COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:20 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN JUAN RAMOS COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL RESOLUTION 051162 - Resolution authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to conduct hearings to investigate the policies and procedures of the City's Medical Examiner's Office with regards to identifying missing persons. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, everyone. The public hearing for the Committee on Public Safety -- I'm sorry. I chair Public Safety. The Committee on Public Health and Human Services is about to begin. I am the Vice-Chair of that Committee, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and also in attendance is Councilman Juan Ramos, who is also a member of the Committee. This hearing is actually a follow-up to the missing persons issue in Philadelphia, and so we're very pleased to have everyone here. We don't need a quorum because we will not be voting anything out. We can now have the Clerk read the title of the resolution.
Resolution 051162, resolution authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to conduct hearings to investigate the policies and procedures of the City's Medical Examiner's Office with regards to 3 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 identifying missing persons.
Thank you. Before we begin, Councilman Juan Ramos has opening remarks.
Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair. This hearing today is a follow-up to what started off as a search for the deceased La'Toyia Figueroa in July where a young lady disappeared in Southwest Philadelphia and her family and friends and neighbors all got together to search for her, and on August the 20th, she was found in the City of Chester killed. It brought closure to the family, closure as well because someone was apprehended and arrested and charged with two counts of murder. La'Toyia was carrying a six-month child in her womb. In the process in the search for La'Toyia Figueroa, some people in the community and myself came across people 4 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 that were searching for their loved ones as well, and I became very much interested in this issue of missing people and families who were agonizing because they had no idea of the whereabouts of the disappearance of their particular loved one. As a result of just my heartfelt interest in the stories that I was told by families in different parts of the City, my Council team and I and other Councilmembers, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Jannie Blackwell and others, joined me in helping put together a Missing Persons Conference in West Philadelphia. I thought that I needed to do something for those people that had approached me about their missing loved ones. And at that conference, 18 families who had missing loved ones attended the conference in West Philadelphia High. I felt particularly very proud of the 18 families, because we 5 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 were in the middle of a SEPTA strike and it was very difficult for people to get out in that early November week and November 5th. And we also had families who had experienced, such as the Figueroa family and others, who had experienced a person missing, and the cases that came before us, the end was very, very tragic. They had found them deceased. We also were able to get the media to participate in the conference, and at this time, I want to take this opportunity to thank the media for their support, and also last, but not least, the Police Department. The Police Department participated fully, from the Commissioner to Deputy Fox, Chief Inspector Fox, and others that came there, and those families that were there were able to speak to the police about their particular case, which is what we wanted the conference to accomplish, to provide help to people who had missing 6 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 loved ones at that conference. As a consequence of that conference, the following Sunday, there was a newspaper report, the Sunday paper report, on the conference, and there the reporter described the situation of missing people as described by families at the Missing Persons Conference and one of the families that was there was the Johnson/Jefferson family and relatives of Unisha Jefferson. And the reporter wrote about that case and other cases, and as a result of that, someone at the Medical Examiner's Office got some interest in the description and the time of the disappearance of Unisha Jefferson and looked in the morgue and, in fact, it turned out that Unisha Jefferson was, in fact, in the morgue. She had been there for over two years. It was closure for the family. It was, I felt, a bit of relief, but then it brought up why did it take two years to find Niecey Jefferson. 7 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 So this morning we're going to start the hearings, if Madam Chair permits me to call -- if the Clerk would call to the stand the relatives of Unisha Jefferson. How about if the first panel will be the family of Unisha Jefferson, Katrina Johnson and Evelyn Bookhart.
Please come up to the witness table here. And if there's anyone else from the family that wants to -- here's the table right here. Now, what you'll have to do is just have a seat in any one of those chairs, and pull up another chair if you need to, identify yourself for the record before you speak and then proceed with your testimony. Pull the mike closer to you, and you can then begin to proceed. Just state your name.
My name is Louise Bookhart. I'm the mother of Unisha Jefferson. 8 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
Good morning. Thank you for coming. Does anyone have testimony or is there anything you'd like to say?
I'm her sister. I'm glad that we found her, that we have closure, but we're very upset that we suffered for two years searching for my sister. We never got any help in looking for my sister until we went to the conference and the article 21 came up in the newspaper and someone read it. And I always called the Medical Examiner's Office. I think his name was Michael Hall. He told me when he met me, he said, I feel like I know you. I talk 9 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 to you so much. But he was the same person that took my sister out of that building. So why couldn't he put it together two blocks away where he found this body, but I always called and talked to him about my sister that was missing? I'm very angry about that. We never got any media attention, putting my sister's face out there. She went missing April the 14th. They didn't put an article in the paper until December the 10th of 2003 in the Metro Paper. It never went in the Daily News, the Inquirer. I had to lie and say my sister was suicidal before they would even take a police report. It was just very hard for my family.
