ties of the perpentrater.seems like the other judge the one whos daughter got a broken nose could have gotten something done .yes im sure its real hard on janies family to have to live in same town as sara.the site i read didnt say much about the boy that was shot or about anyone being run out of town. do you have any info on that part of case .wouldnt surprise me if boy shot trying to help janie at party. and the one ran out of town fbecause he was a witness or was it the same person.how did this snow guy not get at least contributing to delency of a miner .only thing i can think of is no police wanted to mess with it. because he should have at the least charged with dofm. if nothing else.

PAPER_DENIM_GUY · Pre-Newbie

quote:
Originally posted by: atlanta girl
"well i guess i didnt read close enough since i misunderstood the height of the fallis there a book written about this crime.with the snd underneath her clothes one would think there wa a stuggle on a beach.but i know here is no beach in arkansaw.but perhaps a sandy area along a lake .one would persume a struggle occurred on this sandy area along a lake.or even that body was held down in the water so that bidy was pressed into the bottom of lake.while alive and struggling.reason for sand under clothes.ill have to do some researching on the net to see if cn find anymore thingds about this story.is a shame has gone un solved all these years.starting with going back and re reading the post on this site at a time when i can really be in a frame of mind to really think about it."

hi, beverly
actually there is a beach in arkansas just about 1 or 2 miles from the house the party was that night. which my best friend now lives in, but anyway the beach is on the buffalo river, and rumor around here has it they first tried to burry her at the river in the sand, then decided that was a bad idea so they took her to the car wash and tried to rinse her off, and that would explain the weight of her lungs, and the sand found in her clothes. and i think it might be propable that she could have died from falling off that porch, it's very rocky on the ground where she supposedly landed, but uhh, yeah something definitely isn't right about this case

PAPER_DENIM_GUY · Pre-Newbie

quote:
Originally posted by: Jillybean
"Beverly, The rumors going around at the time were that the judges daughter, Sara, was fighting with Janie over a boy. Only a few weeks before Janie's death, Sara and another girl beat up another judges daughter breaking her nose. The judge, hiw wife and the rest of the family tried repeatedly to have charges filed against Sara Patterson for the assault, but the PA refused to file the charges. So basically, just to make this clear, we have three girls, two of them are the daughters of a judge. The first girl, Sara Patterson and her friend, beat up the other judges daughter and broke her nose. No charges were ever filed against Judge Patterson's daughter or the other girl involved. Judge Patterson was able to "fix" it for his daughter. It has also been reported and is in witness statements that Sara Patterson had been harrassing Janie at school for days prior to her death. It is also in witness statements that a man named Gary Snow bought two kegs the day before the party (it might have been two days before the party, I don't have the witness statement right in front of me), and I believe that he was 22 at the time. It's interesting to note that he was never charged with ANYTHING, not contributing to the delinquency ... NOTHING. Now you tell me how that works? The police had proof, the owner of the liquer store kept a log of every keg signed in or out. Gary Snows name was on there with two kegs, the owner and Gary even got into an arguement because one keg was full and the other was half full so Snow wanted a refund. The owner wouldn't give him one bc they weren't kept cold. The whole case stinks if you ask me. Jill"

the reason the case and many others are dropped or remain unsolved is the simple fact that this is searcy county, things around here are pretty corrupt. people cover things up, just sweep them under the rug, forget about it, and when it's someone like jerry patterson he has a lot of political pull and enough money to keep the local law enforcement in his pocket. They say "if you want to get away with murder just go to searcy county" and it's true you can get away with anything here. just take it from Charles Manson he said if he ever got out he was moving to Snowball, AR (which is in sercy county). but any evidence that could have been used to convict Sara Patterson is long gone now. her daddy made sure of that i'm assume. and i'm sure the local cops did their fair share of overlooking, disposing of, and misplacing evidence, pretty ****ed up. and the sad part is thay will never have enough evidence to convict her, unless someone that was there speaks up, but their all too afraid of jerry, or else they were all paid off. oh well, i'm sure the just knowing you killed someone and got away with it would be punishment enough unless she didn't have a consciense, which would not be entirely surprising.

atlanta girl · Senior Member

this story of trying to bury olivia then changing mind and taking to car wash would explainthe sand under clothes. and sounds just like a bunch of scared tenagers would do. i feel lik paper guy is right when he says only way the truth comes out and thiscase gets prosecuted is if one of the teens there that night comes forward.and since no one has come forward so far chances are nextto none of that ever happeningi hope for searcy co arkansas that charles manson is never releashed from prison.

