LITTLE ROCK — During the holidays my empathy invariably returns to Ron and Mona Ward of Marshall. They are the parents whose 16-year old daughter, Olivia Jane “Janie” Ward, died during a teen beer bust at a cabin in the woods on Sept. 9, 1989.
Many of you followed the many columns I wrote between 2004 and 2008 detailing all the subterfuge I became convinced by sheer facts had surrounded her death.
The truths I was writing about were like Easter eggs exposed to anyone who wanted to conduct an honest investigation, including simply asking the right questions of the right possible suspect.
The official version of Janie’s demise was so grade-school-preposterous as to make downright fools wince from embarrassment.
Three self-described witnesses to Janie’s collapse onto dry ground said she somehow flew backwards of her own volition from a patio of 9-inchhigh rocks outside the rural cabin’s front door.
There, somehow soaking wet and littered with sand even inside her bra, Janie supposedly lay unmoving on the ground and died within minutes.
Dr. Fahmy Malak, the state’s chief medical examiner at the time (who later would depart in disgrace over questionable rulings) explained to the parents that Janie had died from a severe spinal cord and neck injury caused by sudden trauma. He also said the case needed more authentic investigation, which didn’t happen. Janie’s death subsequently was conveniently ruled to be of “undetermined” cause and manner.
Years later, a nationally prominent California medical examiner arrived at his own expense to exhume Jane’s remains and conduct a second autopsy free of good-ol’-boy political influences. He found much the same thing as Dr. Malak had and said he believed her death was a homicide.
That set the flummoxed state’s systems into overdrive trying to discredit this independent pathologist, reconfigure facts and eventually retain a retired Indiana pathologist to perform yet another exhumation and autopsy. That examiner eventually said he just couldn’t determine how or why Janie died. But it wasn’t a homicide.
Say what?
Our state’s official conclusion after that circus formed a full circle right back to “undetermined.”
This, despite official autopsy photographs that Dr. Malak had provided the family following his post-mortem exam, which clearly show Janie’s exposed spinal cord torn (not cut) in half still inside her spinal column.
The state medical examiner in 2008 hurriedly returned Janie’s body to the cemetery where it was re-interred a final time, leaving her once-hopeful parents still without answers and me with nothing of substance left to reveal after writing for so long on what the facts surrounding Janie’s death revealed.
That’s where our state left the reinvestigation of Janie’s demise after Special Prosecutor Tim Williamson of Mena had generated four years of paperwork and called it quits.
Even North Little Rock private investigator David Sheldon easily recognized that the state’s findings in Janie’s death were bogus. He conducted his own investigation, also to no avail. The state’s show had hitched up its wagons and left town.
So for the many wondering whatever happened to Janie’s case, I’m one who understands your curiosity. Yet I also don’t have a badge and can’t hold the party or parties I believe are responsible legally accountable.
I told the Wards back in 2004 as I began relating Janie’s story that I could write a million words that disclose truth, but unless the system acted at some point to ensure justice, those words wouldn’t amount to squat. Sure enough.
Perfect record
Did you notice that 3rd District U.S. Rep. Steve Womack is one of only three freshman congressmen (out of six congressmen overall) to maintain a perfect voting record during the 112th Congress?
Whether one agrees of disagrees with his ideology or the flavor of Rep. Womack’s damned-whether-you-door-don’t votes, I believe that showing that kind of action by voting 1,608 consecutive times shows both a dedication to, and respect for, his elected office.
Obviously, out of 435 voting members in the House of Representatives who collectively miss an average of 2.5 percent of the possible votes during a session, to be among six with an unblemished voting record makes a definite statement to me about the man’s priorities.
Said Womack: “I recognize that I am extremely blessed to hold this office, to have my [constituents’] trust, and that nothing has prevented me from casting my vote.” My resolution
New Year’s Resolution: Not to become white-hot, uber-frustrated each time a Razorback defensive player in 2013 races to meet the ball carrier first then manages somehow to miss the tackle, or when a ball carrier finds a way to fumble inside the 5-yardline.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 73 on 01/06/2013