That's really unfortunate that you and other families in Philadelphia would have to endure pain for so long. I think one of the purposes, and Councilman Ramos would state this for himself, but one of the 10 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 purposes of having these hearings and now that there is a lot of attention to this problem is that at the end of the day, we want to see what we can do to help fix it so people won't have to go through this.
I think when families are missing their loved ones and they're in close contact and they know their loved ones, when they go to the police and say something is wrong, the police just says, Well, this person is over 21, maybe they left on their own. You know, we know our family. We talk so much, and we know that they didn't just walk off and just leave, but the police, they just dismiss your case, you know. You have to lie and say that your family is suicidal just to take a police report. Unfortunately, my sister was found two blocks from where she went missing. Nobody looked for her.
I think when the body was found, why they didn't -- 11 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
Sherri Jackson. When they found the body in this building, they never once put it on the news that they found a body. That should have been aired, too.
Well, we do have someone from the Police Department here today to testify, and hopefully they'll address some of these issues. Now, the media is a whole different story. We have plenty of press here, if anybody from the press maybe wants to explain. Maybe no one told them. I have no idea. But we're happy you're here today. And, Councilman, this is one of the reasons why I believe you wanted to have these hearings, because of these kind of issues.
12 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 Mrs. Bookhart, would you tell us about the disappearance of Niecey, when did it occur, when did you first report Niecey missing? And I'm using her nickname because when I was told about her, everyone called her Niecey. So please forgive me if I continue to call her by her family's nickname of her. Can you describe what happened and when did you first report it? Tell us the story.
We talked to Niecey every day, two, three, four times a day. So on the 14th of -- I believe the 14th of April, she said she had to go to the doctor, she had a doctor appointment. So the 15th, we didn't hear anything from her. So we called Niecey's dad, and he said that Niecey didn't come home that night. So the next day, me and Katrina talked. We went to the police station, because we knew that wasn't Niecey just to disappear like that. And she's a 13 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 great talker and didn't even call anybody. So we went to the police station, I think --
-- Tuesday. Because I live in the 14th district. They said she had to be reported from the district she was missing from, and that was the 35th district. So we went down to the 35th -- no; the 39th district.
39th district, Huntingdon Park, and they told us that Niecey was an adult, so she could go and come as she pleased. But we knew that wasn't true.
No. No. 25 When we went, they never took a report. 14 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 It took two weeks before -- I had to keep constantly going back.
And two weeks later, they took a report when I lied and said that my sister was suicidal. I spoke to a policewoman. She was the only one that would take a report. And then she called me back the next day and asked me could I give her the police report back because she wasn't supposed to take it, and I told her no, I wouldn't give it back.
Would the members of the Police Department that are here today -- I know my friend, Inspector Fox, is here, if you please can take note and answer some of these questions when you come up to testify, please. And then what happened after two weeks went by? Did you call anyone else? Did you call the police again? Did you go back to the police? 15 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
The detectives called me, and I went ahead and met at Broad and Champlost at the police station, and I spoke to them and they took -- they wrote down some things, and they said, Well, we'll look into it. Nobody never really went out and questioned anybody. The last person that saw my sister, he said he dropped her off at 22nd and Lehigh. They never went out to talk to him. They interviewed him over the phone. He said he really didn't know my sister that well, and I told the detective, I said, He's known my sister for over 30 years. He knows her quite well. But nobody ever went to figure out why -- to talk to him to figure out, Why did you say you really didn't know her. If you was the last person that saw her, why didn't you show any concern about she was missing? He never asked our family after that did we ever find her, did we hear 16 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 anything. And I had questions. I said, you know, Something is not right with him, but nobody never investigated him anymore.
What happened after six months? What did you do when Niecey was not around six months later?
I kept calling the Police Department, the detective that I was dealing with. I would call the morgue.
Was she at the Missing Persons Conference? 17 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
Yes, she was. I kept calling the morgue asking them did they have -- I would give them my sister's description. They would ask me did she have any cuts, tattoos or scars and stuff. I gave them everything, the description, and then they said, Well, no, we don't have anybody. We'll put your name on file. If a body comes in, we'll give you a call, and they took my name and number. And then I said, Well, do you have any unclaimed bodies? Oh, no, we don't have any unclaimed bodies. And they told me over and over, We don't have any unclaimed bodies. So I trusted that they didn't.
Can I ask a question here? Your sister was missing. You contacted the police. When did they find the body after she was missing? How long had it been?
