The Case of the Suspended ME

What happens when a respected veteran medical examiner is found to have missed something major on an autopsy? Do you call into question every autopsy he performed in his 40 years of service? That's a decision being mulled over in Fort Worth, Texas as Dr. Marc Krouse faces suspension and inquiries into his reports after missing a vital piece of information in the examination of a murder victim. All opinions expressed are our own and in no way reflect any official information.

Episode Transcript

(00:31):
Hey y'all, and welcome back tokad Zoo Killers. Hey Kim, Hey,
hey everybody. Aren't you glad toget back in sync with everybody again?
I am. I tell you thatwas a tough week. I know
it. Two, we're pretty muchback in action, and so we're really

(00:51):
glad that y'all hanging there with usbecause we noticed on our downloads and we
noticed on all the feedback we're gettingon our new website, which is Kadzookillers
dot com. Right, Kim,that's it. But today we have a
brand new forensic Friday's story for you, and this particular story is just going

(01:15):
to send you guys over the moon. And it only came out a couple
of days ago. On the edge. I know, we're on the cutting
edge, and I was so jazzedabout it, and I think you guys
are going to be pretty shocked andappalled. So here we go. So
doctor Mark Krauss Tarrant County's cheap DeputyMedical Examiner, which is in Fort Worth,

(01:38):
Texas, which I already mentioned.He was recently suspended as in last
week from conducting autopsies in homicide casesafter he missed a bullet a whole a
whole bullet, y'all. Oh mind, don't they do X rays and stuff
too? Well, you think,but you know, when he's left his
own devices, it's up to himto do it. So so I'm just

(02:01):
going I'm just going by what Isee on NCIS. You know, Well,
there's there's a little more, there'sa little more to it, but
yeah, he should have. Heshould have, and so we'll get to
that any minute. So anyway,he missed, completely missed a bullet in
a nineteen year old shooting victim's body. And jeez, guess what. This

(02:21):
isn't the first time he's made shockingmistakes. Oh no, no, now
you now, you might think thatthis could be a rookie or a newbie
mistake, but oh new Krause hasforty years of experience, y'all, four
decades. So is he just gettinglazy and careless? I really don't know.

(02:43):
There were pictures of him, andhe looked pretty pretty relaxed, Like
he went from having a nice whitelab coat with his name on it looking
somewhat handsome to kind of looking alittle disheveled in a Hawaiian shirt. If
you're feeling me, so you know, maybe he's on the Jibbing Buffett liquid
diet. I'm just saying, Idon't know. But so he's worked for

(03:07):
the Tyrant County Medical Examiner's Office sincenineteen eighty one, so that's kind of
scary now. The murder victim,Alfredo Oliveri's was shot on September the nineteenth,
twenty twenty, as he stood inthe front yard of a home in
the forty one hundred block of ValentineStreet in Fort Worth. He died in

(03:29):
the operating room at Harris Methodist Hospital, according to the state disclosure. Four
days later, Peter Cardona, twentythree, of Benbrook was charged with the
murder. Hospital and police reports specifiedtwo gunshot wounds that Oliveris was shot twice.
Okay, both the hospital and policesay this. Krauss noted in his

(03:53):
September twentieth, twenty twenty report thatthe team only had one gunshot wound on
his left lower back, which hadcaused injuries to his ribs and left kidney.
Interesting and yet he listed his causeof death as a gunshot wound to
his abdomen. Yeah, I'm thinkinghe got shot with that same bullet that

(04:15):
you know. JFK got shot withthe bounces around. Uhh, yeah,
y'all know the one I'm talking about. So anyway, red flags went up
when another medical examiner reviewed Krause's finalizedreport a month after the initial optopsy,
He noted several inconsistencies, including thatimages from the hospital showed two bullets in

(04:38):
the body. Okay, Sosie,the hospital took X rays okay. This
was also consistent with what the policereported. Krauss came under suspicion in November,
shortly after he performed an optopsy onthe nineteen year old shooting victim Alvarez
and missed the bullet completely in hisbody. Well, I'm sure that y'all

(05:00):
can see how this is bad andhow it might change any legal outcome or
trial. So as a result,Oliver's body had to be exhumed under a
court order in December. That poorfamily, Now that's just all kinds of
sad and wrong and messed up,so contrary to what we see on TV.

