I called Detective Whittier a few minutes after noon. 1 He correctly assumed that I was in Florida now. He told me he had called the medical examiner’s office this morning, but he had been unable to talk to a doctor. He said that he left a message for the chief medical examiner for Volusia County to call him after he explained the whole story to a nurse there. He said he was waiting for them to call him.
Detective Whittier suggested that I call the ME’s office, because if I call they might agree to do an autopsy based on my story, otherwise I can have one done on my own. We talked for a bit about HIPAA and privacy and how it frequently made it very difficult for law enforcement.
He told me that he doesn’t understand why the medical examiner won’t do an autopsy on their own, and that he is documenting all of his conversations with everyone at the medical examiner’s office because, “it doesn’t make sense.” He noted again that he has been told that Dr. Peele won’t sign the death certificate, and that he is still waiting for the ME to call him back, and that he is still waiting for Dr. Peele to call him back.
Detective Whittier said that he came to this website and had printed most of it and shown it to his lieutenant. He asked if I was taking notes on everything, which he said was very smart. 2 He said that he had called the medical examiner’s office at 8:10 AM EDT and was unable to get in touch with any doctor or the medical examiner, but that the nurse to whom he’d spoken said she’d leave a note in mom’s chart. Detective Whittier said he understood that doctors and administrators are very busy. 3
The entire call lasted nineteen minutes.
1 Note that this website posts times as Pacific.
2 I told him that I was indeed taking notes of everything, including the conversation we were having right now, and he said that was a good idea.
3 It was very clear from his tone and choice of words that he was annoyed that his calls had been not been returned yet.