Six 18 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 months, five and a half, six months later.
They found her body in September of 2003. She was reported missing April of 2003. They found the body September 2003, and never once did they contact anybody to let them know, Well, we found a body, could this be her? There was nothing.
And then I received a phone call after they found my sister's body, and the article printed from a woman, she told me she was out there when the kids found my sister's body, and she says, I always called the morgue. And I said, Well, did you find out who this woman is, and they said -- the Medical Examiner told her, you know, Don't concern yourself with this. You know, you can go in these places and find five and six different bodies when you walk down the street. And when she told me that, I 19 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 was disturbed that the Medical Examiner's Office would tell somebody that.
As a follow-up to the question that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller asked, when did you find out that she had been -- did you ever find out before November that --
No. We didn't know anything. We was just depending on the Police Department to help us.
Just making phone calls, putting out flyers. 20 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
Did you as a family continue to call the Police Department?
And you continued to call the Medical Examiner's Office?
The Detective Ortiz, if we didn't call her, she would call us and she would say, Well, did you hear anything? And we would say, No. Did you? And she said, Well, I put your sister's Social Security back in the system and nothing came up. So we just kept in contact with her.
But my mom had to go and -- I took my mom to have her DNA taken just in case they found a body, that they can match the genetics.
So the Police Department, correct me if I'm wrong, what I'm hearing is that the Police Department, the Missing Persons Unit, did stay in touch with you. Sometimes they would call you.
Detective Ortiz from the Missing Persons Unit would call you and ask you have you heard?
Yeah. 22 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 She would call and ask did we hear anything maybe every three or four months.
Would you tell this officer about what the Medical Examiner's Office was telling you? Because you say you were calling the Medical Examiner's Office.
Well, she told me that she would contact the Medical Examiner's Office, and they told her as well that they didn't have any unidentified bodies.
At some point, though, you were asked to do a DNA test, correct?
No. She contacted my mother and said that the FBI, my sister's name came up and they wanted my mom to come in to have her DNA taken, that they could probably match it 23 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 if they found a dead body.
No. It was over a year later. Maybe a year and a half.
So basically it was the Philadelphia Police, then the Missing Persons Department of the Philadelphia Police?
And the Medical Examiner's Office. And then once the DNA test was taken, then what? Nothing. 24 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
So basically that was a waste, because no 7 DNA was ever taken from my sister's body when they found it, so they would never have matched it.
Okay. And, in fact, the Medical Examiner's Office does have unclaimed bodies.
So I would like that when the Medical Examiner comes to testify, that they can address that issue of telling family members that there was no unclaimed bodies.
They told the family and they told the police detectives that there was no unclaimed bodies there.
So on 25 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 November the 5th is the Missing Persons Conference at West Philly High.
November the 6th, the Inquirer writes a story about the conference and described and writes about the families that were there, which included you and your family. I remember you very distinctly being at the conference. What happens? November the 6th is Sunday. When did you find out that Unisha was at the morgue? Who called? When did it happen?
The Medical Examiner's Office called my mother the following Sunday.
November the 10th -- no; November the 12th. I believe it was the 12th.
It would 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 have been the 13th, November 13th.
I believe it was Detective Michael Hall. He called and he wanted to speak to Louise Bookhart, and I said, This is she. And he said that -- he asked me did I have any of Niecey's pictures with her smiling. I said, All Niecey's pictures are smiling. So he wanted to know could he come out to my home within an hour, and I told him sure he can come out. 27 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 So when he came out, I took two pictures in the living room for him to look at, and he looked at the pictures and he kind of frowned. So I said, What's the matter? I said, Is that Niecey's picture -- I mean, is the picture the one that you have? And he said, Well, I can't say. I have to take it back to the morgue. And then Trina came over, and Trina looked at the picture that he had. So now she got to finish telling you that part.
So he asked me would I look at a picture of a skull that I could kind of look at the teeth and compare it to my sister's picture with the teeth, and when I saw it, I told my mother, I said, This is her, but he said we can't be sure until we do like dental x-rays or something like that. So he asked me for my sister's Social Security number, and I told him I didn't have it on me, that I 28 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 would go to my dad's house and look through her things and get her Social. So when I went there, I found some x-rays that my sister had there and it had her jaw line on it. So I called him and I told him what I found. He said that would be helpful. So the next day, that Monday, I took it to him, and they gave us a call on Tuesday and positively identified it as being my sister. And then when I read in the newspaper the police had said that they had asked me previously for dental records, no one has ever asked us for dental records. They haven't asked us for anything of my sister's, because if we could produce it in hours, we could 19 have gave it to them within two years. 20
Did the 21 Medical Examiner call you at all? You 22 described a call from the Police 23 Department to you asking you for dental 24 records, Social Security. Did you ever get a call from the Medical Examiner's 29 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 Office?
