Death of man in Pa. prison garners national attention, coroner speaks out: 'At no time were the remains missing’
It’s been more than a year since 41-year-old Army veteran Everett Palmer Jr. was found dead in York County Prison, but now, his story is being told on a national scale — and it’s a story the York County Coroner has disputed.
Publications like
CNN and the
Washington Post have posted articles about the Delaware man’s apparent drug-related death, citing family members who claim that little information has been shared with them about what happened to Palmer.
Adding to that frustration is the fact that Palmer’s brain, heart and throat were removed during a death investigation, the Washington Post reported, revealing that those organs were kept for forensic testing.
Philadelphia-based civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt, who has been hired by the family, told CNN those organs were misplaced. And, according to the news outlet, Palmer’s family members claim officials at the local coroner’s office told them they’d have to check with a funeral home to find the body parts.
But on Friday, York County Coroner Pam Gay took to Twitter, issuing a public statement to clear up what she says are falsehoods included in the stories being told about the investigation into
Palmer’s April 9, 2018 death.
“From the beginning of this investigation, appropriate chain of custody was maintained of the remains of Everett Palmer Jr.,” the statement reads. “At no time were the remains ‘missing’; at no time did we direct the family to the funeral home for ‘missing’ organs.”
The organs, she said, were sent with Forensic Pathology Associates of Allentown for testing related to the death investigation. Forensic Pathology Associates remains in the possession of those organs, she said, explaining the investigation is ongoing.
Gay also re-released a news release, which lists Palmer’s cause of death as “complications following an excited state associated with methamphetamine toxicity during physical restraint.”
According to CNN, Palmer’s family members admitted he had “some history of drug use” but said he didn’t do meth.
Gay’s report said that Palmer was housed in a cell at the prison, when he “became agitated” and started banging his head off of his cell door.
Officers at the prison were able to restrain Palmer, who was transported to a prison medical clinic, the report explains, adding that Palmer was unresponsive at that time.
He was later transported by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy on Palmer’s body was conducted at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, and cause of death was later released.
Media outlets have reported that Palmer was on his way from Delaware to New York to visit family In April 2018 when he decided to stop in Pennsylvania to clear up an outstanding warrant related to an earlier drunken driving incident.
It was during that process that he was arrested and eventually sent to York County Prison, where he died.
“This entire case smacks of a cover-up,” Merritt told CNN, also telling the Washington Post that there is “so much mystery and unanswered questions in a way that violates every policy and procedure the state has."
But Gay said her office has been in contact with Palmer’s family since shortly after his death, “either personally and/or through the family’s private legal counsel at the time."
“Arrangements were made with the family’s private forensic pathologist to go to FPA and visualize and examine the organs for himself. That examination was conducted after FPA’s final autopsy findings were released to the family,” Gay said.
According to the Washington Post, state police and the York County District Attorney’s Office are still investigating Palmer’s death.