Crusader · Newbie

Not only was it confirmed that Gary Snow bought the two kegs of beer for the party but it is a known fact that he was also on felony parole in the state of Oklahoma at the time of Janie Ward's death and no charges of any kind filed aganist him, Snow was a star witness in how Janie was supposed to have fell from this low porch, out of the half a dozen different stories he's told. Sarah Patterson says Janie just twisted and folded and fell real easy and the only other one that said Janie fell from this porch was Billy Harris a known story teller. Only these three out of the 30 or 40 at the party said that they saw Janie fall from this documented 9 and 1/2 inch high porch the others claim to have their backs turned or to have been in the house.

Crusader

atlanta girl · Senior Member

hi crusadder glad to see you here. so snow on felony parole i would think his buying kegs of alvcohol would be a nono for him. like in recovation seems he should have been sent back to prison for recovation of parole but im not really a excpert on the law stuff.wonder if snow suddenly seem to have a big cash flow after partywith no way to show for it. could be he was paid off.to keep quit.do you know anything about the boy that was shot and run out of town. i would be interested in hearing more about him.

Crusader · Newbie

Atlanta Girl,

I don't know about any cash given to him for his witness lies, I figure there was enough to charge him with contributing to the delequency of minors, even manslaughter so he was got by the short hairs and would say anything he was told to say. I was the only one ever charged with anything, in the investigative file the Arkansas State Police Inv. encouraged Snow 7 different time to file charges against me and finally he did. I was charged with terroristic threating. Snow claimed i was harrassing him and that i threatened him all i wanted was for him to tell the truth for after all he was supposed to be Janie's friend,his mother, Janie and Janie's mother all had worked together at a local restaurant there in Marshall. I went to court i was going to show that Gary Don Snow (i had a copy of the reciept from the liquor store and proof that he was on parole) he didn't show for court so the judge had to throw the case out.

I never meet the Coates boy the one that was shot but Janie and her mom had met him about 2 weeks pior to her death he had been here about a month, was here from out of state visiting a relative, as its a matter of fact that same relative came to our house the day after Janie's death with the news about the shooting and his being stopped when he had crossed the state line by a Ark. State Trooper and told the news.

Crusader

-- Edited by Crusader at 09:18, 2004-07-27

atlanta girl · Senior Member

crusader i totally agree with you that snow should have bee charged with contributing to delency of a minor at the least.i feel very strongly that he was paid off or givin a great deal for not showing up in court to testify.im still trying to get picture in my mind about the coates boy. how he was shot. where did the gun come from did someone at the party have it there with them.or was the shooting later in days after party. this case stinks of courroptionas bad as the other case on this site regarding my dear friend.i would think that if janie had just kinda curled up and fell would not resulted in a blow to the head hard enough to cause death from that height. but if pushed would had a harder inpact with rocks than if just kinda fell over. i believe she was pushed off or thrown off. either wouldhave resulted in a impact hard enough to cause death.therefore this girl was murdered.in my opinion. is such a shame tat you had real evidence that wasnt dealt with like it should have been. and the one person trying to do right thin

g you crusder was the only one arrested.

Crusader · Newbie

Justice Junction Owners,

There are other web sites for Justice for Janie would you care if those links were posted on your site where as anyone interested in Janie Ward's Case could get more information?