That was the Medical Examiner's Office. He asked me --
So it was the Medical Examiner's Office that called you that Sunday, the 13th?
Yeah. I met with him at my mom's house and he asked for her Social.
Did you go to the morgue to take a look at the remains of Niecey?
Well, when I went there, he showed me on the computer screen the body that they found. So I got a chance to see how they found her. And from the looks of it, my sister's body looked like it was placed there. So I asked him, I said, She looks 30 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 like she's been placed here, and he kind of brushed it off. He was like, Oh, well, you know, your sister died of a drug overdose. And I said, A drug overdose? I said, Well, I don't know my sister to use drugs. I said, Well, looking around, was there drugs found there? And he says, No. 11 I said, Well, how do you know she died from a drug overdose? So he said they tested her hair and it showed traces of cocaine in her body. But from what I understand, cocaine can stay in your system for three to six months. So that doesn't mean that's why my sister died. It just means that it was in her system. They found my sister's body partially nude with a pair of panties and socks on, and no one ever questioned why they found a woman partially naked dead in a warehouse. They just brushed it off, because I think because she was a 31 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 minority.
What was the last part of what you said? I didn't hear you.
Because my sister is a minority. And the area that she was found in, the community.
Are you saying that apart from the issue of looking into why Unisha Jefferson showed up at the morgue a little bit over two years after she died, that you have questions about the circumstances surrounding her death?
Although the Medical Examiner's Office has told you that, according to their autopsy or their medical examination, that they determined it was due to a drug overdose?
So you're saying you're not buying that; is that what you're saying? 32 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
I mean, my sister went missing. She was missing for two and a half years, which they found her body five and a half months later two blocks from where she was found. They never looked into the story with this guy saying he dropped her off at 22nd and Lehigh. The detective said, Well, which way did she go? Oh, I don't know. I really wasn't -- I didn't pay attention. Then he said he really didn't know her. My sister's body shows up in the warehouse on the fourth floor, and how she got into this building, we don't know, because they say it's like a hole in the ground that you got to go in to get in this building because the fire escape has no steps, and you find a woman's dead body laying across a desk. 33 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 And the way she was placed, you could tell somebody laid her there. So he said it's not a crime if you dump a body. This is what the Medical Examiners told me. The Medical Examiner, Michael Hall, told me that if my sister was somewhere and she had a drug overdose and somebody dumped her body in that building, that's not a crime. You know, it was just cruel. Do you remember him telling us that in the dining room? So I asked him, I said, Well, my sister was found with panties on and socks. I said, Was she raped? He said, Well, we don't know. Her body was decomposed and there was no 19 fluids in her. I said, Well, you don't know if she was raped, anything happened to her, but you know she died of a drug overdose? I don't buy it.
I know that our Police Department that are here today 34 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 are listening to you very carefully, and we sure hope that they can answer some of these questions. I know that by talking with the family a few times, I know that one of the things that you share with me was a concern of mine. La'Toyia Figueroa turned out to be a distant cousin after I had inquired about her, and her father calls me up and says, Cuz, the girl that's missing is my baby. So she turned out to be a distant cousin. I had only met her twice in my life, so it's not like I had a close relationship with her. It's that extended family of so many in many families like mine. But you also showed that you wanted to come here and make sure that this doesn't happen to someone else out there that has a missing loved one. Is there anything else -- I know that when you started, you started to talk about some of the things that concerned you and 35 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 the response from the police and particularly the Medical Examiner's Office. Is there anything else that you would want to suggest that can be improved upon so a family won't have to go through what your family has gone through in regards to the death of Unisha Jefferson? KATRINA JOHNSON: To take people more serious. When they come in or call in and say that they have a loved one that's missing, you know, just take it serious. Look for the person, you know. It doesn't make any sense that you go in the police station and you don't know the detective that you're talking to, you just meet him, and they're telling you, Well, that person is 21, don't worry about it, you know, couple days they might turn up. But you know your loved one. You know their ways, their patterns, and if you see something happen different, you want somebody to help you. But then the police when you 36 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 look at the media on the news and they're saying that, Oh, we need the public's help, well, how does the public feel when we need the police help? You know, we're supposed to trust in the police, but the police are not paying the families no 8 attention.
