I rambled thoughts via emails throughout the past 7 years. I did this in order to get these thoughts out of my head. I would draft an email but not list a To: and so it would just end up in my drafts.
The following is one of those Email Rambles regarding frustrations related to discovering the hierarchy of law enforcement, prosecutors office, and other government officials.
Why do people feel the need to take justice into their own hands? It is because our governmental system is not a system, only a theory. There are no checks and balances and everything boils down to two things: the municipality jurisdiction having trained staff and the prosecutors office willing to try the case. When both those things fail there is nothing and no one to call.
Please keep in mind I wrote this in the midst of frustration this was written sometime after December 2016 (my email regenerated the date when I clicked to open it) and the Prosecutor as well as Lead Investigating Officer who appeared in 7th Circuit Court to try the case are omitted from this frustration as they are the only two individuals who ACTUALLY did their jobs! I appreciate them every moment.
To Whom It May Concern,
My sister, a beast-feeding mother of a 4 month old and a 4 year old, was found dead in her bed by her neighbor. The neighbor was called to check on her by my brother-in-law. The law enforcement officer arrived on scene and after my sister's body was removed he was granted full access to the residence. My mother was denied access prior to her body being removed due to it being a potential crime scene. Within 48 hours, my parents went to speak with the detective and let him know that we believed my brother-in-law killed my sister. The detective stated there was nothing he could do until autopsy results had returned. The medical examiner on scene kept discussing natural causes but that did not make sense to my family as my sister was healthy and had no complications during her C-section four months prior. The detective stated the autopsy would be returned in days unless they needed to run toxicology to determine cause of death. Three weeks later the chief of police and detective called my parents into the office to inform me the cause of death was heroin toxicity and that it was ruled an accident.
This further did not answer questions of natural causes and made it more clear she was killed via poisoning of heroin. The law enforcement officers did little to no work in the prior three weeks and therefore had little information as to my brother-in laws activities leading up to the day she died, September 29, 2014. We obtained a copy of the autopsy which states numerous organ systems were "unremarkable" and "normal adult female." No evidence of needle marks or bruising we believed he put it in something she ingested which further points to murder and less to accidental overdose. It takes more heroin to feel the effect when ingested than it does when it is injected so users chose to inject in order to get their money's worth in hopes of having multiple highs per quality.
Law enforcement officers in the city were only doing work on her case when they found time. The chief disconnected the detective's extension because the chief didn't like to hear so much negativity in the mornings. The chief has never returned a phone call and when asked to forward the case to another authority such as the state police he would get defensive and reject the request. In August 2016, the Michigan State Police department finally took over the case only for us to again not receive updates, know if the case is progressing, and we are left with no responses to phone messages or emails.
The prosecutors office does not return any emails or phone calls. They tell us there are warrants written but not served and we keep getting told when we finally do hear something that we need to be patient.
My brother-in-law, since September 29, 2014, has been able to do exactly what he wants when he wants. My sister was threatening to leave him prior to her death and take their two girls with her. My sister found he was having extra-marital affairs with multiple women prior to her death. He moved one of these known women into the home one week after my sister's funeral. The four month old lived with my parents until her first birthday. He wanted her returned to him once she was sleeping through the night and was no longer in need of a bottle. My brother-in-law says he has moved on and requires his daughters to refer to his girlfriend as mom. The now 7 year old has struggled with this because she misses her "mumma" and does what dad says to do in order to not be punished. He states she is being disrespectful to not call her mom. The now 2 year old knows who her mom is in pictures and recognizes her voice but must call someone else mom. We were informed by my brother-in-law that we should be grateful she is willing to accept the girls as her own. She has brought her 8 year old daughter and the girls are expected to call each other sisters.
My family has communicated with local authorities, state officials, elected representatives, and have been pointed in the same two directions to speak to the detective and/or the prosecutor's office. It is a vicious circle that has no end. There are no checks and balances. My nieces are living with a man we believed killed their mother and no authority will step in and protect them. We are not the type that will let this go, we are a family of educated people who understand the difference between right and wrong, ethical and unethical, and no matter how you look at it this whole situation and how it has been handled is wrong and unethical.
I have been told by the detective my brother-in-law has Rights. What about my sister's Rights? Did she deserve to die at the hands of her husband? Does she deserve to have law enforcement and prosecutors type cast her as an addict when there is no evidence to support the stereotype? Do her daughters have a Right to be protected from the man who killed their mother?
No one is willing to help, we haven't gone to the media in order to protect the children. We are fighting a fight no one can see. Law enforcement and Prosecutors being able to dictate what they want to be considered a crime worth investigating and prosecuting.
I understand why people take justice into their own hands. Not many would put on a fake smile and drive over to a house bought with their sister's life insurance money, bake Christmas cookies with their nieces, the man's girlfriend, her daughter and have that very same man be the person they know killed their older sister. Then to finished with the cookies and simply leave that house without a single negative word spoken in order to not jeopardize the case no one in the criminal justice system (the theory) is willing to work on.
If our system is but only a theory how do we expect people to not take justice into our own hands?
Regards,
Katrina Sharon
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