(05:20):
Kim on It's dis I was kiddingaround, but yeah, exhumations are
only done in extraordinary circumstances where thebody contains significant evidence that was missed a
bullet or if the cause of deathcould be different than what was originally determined.

(05:46):
Again, he wasn't shot in theabdomen. I mean you know,
in this instance, missing bullet fragmentscould be relevant to help identify the weapon
used in a fatal shooting, whichcould in turn identify or equip a subject.
It could also lead to a newdetermination on the case or manner of
Oliveri's death. So y'all want thedirty details, here we go. Absolutely

(06:11):
the dirty or the better, Yes, here we go. So let's get
back to our poor murder victim,which is Oliveri's that he had to have
his body dug up because of allof this negligence and footleshness. While Alfredo
was shot twice, Krauss noted inhis September twenty, twenty twenty, that's
hard to say, y'all get themessage. In that report, he reported

(06:32):
the team had only one gunshot woundon his left lower back, enlisted the
cause of death as a gunshot woundto the abdomen. We've already said that
a few times. However, whenanother medical examiner reviewed Kraus's report the following
month, he noted several inconsistencies,including that X ray images from the hospital

(06:54):
showed two bullets in Alfredo's body.Come to find out, Krause hadn't even
looked at the radiology reports from thehospital. He didn't even looked at the
other reports. Never mind it,he didn't even he didn't do his own.
But he hadn't even looked at anyanything else. He just just went
on. The second bullet had notbeen removed by Krause, and instead he

(07:16):
reported the wound as a surgical stab, despite hospital and police records reporting it
as a gunshot. Winged. Yeah. At least four other discrepancies in the
autopsy were found, including that Kraussaid no personal belongings were found on Oliveis,
but photos show he had a legmonitor at hum y'all. Oh,

(07:43):
oh, he had an ankle bracelet. Yes, he was like out of
jail something like that. He mustdo it. He must have been on
some sort of release program. Butyou know, don't You just don't get
naked and without your leg monitor.So where are these things? So?
Kraus also indicated that Oliveris was clothed, but the police had taken all of

(08:05):
his clothes all right, So thesloppy and negligent mistake resulted. It didn't
even look at him. He didn'teven look, did he. I can't
even imagine, you know, thisis what I know. I did not
read anything about this. I didn'tread anything. It's just a feeling,
because in my other life I dofeeling stuff. But I swear to God,

(08:28):
all I could think of was hehad to be drunk or high,
or or or something, or ontoo much cold medicine. We won't speculate
as to the reason that he madeall these mistakes, but we have our
own theories. This is my opinion. Okay. I just kept thinking of
myself, how could you notice thathe he didn't have any clothes on?

(08:52):
Okay, or that he had Imean an ankle bracelet. I don't know
if y'all ever received him. They'rethey're big, and they're black. I
will say that there are YouTube videoson how to take those suckers off.
Well, yeah, but that's notthe point. The boy was kind of
I mean, you know, look, he was naked, all right.

(09:15):
How do he get past the boybeing naked? Okay? So the sloppy
and negligent mistake resulted in Olivera's bodybeing exoomed under a corridor in December,
so for Worth, defense attorney MikeWare said he couldn't think of any cases
he'd been involved in that ever involveda body being a zoomed, though they

(09:37):
had been done in real circumstances,and in this case it was because Grouse
missed a ballet, where said missingbullet fragments could be relevant to identifying the
weapon used in the crime, well, duh, Which could identify or clear
a suspect again duh, Or itcould lead to a new determination on the

(10:00):
cause or manner of death. Againif it's called into question. Of forty
cases which date from twenty nineteen totwenty twenty, Krause either performed an autopsy
or simmed off on an autopsy thatwas performed by another medical examiner. It's
believed that Krauss conducted at least sixof those autopsies firsthand. None of the