Well, it sounds like the suggestion of having the police take you more serious when you're reporting a missing person is important. You know the family members. I talk to my daughter probably six times a day, if not more. She's 21. If I don't talk to her, then I know something is wrong. In fact, because we have such violence in the City and so many crimes, it scares me actually if I don't talk to her by half the next day. I'm ready to call the police myself to say, What is going on, or I'm ready to go over to her apartment to see where is she. So I understand completely when 37 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 you're in constant contact with relatives, and I have a large family and most of us communicate with each other all the time, if not every week. And these kind of situations are -- I think most of Philadelphia feels your pain, and I think you're brave to come in today to testify and relive such a painful and emotional experience, and I just, as one Councilmember, would like to thank you for coming in.
I just have just one more question. I see the emotion everyone is going through as you discuss this. Did anyone in the Police Department, the Medical Examiner's Office suggest any support groups that would help you with the grief you were going through and going through now? When you called a year later, did they tell you, 38 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 We have this program here or --
-- you can go somewhere where -- support groups are very important --
One of the things that I discovered as we prepared for the Missing Persons Conference was that the Medical Examiner's Office does in fact have a Grief Assistance Program, and I had invited that program to set up at the Missing Persons Conference. As you well know, we had about 15 or so different support groups there for us to meet for the first time and for you in particular to go to and see if they could be of help to you, and I was disappointed 39 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 that the Grief Assistance Program people, who had told me they were definitely going to come to the conference, never showed up and never called to say they weren't going to show up. But the Medical Examiner's Office does have, as far as we know, I can be corrected if I'm wrong when the Medical Examiner comes before us, that they do in fact have a Grief Assistance Program. So I'm surprised that they did not offer you grief assistance over a two-year period to help you at least cope with the disappearance of Unisha. Is there anything else that the family wants to add?
I just wanted to address like the media. When you go and try to get your loved ones, the story put on the news or something that your loved ones are missing, we really didn't have any help with that. The Police Department, Detective Ortiz, she says, Well, I sent them the stuff, 40 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 but they won't put it on there. It's up to them to pick up the stories. But I can be home and I'm sitting there and I saw where they ran for two days a life-size snow globe that was stolen off a lawn, and they can run that for two days, but you can't run a missing person. So they need to take stories more serious what they put on.
Is there anything you think the Medical Examiner's Office could have done different?
There's a lot of things they could have done different. You know what I mean? I think they need to be in -- the Police Department and the Medical Examiner, they need to be in better contact with the things that they have, the bodies that they have. The Police Department needs to be in better contact with the bodies 41 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 that they have. I don't know how to put it, what words to put it in there, but it shouldn't have been where my sister's body was there for two years and the detectives are calling there asking for an unclaimed body from two blocks away where that body was found.
Thank you. I would suggest that you stay for the rest of the hearing. We might be able to get some answers from the Police Department and the Medical Examiner's Office. And this is about as tragic as it is and as painful as it is, more so to you than it is for any one of us, to do whatever we can as citizens, as public servants, in the case of Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and I and Councilwoman Blackwell that now has joined us and all the members of City Council, that we all do whatever we can to make sure that this 42 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 system is improved upon so that a family like yours does not have to go through this anguish of two-plus years your loved ones being at the morgue, you didn't know about it, the morgue might not have known about who this person was, no one was communicating or at least there was not good communication going on. So we hope that if you can stick around, we might be able to finish up these hearings today and have some answers. And thank you so much for coming this morning.
So the next panel is Orlanda Smith and Alison Mosley. Please come up to the witness table and have a seat. We'll have Orlanda Smith testify first. Have a seat, Ms. Smith, and pull the mike up to you and identify yourself for the record and proceed with 43 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 your testimony.
My name is Orlanda Smith. I'm a resident of the City of Philadelphia and a City employee with the Clerk of Quarter Session as a Court Service Manager.
