14 FEB – On July 31, 1986, Keith Warren, a 19-year-old black male, was found hanging from a small tree in a park in Silver Spring, Maryland. Police and the County Medical Examiner ruled Keith’s death a suicide and his body was sent to Collins Funeral Home in Silver Spring for embalming without performing an autopsy.
Suspicious events led the family to exhume Keith’s body on May 24, 1994 and Dr. Isidore Mihalakis performed the autopsy of Keith’s body. High levels of Trichloroethane (TCE) and Dichloroethane (DCE) were found in Keith’s blood, brain, liver, kidney, and muscles. Xylene, ethylbenzene, and toluene were also detected in these tissues but at low concentrations.
Mihalakis stated that the cause of death was undetermined.
In November 2011, Keith’s sister contacted pathologist Mohammad Al-Bayati PhD and requested that a review Keith’s autopsy report and other medical and legal records generated in his case and provide an opinion concerning the likely cause(s) of his death. A toxicologist and pathologist with over 25 years of experience, Dr. Al-Bayati reviewed the medical records. Using the discipline of differential diagnosis, his investigation revealed that the county medical examiner missed the cause of death because he failed to conduct the required standard medical-legal investigation in his case.
According to Dr. Al-Bayati, Warren Keith was murdered.
The story will air on Investigation Discovery on Tuesday, Feb 21. (Check local listings.)
Dr. Al-Bayati’s report can be downloaded here.
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Tags: differential diagnosis, Isidore Mihalakis, Keith Warren, Mohammad Al-Bayati PhD, murder, pathology, suicide