Justice for Christy Lynn Carroll

Has a Medical Examiner who has been proven to be terrible at his job, hindered the investigation into Christy Lynn Carroll's murder?

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Thank you to Middle Tennessee Mysteries, Change.org, Christy’s Family’s Website hosted on Angelfire (This doesn’t have a good title or URL name… not sure how to credit it), The Southern Girl Crime Stories Youtube Channel, News Channel 5, JusticeForGaryWayneSutton.com, The Daily Harold, ABC News, Reddit, MedicineNet and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s case.

This episode was written by Kira McQueen, was edited by John Lordan and produced by LordanArts.

You can follow Kira McQueen's Missing Person's Advocacy at https://www.instagram.com/missinginwa/

This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation or potential charges associated to the investigation.  It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed.  Please do not contact people you are suspicious of or attempt to harass, threaten or intimidate them in any way. Do not release information that can be used to do the same, or join in attacks being conducted by others.  Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
The justice system functions a lot like a Rube Goldberg machine,
a series of complex chain reactions, all hopefully leading to
a final ball in the cup style conclusion. Each person
in the chain of events leading from crime scene to
courtroom must do their part to ensure a case moves
smoothly to the ultimate goal of finding and acting on

(00:42):
the truth. Medical examiners are some of the most critical
people in this process and carry the unique responsibility of
respectfully and accurately reading the silent story that a body
tells their determinations. Specifically, the manner of death is a
huge factor in how a case will be treated. There's

(01:02):
a very big difference in how an investigator will treat
one determined to be a homicide versus an undetermined or
even a self inflicted death, and that gait swings both ways.
Innocent people can be imprisoned for natural, accidental, or self
inflicted deaths that were misjudged as homicides. It's important to
remember that medical examiners are still people and can make

(01:24):
errors or even abuse their positions. The family of an
eighteen year old woman in Tennessee believe that a medical
examiner's rulings ultimately robbed them of justice, and three decades later,
there's a petition for a new autopsy in hopes of
revealing the truth. I'm John Lordon, and today we will
discuss the seriously mysterious death of Christi Lynn Carroll and

(01:47):
how a medical examiner and their spiraling career may have
ruined a family's chance at justice. Christi Lynn Carroll was
born on the twenty fifth of July in nineteen seventy
six and grew up spending time with both her grandparents
and her parents in Lake County, Tennessee. She was described
as friendly and outgoing, with an affinity for rescuing abandoned

(02:10):
or injured animals. At eighteen years old, she was described
by her family as a beloved child, somewhere in that
restless age between dependent minor and fully fledged adult, and
for good reason. Christy had an eighteen month old daughter
named Brittany that she adored. But it was not easy
to be a teen mother in nineteen ninety five in

(02:31):
rural Tennessee. Thankfully, she had the support of her family
and was still able to participate in some aspects of
normal teenage life. On Saturday, February fourth, Christy and her
friend Kim Burlinson made plans to go to a bar
and then spend the night at Kim's house in the
town of Hohenwald. Hohenwald is a small town located in

(02:52):
rural Lewis County that had a population of only about
thirty six hundred people in nineteen ninety five. At eleven
twenty pm, Ristie's brother, Ted and three of his friends
showed up to the bar, and Christy asked if she
could get a ride back to Kim's house. John, the
friend with the car, said he couldn't take them because
he had to pick up his mom at work. Soon,

(03:13):
Kim found another ride back to her house, but Christy
stayed with her brother and his friends. Soon the group
ran into two other boys, Daniel Lay and Eric Amaker,
who promised to take Christy to Kim's There isn't a
lot of detail on how well this group knew each other,
but there's also no mention of Christy or her brother
being uncomfortable with this plan. Minutes before midnight that same evening,

(03:37):
Deputy Lloyd Sherman and another officer came across a car
pulled off the highway. It was midway between Christy and
Kim's houses. Christy, Daniel, and Eric were all in the car,
and Daniel told police that it had overheated, but they
didn't need any help. Believing them, the deputies simply moved on.
Around two am that same night, technically Sunday morning, February fifth,

