Prosecutor says ’89 death of girl not homicide

Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK — The long-questioned death of a teenager who reportedly fell to her death from a nine-inch porch nearly two decades ago “cannot be classified as a homicide,” a special prosecutor said Monday.

Tim Williamson said evidence gathered last year during a third autopsy on the body of Olivia “Janie” Ward of Marshall found no signs of extensive bruising or signs of a beating. That contradicts evidence gathered in a 2004 exhumation and autopsy done on behalf of Janie’s parents, who have fought in court to have the official cause of their daughter’s death changed to a homicide.

“Given the medical information we’ve got at this time, based upon the facts as we’ve determined at this time, there’s nothing to indicate this is going to be a homicide,” Williamson told The Associated Press.

Williamson said he planned to go over the findings of a state-sponsored 2007 exhumation and autopsy with Janie’s parents Monday, then hold a news conference with reporters.

Ron Ward, Janie’s father, could not be immediately reached for comment. Jerry Sallings, a Little Rock attorney who has represented the family in recent years, did not immediately return a call for comment.

On Sept. 9, 1989, sheriff’s deputies found the girl’s body in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by teenagers in the Marshall town square. Investigators later said she fell backward off a porch of a rural cabin while attending a party.

The original 1989 autopsy by Dr. Fahmy Malak, the state’s chief medical examiner, concludes that Janie died from hitting the back of her head in a fall, an injury that should have snapped Janie’s neck forward. But by 1991, Malak had quit over allegations that he had botched other autopsies.

Dr. Harry Bonnell, an independent medical examiner, examined Janie’s body after a 2004 exhumation. He said a tremendous force snapped Janie’s head backward — as if she’d been hit from the front.

In August 2007, state officials had Janie’s body exhumed for a second time from a Searcy County cemetery for a CT scan and an hours-long examination by out-of-state medical examiners and a forensic anthropologist. The state Crime Laboratory, named in a civil suit by Janie’s family, closed down early on a Friday afternoon as the body came in to avoid any suspicions while the independent examinaion team worked.

Williamson said the doctor who performed the third autopsy only found small bruises on Janie’s body.

“He found there are no significant soft-tissue or boney injury that could have caused her death.” Williamson said. “It cannot be classified as a homicide.”

Williamson said he has compiled a 4,400-page report regarding the death. He said that would be released in the coming weeks.

“It’s been like chasing ghosts,” the prosecutor said.