(10:24):
other six cases tied to Kraus haveresulted in the exhumation of a body.
Yet, Oh, there's more tostay on it, Spullen, my twist
sister. It isn't clear what theExaminer's office plans to do, if anything,

(10:45):
with cases Kraus might have worked onbefore the twenty nineteen twenty twenty period
it's reviewing. So far, noother cases tied to a kraus have resulted
in the exhumation of a body.However, because of this discrepancy in the
olive various report, other medical examinershave collected a random sampling of Krausi's reports

(11:07):
to review back to January twenty twenty. According to the four Worst Star Telegram,
doctors found four failures so far byKraus in a February twenty twenty autopsy
in which a man had chronic urinarytrack infections and was a paraplegic due to
being injured in a nineteen nineties shooting. Now keep this in mind, the

(11:28):
family said the bullet had never beenremoved from the man's body, according to
the court document. According to theMedical Examiner's office review, Krauss made no
attempt to find it during his autopsyof the man. Krauss is said to
have only taken an X ray ofthe man's chest okay, which didn't show

(11:48):
the bullet well because he probably ruledhis death natural causes. But the point
is is the family the family washaving an autopsy done on him and they
expected that to come up because theyknew the bullet was in there. So
if the bullet didn't come up,they're like, well, what else did
you miss? Right? Exactly,Yeah, So they're kind of the ones

(12:11):
going, wait a minute. Soanyway, he didn't take any further x
rays as far as beyond his chest, So that was determined that kraus failed
to review a hospital record given tohim two months earlier before completing his report
on that man too, as wellas the police report. Again, so

(12:35):
it really does seem he has ahistory of being very sloppy and negligent at
the very least. Wouldn't you say, well, yeah, I want It
makes you wonder if he's been thatway the whole forty years, and how
many of these things has he gottenwrong, and how many people that are
innocent might be in jail because ofhim. Well, that's absolutely the point.
So the Medical Examiner's office released astatement that said no other issues have

(12:58):
been found on this particular man,the paraplegic man, but the statement did
not say how many of Krausis autopsieshave been reviewed yet. The office did
confirm that he's been a deputy MedicalExaminer since nineteen eighty one. Well,
we mentioned that already, but theMedical Examiner's office declined to answer questions regarding

(13:20):
how long he will be suspended fromconducting autopsies in the homicide cases. It
should be he shouldn't be conducting anyautopsies in any cases. They're still letting
him as long as they're not homicide. Yep, nope, nope, no,
because if he's doing that with homicides, he's doing it with everything else,

(13:41):
probably even less. So you know, well that's what I think too,
But you know, I mean,I don't just the facts, ma'am.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission says itdoes not have jurisdiction over autopsies performed
by license physicians, and they arenot investigating him, of course, not

(14:01):
pass the buck, not my problem. Then here you go. A state
disclosure that details why Krauss was suspendedwas filed in at least forty homicide cases
that the Tyrant County District Attorney's officeis prosecuting from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty.
Again, according to the Star Telegram, and the state disclosure means that

(14:24):
Krauss either performed the autopsy or signedoff on an autopsy that was performed by
another medical examiner. Okay, soyou know, but still he signed off
on it. DA spokeswoman Anna TinsleyWilliams said a disclosure alerts the defense of
potential evidence so that the attorney canask a judge to allow questioning on the

(14:46):
topic at trial. Okay, backto our fort Worth. DA Mike Ware
said the disclosure doesn't mean those fortycases can't be tried or that there will
be eras in those cases. Itdoes mean that the mistakes or mistake found
are serious enough that the implications gobeyond the case or cases where the mistakes

(15:07):
were discovered. He said, theprosecution is ethically and legally responsible for notifying
the defense, which means defense attorneysin those cases can now question Cross's expertise.
Good, I mean he should.I hate to see that all come
up and all those forty cases getretried and all that stuff, But you
know what it needs to happen,well, mainly and including in front of