Justice for Janie

Father & Mother

Ron & Mona Ward

-- Edited by Crusader at 09:10, 2004-08-04

Jillybean · Senior Member

Crusader,

We would very much appreciate you posting the links to the other websites regarding Janie's death. Between being sick (went into kidney failure, dehydration and something else that I can't even pronounce), and college, I have yet to finish Janie's article to post on Justice Junction, along with Anna's updates on the Scott Peterson trial ..shame shame on me :). I just haven't had the time to dedicate to her story. So, by all means, please post any links that you have. I'm familiar with the Justice for Janie website but the other two I don't think that I've seen. I am also supposed to meet with the FBI here in Springfield in regards to Janie's death and cover-up but have had to reschedule it more times than one. As I said, between being sick, college and the mother of five, I just haven't had the time. I am also contacting Dr. Henry Lee, the renouned forensic scientist - people think that they don't leave any evidence or that the evidence has been "taken care of" but Dr. Lee can find the smallest particle of evidence simply by looking at photo's. Cross your fingers and pray that he will agree to look at Janie's case. If we can get Dr. Lee on the case, it's a sure slam dunk.

Jill AKA Jillybean

Crusader · Newbie

Jill,

Thank you for your help and get well soon the world needs more like you.

Will post these links so the readers can gain more knowledge about Janie Ward's Case. One can type in on a search engine like google or yahoo, Justice for Janie, Olivia Jane Ward or Janie Ward to find more links, or type in The Injustice Files or go to http://www.janieward.org/more/more/.htm http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janieward/

Thanking you again and get well

Justice for Janie

Crusader

-- Edited by Crusader at 02:19, 2004-08-06

Crusader · Newbie

Hey Everyone,

Sept. 9, 2004 will mark the 15th year that Janie was taken from us

Crusader · Newbie

AUTOPSY

After 15 long years of heartache and trying to get a real autopsy performed on our daughter, and being blocked by the powers that be, we have a cause of death ruling that will change the death certificate from undetermined to HOMICIDE.

The District Attorney H.G.Foster of Arkansas' 20 Judicial District refused to help us and has blocked us in every way until by the grace of God we found a way around him to get a court order for the exhumation. and a real autopsy for our daughter and now he wants to question one of Americas' most qualified forensic pathologist.

(janieward) Pathologist:Girl was killed in '89

http://www.nwanews.com/story.php? Tuesday Oct. 12-2004

Janie's Dad and Mom

-- Edited by Crusader at 04:43, 2004-10-17

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

It's hard to believe how much of a struggle it is to get some justice. For Heaven's sake, the extent of Janie's injuries could not have come from a fall from a ladder. Wow! She was brutally beaten with a blunt object. Scratched, stomped on and drowned. I would look for more than one accomplice if one of the suspects is female. Who had injuries on them the following day? It sounds like Janie fought back hard.

edited to add: the link isn't working for me. Is there another one I can try??

-- Edited by one_eyed_Jack at 15:57, 2004-10-17

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

There are several news articles on the homicide of Olivia Jane Ward and the subsequent investigative cover-up in her case to be posted courtesy of Ron Ward. Please read the articles to follow:

Autopsy rules girl¹s death homicide

By KEVAN MATHIS
Times Staff kevanm@commpub.com

MARSHALL

The death of a 16-year-old girl who died in Marshall 15 years ago
has been ruled a homicide, according to autopsy results performed by Dr.
Harry Bonnell.

Bonnell, a noted pathologist from San Diego, Calif., flew to Little Rock
Oct. 7 to determine the exact cause of death of Olivia Jane 'Janie' Ward who
reportedly died Sept. 9, 1989, near a cabin at Zach Ridge in Searcy County
while attending a party with several classmates. A few witnesses said Janie
died after she fell off a porch that was 9 inches tall.

Janie¹s parents, Ron and Mona Ward, recently had their daughter exhumed
from Canaan Cemetery after the family failed to reopen investigation of the
case to their satisfaction. The Wards believe their daughter was murdered
and then a cover-up ensued.

Bonnell¹s report said Janie Ward¹s remains were in an excellent state of
preservation and the autopsy revealed "an impact to the left side of the
face with bruising of the left cheek, fracture and bleeding in the cartilage
of the nose and bruising of the left forehead.