Good morning, City Council. My name is Orlanda Smith, a resident of the City of Philadelphia and a City employee with the office of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions as a Court Service Manager. My involvement in today's hearing came as a result of the discovery of a female body in a warehouse in September 2003 and identified two years and two months later as that of Unisha Jefferson. On that day that the body was found, I was a passenger in my vehicle 44 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 stopped at a stop sign at 20th and Sedgley when I saw children climbing up from a tree and weed-infested lot and climbing up through a hole in a Cyclone fence asking for help. They had just discovered a woman's body in the warehouse. While attempting to calm the children and placing a call to 9-1-1, I asked them if they were sure it was a lady. They said yes. She only had on panties and white socks and she was on the fourth floor of the warehouse. Two police officers arrived on foot and asked the older children to show them where the body was. They went through the Cyclone fence and through the trees with the children. Paramedics arrived and went the same way, as I directed them. Additional police officers arrived and the Fire Department arrived to assist with the ladder so that the coroner and the police officers could gain access to this large warehouse. 45 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 Later I contacted the Homicide Division of the Police Department inquiring about this case a couple days later. I was informed that they knew nothing about this case. I asked the detective to check to see if there was a report of a woman's body found in a warehouse at 20th and Sedgley. He checked and said there was no report -- there was a report of a body found on a highway at 19th and Sedgley. I asked, How long does it take for your department to be notified, and he said that the Medical Examiner's Office would have to send them a report in order to have them investigate. They had not received one. He referred me to the Medical Examiner's Office. I contacted the Medical Examiner's Office and spoke to an investigator and inquired about the body found in the warehouse and was it being investigated. He stated that he could drive down that street and pick up five 46 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 to six bodies. He said, People go into these warehouses to use drugs. He stated that he was present at the dirty, nasty, stinky, smelly warehouse as an employee from the Medical Examiner's Office and basically I should not concern myself with this. I tried to put this behind me, but I could not. I called the Medical Examiner's Office a few weeks later, and this time I spoke with a professional investigator, who assured me that everything was being done to identify the body. Missing person reports would be checked. I asked that I be contacted if she was identified, and if she was not identified and her family not found, I would see to it that she received a proper burial. My name and phone number was to be put in her file. She weighed pounds when she 23 arrived at the morgue due to 24 decomposition. I was not contacted by the Medical Examiner's Office. I 47 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 contacted them after seeing the article 3 in the newspaper, and upon giving my name, which was on her file, I was informed the body was that of Unisha Jefferson. As a result of this incident and my experience from over 30 years as a City employee, of which years was 10 working with the Health Department, and 11 at the time of the incident, I was a 12 Court Clerk working in homicide and major 13 courtrooms at the Criminal Justice Center 14 and I'm currently a Court Service Manager, I feel that the office of the Medical Examiner, a component of the Health Department, should set standards for when bodies are discovered that they are treated with the same respect as any other deceased person.
In addition, to stop the isolation and share with the public when bodies remain unidentified and that missing persons reports -- that the current system we have be evaluated and 48 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 could compare to maybe other large cities with a low rate of unidentified bodies. Finally, whenever children are involved in the discovery of a body, that the support and counseling be available if needed.
That's quite a story. I know the area very well. I'm proud to be a graduate of Dobbins Tech High School right up the street from the warehouse, and I've gone by that warehouse a number of times since I find out that's where the body of Niecey was found. So you were driving --
I was a passenger in my vehicle. I was a passenger. I was in the passenger side.
And what happened again? You were driving. You saw -- 49 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
We were at a stop sign at 20th and Sedgley when I heard a rustling, and I turned. And as I turned, coming up out of an incline and coming up through a hole in a Cyclone fence was child after child. They had like -- some had sticks. They were in like a panic. I didn't know what was happening. I was afraid at first because I didn't understand, and I could see that they were scared. And we pulled over, and they told me the story. They had the sticks because at the time, there was a lot of trees, a lot of weeds, a lot of bush and they said they were looking for turtles and frogs in the grass, in the grassy area, because it's real big. I asked them why did they go into the warehouse, and they said they didn't know, but they went in. And I asked them did they stop -- you know, like it's a real huge warehouse, how did they manage to find a body, and they said 50 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 they just went up to the fourth floor, they just found her. And they were very upset.
No, I didn't. You can't just walk into this warehouse. It sits up on an incline. And this area that the children came from, you had to go down and then through all this grass and weeds and you had to go almost a block to get in from where they went in at. The side that we were on where the Cyclone fence is, at one time they had steps, but the door entry is at the second floor level, so the steps don't exist anymore. So that's why the Fire Department had to put the ladder up, so that the coroner and police officers could go that way. But the first officers were foot cops. They were on foot. They were not in a car. So they went down with the children, as well as the paramedics. 51 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162
I stayed about a little over an hour. I spent a lot of time trying to comfort the children. I spoke with the police officers. They were in there for a while, and by this time, you know, I was like -- I was upset and I needed to -- I didn't want to see her body when it came out.
So then some days later, you called Homicide and you called the Medical Examiner's Office. I mean, this count of the response you got from -- was this the Medical Examiner's Office that stated he was present at the dirty, nasty, stinky, smelly warehouse?
