After hearing the medical examiner's response of "accidental death" in the case of Elizabeth Lightfoot I was outraged. It was almost hysterical; a drunken (0.31) female manages to slowly drive her car up a curb and through two cement pillars barley wider than her car (right side, by the dumpster in the pic below) then park it and set it on fire from the inside, pass out, and die from smoke inhalation. It's laughable and fucking ridiculous that someone "educated" would come to this conclusion. Then today, Scott Goldstein, of the Dallas Morning News writes an article that anyone involved or following the case was desperate for.
His article (http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/12/accident-or-murder-what-really.html) States the following:
"To accept the Dallas County medical examiner's ruling that the 22-year-old hairdresser's death was an accident and not a murder is to accept that she drove her Mazda 6 into the relatively small space between a dumpster and the side of a strip center at 16000 Preston Road. My photos at top right show the spot, which is probably not much wider than Lightfoot's car.
The photo at bottom right is a WFAA-TV (Channel 8) image from the night of Lightfoot's death.
Lightfoot's blood alcohol content at the time of her death was 0.317 percent, about four times the legal limit. That's probably about 15 to 20 drinks."
In business there are always things that look great on paper but the real world application isn't feasible. This appears to be one of those instances where the ME didn't take into account all of the factors. I'm guessing the ME hasn't ever had 15 drinks at a bar and then tried to wedge a vehicle in a space with about 6- 10 inches to spare. No one I can think of has- but I've definitely had 15 drinks before and the way it affects your motor skills and night vision is significant. With someone making a salary up to $192K (http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee-salaries/dallas-county/departments/medical-examiner/3485/) that sure smells like shit coming from their mouth, good luck getting anyone to buy that story. Damn even the cops say that isn't possible we KNOW they drink a good amount.
The worst case scenario is there are a number of cases the Dallas county has for open murders. By the ME declaring this an accident it effectively closes the case on their books. They can use lip service to assure everyone devastated by the loss they are still investigating this as a homicide but it won't go against them as an open/ unsolved murder. I'm not sure if their physical year is October to October or January 1 to December 31st. If it's the later then the finding of "accidental" comes at a very damn convenient time for their EOY statistics.
If it turns out to be later case and politics is involved then the city of Dallas has fucked up again... We've all seen how Texas leads the nation in overturned convictions from DNA use and Dallas specifically leads all states but 3. The continued bungling of evidence seems to have a strong pattern in Dallas with Elizabeth Lightfoot stuck in the middle of it.
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