(04:00):
the same officers came across a car crash site, and
it was near where the overheated car had been. Eric
was walking away from this crash, but the car was
a different one than the one they had been in earlier.
Christy and Daniel were nowhere to be seen. There's a
distinct lack of details about this crash, which is frustrating.
It'd be helpful to know what Eric told police happened,

(04:22):
and particularly if he said anything about Daniel and Christie,
but unfortunately this information just isn't publicly available. One thing
we know for certain is that Christy never made it
to Kim's house. Kim last saw Christy with her brother,
so when she didn't turn up, it didn't really alarm her.
She probably figured that Christy had simply gone home with
her brother instead. Christie's mother also didn't worry initially because

(04:47):
she knew that Christy had been planning to stay at
Kim's Christy was supposed to have lunch at her grandmother's
house at noon that Sunday, but she didn't show up.
At first, her grandmother was angry at Christy for being
late and inconsiderate, but when she missed the entire gathering,
her irritation started to shift to worry, and the family
began to call around. The panic increased as each phone

(05:09):
call failed to provide answers. She would have gone to
police that same day, but she was under the impression
that she had to wait seventy two hours to report
Christie missing, a common misbelief that we still run into
to this very day. On Monday, February sixth, Christie's mom
got word that Christie had received a ride from Daniel
and Eric. Not wanting to wait any longer, she went

(05:30):
to the police station to demand that they questioned the
boys about Christie's whereabouts. But Christie's family would not have
to wait long to learn where she was. Shortly after
her mother arrived to speak with the police, a call
came in that a mail carrier had found Christie's deceased
body lying by the mail box next to her own driveway.
Her arms were outstretched Her face was bloodied and she

(05:54):
had bruises on her left groin and thigh. Her clothes
were muddy and her shirt had been ripped and pulled up,
exposing her stomach. Her pants were also pulled up from
the bottoms of both legs towards her knees. She was
barefoot and her shoes were missing, but all of her
jewelry was still on. What happened to Christie and how
did she wind up like that so close to her

(06:15):
own home. Initially, it was reported that Christie's body was
found in a ditch, but there was no ditch. There
was also no snow on the ground and no bushes

(06:37):
or tall grass. There was nothing to obscure her body.
Her mother said she'd driven past that spot at least
four times, and a neighbor named Eli said that he
even walked up and down the driveway that Sunday. If
the mail carrier could see her so easily, why didn't
anyone else. Her family felt that there was no chance
her body had been there since the early hours of Sunday.

(07:00):
Christie's autopsy was done in Nashville by a medical examiner
named doctor Charles Harlan. He would go on to have
a troubling career, eventually being found guilty of eighteen charges
of incompetence and negligence in two thousand and five and
stripped of his license. It appears that he was in
the midst of being investigated even back in nineteen ninety five,

(07:21):
but obviously he still had his license and position. Doctor
Harlan ruled her official cause of death as hypothermia. He
didn't perform any sexual assault kits and gave no estimated
time of death. Two different blood alcohol levels were recorded
in the autopsy, point oh one and point one zero.
Although it's probably a small mistake of flipping digits, we

(07:43):
still don't know which one's correct. Also, a coffee ground
type substance consistent with coagulated blood was found in her stomach.
To Christie's family, hypothermia alone simply can't explain the state
that her body was found in. It's true that it
was below free overnight, and sometimes people remove clothes when
they're hypothermic, in a phenomenon called paradoxical undressing, but Christy

(08:08):
wasn't really undressed. Her shoes weren't just off, they were
entirely missing from the scene, and her shirt was pulled
up only to expose her stomach. It was also strange
that her pants were pulled from the bottom up towards
the knee, not down like someone undressing it more closely,
mimics the direction that clothes would bunch up if someone
was being dragged by the feet, but that is simply speculation.