Yes. That was when I called the Medical Examiner's Office after the Homicide Division said that they did not have a report. When I spoke with the investigator, I asked him -- I couldn't understand why I didn't 52 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 hear anything, and when I spoke with him, after he said it wasn't being investigated, I asked how could that be possible, and then I said what the children had told me, and he said, Well, that's not true, because I was in the dirty, nasty, stinky, smelly warehouse and her body was laying down. And I says, Well, maybe the children was very upset and didn't realize that she was laying down instead of sitting down, as they had told me. And then I didn't realize at the time that she was decomposed. I didn't know that. The way the children described her was that she had a hole in her stomach, and I didn't understand because I didn't know she was decomposed. I didn't know that until later. And he said to me that he could drive down that street and pick up bodies, because like that's a drug area, people go in the warehouses to shoot up. And I said, Well, you can't 53 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 even get in this one without a ladder or go the way the children went, and nobody really do that. And he says, Well, that's what they do in this area. And, you know, I had made some more comments. I didn't think that was fair what he said, and he was basically, Well, don't worry about this, you have other things you can worry about besides like a drug addict or a prostitute or something in a warehouse dead. So I tried to put it behind me for a few weeks and I couldn't, and I made another call, and this time I spoke with another investigator, and I told him what had been --
No; at the Medical Examiner's Office. I said, Well, you know, since I can't do any more and I don't work for the Police Department and I don't work for Missing Persons and I've 54 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 never been involved with anything like this before, I said my training with being a Court Clerk and working Homicide, seeing the pictures, hearing the Medical Examiners' testimony in courtrooms, through all the courtroom experience I had and all the dead bodies I seen pictures of, I was not prepared for when this happened and I didn't know what I could do, but I did know that whatever happened in that warehouse, that she had suffered enough and I was going to see to it that she had a proper burial. And so they took my name and my phone number. And she weighed pounds. 17 And I had her ID number for her body, and 18 every six months, I would check to see if 19 she had been identified. 20
At least 23 every six months I would call to see if 24 she had been identified.
So from 55 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 September of 2003, every six months you would call?
Up until -- like for this year, it may have been around May, May of this year that I called, the last that I had called, and she still had not been identified.
She's not identified. She's still not identified. She wasn't identified the last time that I spoke with them.
Did they use the phrase that the Johnson/Jefferson family used, I believe Katrina, that they had no "unclaimed bodies"? Did they use that expression?
No. See, I had her body ID number and I would give 56 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 that and I would ask if she had been identified, and I was told no. 4
Did you talk to the same person? Do you remember who you talked to?
Well, it's always a man, just like when I called at -- I had just come back from North Carolina the day before from a funeral for my cousin, and the next day was the day that I saw the picture on the front of the Daily News. And when I saw it, I just knew it was her. So I called the morgue, and the investigator that I talked to, I asked him, By any chance, could this be the lady that was found in the warehouse at 20th and near Lehigh? And he says, What is your name? And I told him, and he said, Yes, it's her. I couldn't believe it. I said, 57 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 Are you sure? He said, Yes. I said, How? How can you be sure? And he said, Because your name is here. And I knew then that the closure was there.
When did you make that call to the Medical Examiner's Office?
It was Friday the day that the Daily News -- I was out of town until Thursday morning. Thursday about 3:00 a.m. I got back from North Carolina, and on Friday I saw that paper. I saw the newspaper that had Niecey's pictures on the front.
Did they mention to you they had called a family member, anything like that?
No. What was said was -- I said, It's finally a closure for the family, and I said, Well, 58 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 I am glad that they did put my name down. I didn't know for certain if they had. I said, But at least I know that she's been found by her family. And I said, I'm glad that they did put my name down like I requested. And he says, See, we do do our job. And he says something to the effect about the City Medical Examiner's Office being blamed, and I said, Well, I don't know anything about this. I said, I just came back in town. I just wanted to see if it was her. And then he said -- and then this person repeated the same words, Because I was there in the dirty, stinky, smelly warehouse. And I said at that point, I said, What is your name? And he says he was Mr. Hall. I said, Well, you were the first investigator that I talked to that day when I called when she first was found, and I said, And you said things that wasn't right. And I said, Have a 59 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 nice day.
So the person that you called right after the discovery of the body at the warehouse is the same person you ended up talking to around November 15th or 16th, right?
And the person repeats the same old -- he repeats the same thing over again, right?
And I said, Oh, it was you. And then I called your office to see if you could tell me -- I seen in the paper that her funeral would be the next day, and I called your office to see if you all could find out where it was so that I could also have closure and meet the family, because I had carried this for two years and two months also.
Ms. Smith, you've been very sincere, from what I can gather and talk and hearing you this 60 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 morning and a little bit that we talked at the viewing for Niecey. What went wrong here? I mean, we're here to find out how we can see if there's something we can fix, because something -- I'm not sure what exactly it was, or it's a number of things. The testimony of the Medical Examiner, we might have some answers, and from the Police Department. But what do you think went wrong and what would you recommend? I know that you made some recommendations here, better communications between the Police Department and the Medical Examiner's Office, also support and counseling for those children that discovered the body. What do you think went wrong and what would you fix?