(15:31):
a jury. And so hey,get this, here's a fun fact,
y'all. I actually found an episodeof Forensic Files. Oh yes, I
did, where Krause is an expert. Oh yes, ma'am. It's Forensic
Files episode Low Maintenance, which airedFebruary. Does that make sense? Low

(15:54):
Mace, which air isn't It airedFebruary of the twenty fifth, twenty eleven.
Again, that's Forensic Files. Canyou imagine? Which is available on
who? By the way, anywayback to the defense. The defense attorney

(16:15):
Christie Jack, Now, she's something. I saw a picture her and she
had a little black leather jacket struttingherself in the court lord having mercy.
She was. She was, Ohmy god, Christie, Miss Christie said.
The way I look at it isit's kind of like the Grandfather's clock
that strikes thirteen. It calls intoquestion all that came before it. Oh

(16:37):
my god, she was having herday. Now, Miss Christie is a
former prosecutor who represents a murder suspectawaiting trial. Right, She Yeah,
doctor Krause also did the autopsy inthis victim's case. She continued, Yeah,
she can't just talk about luck.She continued to say. Any time

(17:00):
a professional's proficiency is on the lineand you've just been handed what could be
information that caused into question their expertise, it's a goal nine. As a
defense attorney, she's right, youguys, you guys. She was rubbing
her little hands with glee, likea little fly rubbing, rubbing her hands.
Oh god, I find it horriblethat he's so incompetent. Oh my

(17:26):
god. Meanwhile, the president ofthe Tarrant County Defense Lawyers Association, Ben
Vargie's, called for a full investigation. He said, this is truly unprecedented.
That's probably a good thing, butstill, he said, you have
a very significant case. You havean individual who's high ranking at the Emmy's
office who's making a mistake that itis not only profound, but one that

(17:49):
shouldn't have been made under any circumstances. Well, yeah, he's right,
fresh out med school guy could figurethat one. Disc Attorney Sharon Wilson declined
to answer any questions about Oliver's caseor krauss Is handling of the autopsy.
Defense attorneys are pointing figures, forsure, they're all pointing figures and far

(18:15):
yeah, they're finger pointing left andright and fault prosecutors for not being more
open. Well, Vargie's responds,it was we're looking, we're looking for
greater transparency, and right now we'rehaving to piecemeal. Notice is sent out
to forty different attorneys. At least, can you imagine to see what's going
on in each one of those individualcases and try to find on our own

(18:38):
what other mistakes have been made bydoctor krausse over time? Poor man.
I saw him too. He wassweat bullet faster he was. He was
wringing his hands, but not ina happy way. The Medical Examiner's office
declined to make doctor kraus available forany interviews, and Medical Examiner doctor Nazem

(18:59):
pure Wanni also chose not to comment. I guess not Peter Cardona, remember
him? Peter Cardona, twenty three, faces murder charges in connection with all
of various death and is out onbond awaiting trial. According to jail records,
His attorney, Emily Lashaunce, didnot comment on the current situation.

(19:22):
Oh, I bet you should becommenting plenty. How bad Peridy? So
what you think, Kim? Iknow you have thoughts. Oh, I
have thoughts all the time. Butthis guy shouldn't be practicing in the Medical
Examiner's office. He should not bepracticing period. In my opinion, I
know he should have this medical licensestripped from him. Well, he's only

(19:45):
suspended like I say, he's onlysuspended from doing homicides. He's not suspended
from the rest of it. Iknow, And that's not right. That's
not right. Thanks again for spendingyour Friday with us. We're so glad
to be back, even if weare waffling on well, we'll rain it
back in on next Tuesday and Fridayfor sure. For please join us for

(20:07):
more maid murder and mayhem, orleave us some comments to get on their
blog at kadzookillers dot com and showKim some love because she works really hard
on that and I'm a slacker,so just saying I actually don't work very
hard anymore. Well, she did, and I'm trying to be nice and

(20:27):
throw her a bone because I ama slacker. So and for something lighter
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sister show and what's that called Kimto chicks and a Christofi Jicks and a
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(20:49):
We love you guys. Bye,y'all. Can't b