(08:32):
Hypothermia also doesn't explain the dirt on her clothes, blood
on her face and in her stomach, were the bruises
on her body. The family's website makes it clear that
they believe Daniel and Eric had something to do with
Christie's death, and even explicitly state that they dumped her
body where it was found. It's important to remember that
there's no proof that Eric or Daniel were involved in

(08:54):
any way, but it's easy to see why the family
finds them suspicious. Not only were they left last ones
to see her, but both told shifting stories about what
happened that night. Eric and Daniel first told police that
they had dropped her off at her house, not Kim's house,
like she had originally requested. The first time they told
this version of events, they said that they dropped her

(09:16):
off between twelve thirty am and one am. And Eric
walked her to the door. Shortly after this, they said
that they actually dropped her off halfway up her driveway
and saw her walking up. They later added that they
saw her fall over as they drove away, but didn't
stop to help her. This final version suspiciously and maybe
all too conveniently works with the cause and location of

(09:39):
her death as given by the medical examiner. Eric and
Daniel also said that they propositioned Christy for sex that
night and she declined, but we know the medical examiner
did not check her body for a sexual assault. Other
than that possibility, there's just no clear motive for Eric
and Daniel to hurt Christy. Could it have been an accident?

(10:00):
Was Christie somehow involved in the car crash that Eric
was seen walking away from at two am? A car
crash might explain some of her injuries, but that would
mean that she was somehow taken away from the crash
prior to the police arriving. If she was involved in
the crash, why would Eric and Daniel need to hide that.
Police didn't say that Eric was intoxicated when they saw

(10:20):
him walking away from the crash, but did they do
a sobriety check? We aren't even sure whose car it was,
only that police noted that the car was different from
the one they saw overheating around midnight. If Eric was
simply driving his own car home alone after hanging out
with Christy and Daniel, maybe the crash had nothing to
do with Christie's death at all. There are just so

(10:41):
many possibilities when the details are so obscured. There's also
the possibility that Eric and Daniel are telling the truth
about dropping Christy off at home. If so, did someone
else have something to do with her death? The family's
website doesn't mention anyone else having a motive to hurt her,
and they make their beliefs about Eric and Daniel very clear.

(11:02):
But how exactly would she wind up in that final
position by the mailbox. The lack of an estimated time
of death makes it even harder to understand. But is
it really possible that she could have somehow stumbled around
her own yard, causing herself so many traumatic external and
internal injuries, lost her shoes, completely, bunched up her clothing

(11:22):
from the bottom, passed out, and died of hypothermia. Like
doctor Harlan seemed to want everyone to believe, law enforcement
seemed to follow the medical examiner's a parent apathy towards
the case. When Christie's mom pointed out that the mud
on her daughter's clothing didn't match the dirt at their home,
she was told that soil analysis was TV stuff and

(11:43):
they wouldn't be looking into it. Eric even went to
police later that year and said he wanted to confess
to what happened in exchange for his own immunity, but
his mom, his lawyer, and a district attorney stopped him.
Even when an investigator for the District attorney's office said
that he was willing to take the case, the DA
still insisted that they drop it. How could that happen?

(12:08):
Eric and Daniel's families were well connected and respected in
the community. TBI agent Jerry Tennery told Christie's mother that
he knew Eric's family well and said that Eric was
a good boy. Daniel also happened to be related to
Lewis County Sheriff Dwayne Kilpatrick. Christy's family was left with
evidence uninvestigated, a botched autopsy, a stifled confession, and no

(12:32):
real way to fight back. There was no media pressure
on the police because there was a distinct lack of
coverage about the case. Christy's family said, our small rural
town in the foothills of Tennessee did not have the
internet when Christy was with us. They set up a
website to tell her story as soon as they could
in the early two thousands, and that website is still

(12:53):
up today. I do also want to point out that
it's important to remember that much of the current information
about Christie's case stems from this site, even if it's
reported in other places. So this info could hold certain biases,
but it's the best source the public has for trying
to understand what exactly has happened here. Within a year

(13:14):
of Christie's death, her then seventeen year old brother, Ted
was accused of being involved in a fistfight. The judge
that worked the case was Cornelia Clark, who reportedly had
a personal relationship with the district attorney. Despite the clear
ethical concerns this raised, she remained on the case. The
main testimony against Ted came from a young man and woman,

(13:35):
both of whom had previous records for selling and using cocaine.
The man was also rumoured to be a confidential informant
for the district attorney's office. A local teacher defended Ted
in court with a version of events that made it
clear that Ted could not have been guilty. Despite being
previously respected in the community, this teacher was now essentially mocked,