"She had a hyperextension injury (her head was knocked too far backwards)
with fracture of the spine in the neck. This injury is sometimes referred to
as a Ohangman's¹ fracture. There was no evidence of any impact to the back
of the head, although the original autopsy report describes there being
one," Bonnell wrote.

"Since the injury found at autopsy does not agree with any of the stories
provided by witnesses, I consider this to be a homicide," Bonnell continued.
Searcy County Sheriff Jerry Loggins said that after he confirms the autopsy
results, he plans to get with the Arkansas State Police to reopen the case
"to get to the bottom of this once and for all."

After receiving an autopsy at the University of Arkansas Medical Services in
Little Rock, Janie Ward¹s body was reinterred Oct. 8 at Canaan Cemetery near
Highway 27 in Marshall.

Dr. Bonnell¹s initial report states that Janie could not have died in that
manner from falling off a porch less than 1 foot high.

Two years ago, the Searcy County Quorum Court unanimously approved a
resolution calling on Gov. Mike Huckabee to appoint a special prosecutor or
special task force to "reopen and thoroughly investigate the unsolved death
of Olivia Jane Ward."

In remarks to justices of the peace, Ward pointed out that Sheriff Loggins
had agreed to help investigate the case, but Searcy County doesn't have the
financial resources to adequately reopen the file. And Ward said he had been
unsuccessful in getting Prosecutor H.G. Foster or the Arkansas State Police
to join in an investigation.

In making his case to JPs, Ward handed out a packet of information that he
had compiled on his daughter's death. Included in the file was the
certificate of death which stated the location of death was the Searcy
County Bank parking lot.

News reports on the incident indicated that Ward and other students were at
a party at a cabin outside of Marshall. Witnesses said Ward fell from the
stoop portion of the porch, a distance of less than 9 inches, when suffering
the injuries.

She was loaded in the back of a pickup truck and hauled to Marshall, where
ambulance and sheriff¹s department personnel were called to the parking lot.
The autopsy report said she had a blood alcohol level of .05.
Ward said his daughter was wet at the time of her death, her lungs weighed
twice the normal weight, and she had a separated collarbone, broken nose,
black eye, broken neck and other cuts and bruises.

For 15 years, the Wards have campaigned for a renewed investigation into
their daughter's death. Their vehicles display 'Justice for Janie' bumper
stickers, and he has given countless interviews. Several websites have been
earmarked about the case including one at www.janieward.org.
The exhumation process is not simple nor cheap. After the state refused to
reopen the case, the Wards hired the legal services of Wright, Lindsey and
Jennings in Little Rock. Next, Conway Judge Charles Clawson signed the
petition for order of exhumation.

The Wards then had to hire the services of Roller Coffman Funeral Home in
Marshall who agreed to exhume the body and put in back in the ground a few
days later.

Wilbert Burial Vault Company in Harrison was hired to lift out the concrete
vault with the coffin still inside and transport both to Alexander, located
just southwest of Little Rock, where the coffin was removed from the sealed
vault before being transported to the University of Arkansas Medical
Services in Little Rock for autopsy by Dr. Bonnell.

Loggins and Arkansas State Police Trooper Justin Ricketts were on hand to
oversee the exhumation process. "I think the family has some unanswered
questions that need to be answered and I think doing this will help them in
closure issues," said Loggins. Loggins was not the sheriff at the time of
Janie¹s death, Kent Griggs was.

Dr. Bonnell said he wanted the public to know that he did not charge the
Wards any money for his services which might cause some people to
misconstrue his autopsy results. "The autopsy on Janie was performed at UAMS and it was done pro bono," he said. "The only charge to the family was for my travel."

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

2nd Autopsy Done In 1989 Death Of Teen
( Air Date: 10/8/2004 )

Olivia Jane Ward`s body has been exhumed
for a second autopsy 15 years after she was buried in the Canaan
Cemetery in Searcy County.