Well, it's hard to change people's behavior or their sensitivity level, but -- and everybody that works do not have the same level of sensitivity, and sometimes we may do jobs 61 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 too long and everything becomes a routine. And in the case of the first response that I received when I called the Medical Examiner's Office, it's one that there was already a pre-conceived thing that if you're found in a warehouse or found anywhere in the area that is considered to have drugs in it or prostitution or anything like that, then you're not basically treated as the same as if you had been found somewhere else. And it's like a pre-mind set. Because another thing that was in the conversation that I had with him, I said, So you're saying to me that if my daughter is found in a warehouse in an area that people use drugs and you consider it to be a drug area, that if she's found in a warehouse, then she's supposed to be a drug addict? I really took offense to what he said that day, because this is not fair. I said, This person has to have a family, and I said, you know, That's 62 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 something that I would like to be looked at. Like I had said earlier, that anyone, anybody that's found, whether they be in Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Northeast or whatever, that they're treated with the same respect and dignity as any other deceased person, and that when it's a female or a male or whatever and you are in a warehouse and you're in a big one that has no means of access from the street and you find a female lady with just socks and panties and no 14 other clothes and no shoes or nothing, that it's at least treated as suspicious, if nothing else. And for it not to be investigated, it hurt me. So there's some things that need to be looked at.
Thank you, Ms. Smith, for taking time from your work to join us this morning. If you care to stay, we'd sure like you to stay. I know that you're probably taking some time off from work to be here. Thank you so much 63 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 for your testimony.
Thank you so much for caring for other people. It says a lot about you. I don't know you personally, but you are a wonderful human being to have cared so much to jump out of a car and see what these children were excited and worried about that evening on Lehigh Avenue. So I respect you and I commend you for your humanity.
Alison, will you please state your name for the record, please, and proceed with your testimony.
Sure. My name is Alison Mosley. My story is not one that's gotten any publicity and it's somewhat of an inverse, I think, as we'll 64 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 go along. There is a difference between an unidentified body and an unclaimed body. A couple of years ago my family suffered a pretty painful experience that I think demonstrates some of the problems in both the Philadelphia Police Department and the Medical Examiner's Office. I should probably preface it, it's about my brother's death. My brother's name was Christopher Mosley. He was a recluse. He had few, if any, friends. He lived in an apartment at 36th and Spring Garden Street. He didn't work. He was supported by my mother, who direct-deposited money into his account twice monthly. This is the story as best I can construct it: March 27th, 2003 the management of the apartment building where my brother lived called the police because of a foul-smelling odor coming out of my brother's apartment. When they 65 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 came, they found his decomposing body slumped over the bed. From his records, we believe he had actually been dead for nearly a month at that point, from looking at his bank records. The officer who took the report had him listed as a 65-year-old black male. My brother was a 50-year-old white male. He had been living in that apartment for ten years. Certainly the officer taking the report could have gotten his race and approximate age from the management at the apartment building who let him in. The Medical Examiner's Office was called to come and pick up the body, which they did. I believe that within a day or two, they were given my brother's Social Security card. The management at the apartment building found it. So at that point, they knew my brother's name. I believe from his Social Security card they -- I believe they also knew my parents' names and his last residence as 66 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 listed on the Social Security card. We were never notified. I believe the bank somehow found out he was dead. They had him in his records as deceased, although they didn't notify the person sending the handwritten checks twice monthly. He was listed in the Social Security Death Index as dead. We still didn't know. My mother was still sending checks. About six months later, September 19th, 2003, we realized that my brother's phone had been disconnected. We first called the police and asked them whether there had been any reports, any deaths. We gave them my brother's name. We gave them the address. They told us no, that there had been nothing. We called the bank, found out there had been no activity in his account for months. So in desperation, we finally got the police to go to his apartment building. I met the officer there, at which point a maintenance 67 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 person there told the story of finding my brother's decomposing body. So we went back to the Police Department, where they started fishing through a file cabinet and paper records looking for the incident report, and after about a half hour finally dug it up. Why it wasn't accessible from a computer search given his name or address is beyond me. I called the Medical Examiner's Office, and my brother's body was still there. They apparently batch up the unclaimed bodies as opposed to the unidentified bodies and then sort of bid out the cremation work, and my brother was still there. The coroner's office, I don't believe, had done an autopsy. At least that's what it says on the death certificate. They had determined that he had died of coronary artery disease. I guess it was a good guess and, in this case, probably accurate, given our 68 1/5/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 051162 history and his history. Unfortunately -- I mean, interestingly, they failed to notice that he was Caucasian. They apparently just took what the incident report said at face value.