(13:56):
and in the end, Judge Clark sentenced Ted to three
years in jail. He only served four months, but the
family's website points out that this felt like a warning
to them, almost like saying be quiet, let it go.
There's plenty more where this came from. It's hard to
look at this case and not feel some anger, And

(14:17):
of course it's only highlighted knowing that ten years later
the medical examiner would lose his license for being terrible
at his job. But it probably shouldn't have even gone
that far. His contract as a Tennessee State medical examiner
was discontinued in nineteen ninety five, the same year as
Christie's case, but he continued to perform autopsies and testifying

(14:37):
cases by lying about his credentials. While much of the
information about Christie's death comes from her family's website, there
are plenty of independent articles about doctor Harlan and the
many other cases he botched and other troubling details It's
been reported that he exhibited strange and deviant behavior, like
keeping jars of body parts and tissue samples in a

(15:00):
chocolate box in his house. It's also been said that
he's sexually harassed and stalked female employees. In nineteen ninety nine,
a man named James Suttle was accused of stabbing his cousin,
Steve Hobbs to death, and he spent five months in
jail before doctor Harland's findings were challenged. The defense was
able to prove that his death was an accident and

(15:21):
no homicide had actually occurred. Doctor Harlan also performed the
autopsy and testified in the nineteen ninety six double murder
trial of a man who still sits on death row
to this day, Gary Wayne Sutton. He and his uncle,
who died of natural causes while in prison in twenty
twenty three, were accused of murdering Gary's best friend, Tommy

(15:42):
Griffin and Tommy's sister Connie. The main issue with doctor
Harland's findings in this case is that his determination of
time of death doesn't line up with the condition in
which the body was found. Doctor Harlan examined slides of
organs to determine the time of death, which he said
was about sixty four hours by Tommy was found, conveniently
lining up with the prosecution story. However, when the body

(16:06):
was found, it was in rigor mortis, which is at
its peak about eight to twelve hours after death and
gradually subsides twenty four to thirty six hours post mortem.
He couldn't have been dead for sixty four hours, or
a rigor would not have been present. More than just
being wrong, doctor Harlan should never have been involved, given
that he was under investigation at the time. The way

(16:28):
he determined time of death from slides of organs is
also not the recognized science, according to another medical examiner.
Since doctor Harlan was stripped of his license in two
thousand and five, some people received new trials, but Gary
Wayne Sutton is not one of them. Doctor Charles Harlan
had a thirty three year career before he was stopped.

(16:49):
How many times in those years did he intentionally or
carelessly derail cases on the track to justice and truth?
For christy Lynn Carroll, doctor Harlan's downfall has led to
a petition for a new autopsy. This petition is currently
running at change dot org and will be linked in
the show notes of today's episode. Today, Christie's daughter would

(17:11):
be in her early thirties and she deserves to know
the truth about her mother's death. The website the family
created is still up, and if you choose to visit it,
please be warned that there are graphic, black and white
photos of Christie's body. There is a heartbreakingly honest reason
that Christie's grandmother chose to include those alongside her story.
She writes. I used to say I did not want

(17:34):
to offend or shock others with the pictures on this site.
That is no longer true. I hope you are shocked.
I hope you are offended. I hope you will feel
the anger I feel. Death by violence is not pretty.
I had to see my grandchild like this. I had
to know how violent and ugly her death was, and
I am outraged. I am angry, I am bitter, I'm

(17:58):
in pain, and I want just justice for my grandchild.
Do you have any insights or a case you'd like
to suggest, Feel free to send it to me. You'll
find a comment form and case submission link at lordenarts
dot com. Thank you to Middle Tennessee Mysteries Change dot Org,
Christie's family's website, hosted on Angelfire, The Southern Girl Crime

(18:21):
Stories YouTube channel, News Channel five, Justice for Garywaynsutton dot com,
The Daily Herald, ABC News, Reddit, medicine Net, and Wikipedia
for information contributing to today's case. This episode was written
by Kira McQueen, edited by John Lorden, and produced by
Lorden Arts. Thank you to the audience here for the
live recording session hosted on the YouTube channel Lorden Arts

(18:44):
Studio Too Special, Thanks to seriously mysterious financial supporter Mel Stephen,
and most of all, thank you for listening. I'm John Lorden.
Please join us again next week for another case I
know you'll find seriously mysterious