Her parents have questioned official explanations of their
16-year-old daughter`s death. Ron and Mona Ward contend that state
and county investigtors erred during the investigation.

The girl was buried in 1989 after she died during a party with
schoolmates at a cabin in the woods. The official cause of death
was a broken neck from falling off a porch that was less than 10
inches off the ground.

The Wards asked for another autopsy last month from Circuit
Judge Charles Clawson Junior of Conway. Searcy County Sheriff Jerry
Loggins doesn`t see any need to reopen the case, but said he would
if the autopsy points to the need for more investigation.

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE

JUSTICE FOR JANIE

BY Noel E Oman
Posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2004

Pathologist: Girl was killed in '89

A Searcy County teenager was killed 15 years ago by a blow to the
head forceful enough to break her neck, according to a private
forensic pathologist who called the death a homicide.

Harry J. Bonnell of San Diego based his conclusion on an autopsy he
performed Friday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
after Olivia Jane Ward's parents obtained a court order to exhume
her body. Bonnell, who had not finished writing the report Monday,
shared what he found in the autopsy in an interview.

The Wards have contended for years that state and county
investigators botched the investigation into their daughter's death,
which occurred during a party Sept. 9, 1989, with schoolmates at a
cabin in the woods. Olivia was 16. "I knew if we ever had an
official autopsy, one done properly, they would come up with a cause
of death, a real cause," said Ron Ward of Marshall. "I knew that the
night I saw my daughter."

The original autopsy concluded she died from a broken neck caused
by falling off a porch less than 10 inches high. That conclusion was
later changed to "undetermined" after the autopsy came into
question.

Bonnell said his autopsy revealed an impact to the left side of the
face, with bruising of the left cheek, fracture and bleeding in the
cartilage of the nose and bruising of the left forehead.

Olivia's body also exhibited an injury Bonnell said is sometimes
referred to as a "hangman's fracture," a hyper-extension injury in
which the head is knocked so far backward it causes a spinal
fracture.

Further, Bonnell said, he found no evidence of an impact to the back
of the head, as described in the original autopsy. "Since the injury
found at autopsy does not agree with any of the stories provided by
witnesses, I consider this to be a homicide," he said. Law
enforcement officials reached Monday wanted to review Bonnell's
autopsy report and supporting documents before deciding whether to
reopen the investigation.

The 20 th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, H. G. Foster of
Conway, said he also would want to have the state medical examiner's
office review Bonnell's work before proceeding further.

Foster, in 26 years with the prosecuting attorney's office, said he
has worked dozens and dozens of homicides but never one in which the
victim's family retained a private pathologist. "It would be
irresponsible in the extreme to take any action based on a report by
a privately retained expert," Foster said. "Our medical examiner's
office is staffed by some of the best in the country. We have to
trust them. From what I know, they are worthy of our trust."

Searcy County Sheriff Jerry Loggins said if Bonnell is correct, "I
think we owe it to the family to look at it and see what could be
accomplished."

Ron Ward said that once he gets Bonnell's autopsy report, he will
forward a copy to Foster. But Ward expressed little faith that law
enforcement authorities would purse the case. "We will send one to
him," Ward said. "We don't want to leave him out. But I don't know
why he wants to get on board now. We've been telling him all this
time."

Now a private forensic consultant, Bonnell was chief deputy medical
examiner in San Diego from 1991-2001. He's performed more than 6,000
autopsies and qualified as an expert witness more than 400 times in
17 states.

He has worked with Parents of Murdered Children, whose panel of
experts helped review the original autopsy and investigative file
several years ago when the cause of death was changed
from "accidental" to "undetermined."

At that time, Bonnell said that evidence suggested Olivia was in
a "river or a lake" and that X-ray films used in the original
autopsy appear to be from the skull of a black male rather than that
of a white female, according to the request the Wards made for
another autopsy.

Ward said he would've had the autopsy performed sooner but couldn't
afford it. Bonnell performed the autopsy for free, but Bonnell said
the Ward family paid for his travel expenses. The Wards also had to
pay to have their daughter's body exhumed.

He declined to say how much the effort cost.

reprinted in it's entirety from http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?
paper=adg§ion=News&storyid=95359

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

LETTER TO 48 HOURS

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

RE: The Cover Up of the Murder of Olivia Jane Ward

one_eyed_Jack · Veteran Member

Lady Justice still in denial
Mike Masterson

Early this spring, the father of a 16-year-old Marshall girl who died of a broken neck in 1989 opened his mailbox to find a heated letter from the director of the Arkansas State Police. Col. Don Melton, who has since retired, told Ron Ward that his concerns over alleged "malfeasance, incompetence, collusion and violation of numerous state and federal criminal laws" arising from the state police investigation into his daughter’s brutal death were just not credible. In defending his agency’s investigation and the investigator, Sgt. Bill Beach, Melton said he had been provided with all the investigative facts in Janie Ward’s case and was fully satisfied that Beach had been "thorough and complete" in his efforts. "Dozens of witnesses have been interviewed, re-interviewed, and most of them have been polygraphed," Melton asserted. "There is no credible evidence to contradict the statements of the witnesses or the validity of the medical examiner’s report as to the cause of death."

Furthermore, Melton said, Janie’s case had even been reviewed by the "appropriate prosecuting attorney," H. G. Foster, and officially accepted as "complete and thorough." He then informed Ward that his daughter’s case would remain closed "and will only be reopened if new evidence or testimony comes forward that has not been revealed or considered previously."

Not to be deterred by admonishments on high, Ward immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the state police seeking the results of all those polygraphs Melton had cited.

Well, a few weeks later, Ward received an apologetic letter—not from Melton, but signed instead by Bill Sadler, executive projects manager for the state police. Sadler said his boss must have failed to comprehend some deeper truths about his agency’s investigation. "Upon reading Col. Melton’s letter, I immediately suspected he misunderstood the facts of the case that were presented to him by the case agent supervisors," Sadler wrote. "... I can assure you no polygraph records are contained in the case file, nor were there any polygraph examinations conducted."

It seems that Melton’s statements in this "complete and thorough" case were neither complete nor thorough. Of course, it was all the fault of his "agents."

I don’t fault him for such an assumption. I find myself wondering why not a single polygraph exam was administered in light of all the glaring contradictions I’ve read in a dozen witnesses ’ statements. But Melton’s citation of the "validity" of the initial medical examiner’s report, which ruled the manner of Janie’s death "undetermined," opens up a real credibility gap today. As I’ve previously reported, earlier this month Dr. Harry Bonnell of San Diego, Calif., performed a thorough second autopsy on Janie’s well-preserved remains. He concluded that her death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the face that knocked her head backward and separated it from her spinal column.

Even I counted six plainly discernible injuries documented in Bonnell’s Oct. 8 autopsy that were not noted in the original autopsy by the state’s former chief medical examiner, Dr. Fahmy Malak. Why was such clear evidence of a brutal assault to Janie Ward’s face and neck not recorded in 1989? (Malak resigned his position in September 1991 at the request of then-Gov. Bill Clinton amidst newspaper accounts alleging that he had mishandled several cases.)

Bonnell earned his medical degree at Georgetown University. He is a nationally regarded, board-certified forensic pathologist and a former San Diego deputy medical examiner. He has taught at two universities as well as the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Moreover, he has performed more than 6,000 autopsies and testified as an expert for plaintiffs and defendants alike in more than 400 criminal and civil cases. Such an accomplished pathologist, one who is not caught up in our state’s politics and agendas, is highly qualified to note obvious bruises to the human face, neck and shoulder. Wouldn’t you agree? So what now? Hey, why doesn’t someone in the criminal justice system finally dust off that polygraph machine, impanel an impartial grand jury headed by an aggressive, objective prosecutor and apply some genuine investigative technique and pressure? Will an official with courage please step forward and finally yank the blindfold of denial off Lady Justice?

• Mike Masterson is an award-winning Arkansas journalist.