The Chicago Tribune reported today that two employees of the Cook County Medical examiner's office have been fired in connection with the recent discovery of hundreds of unidentified bodies left in a crowded cooler. This disturbing discovery last month led to a review of the operations at the morgue. A spokesperson for County Board President Toni Preckwinkle described the review process in light of the recent firings, “[w]e're looking much broader than any one person, one incident. We're looking at the overall operation of the office”
The Chicago law firm of Hurley, McKenna & Mertz P.C. has filed a lawsuit against the County of Cook on behalf of the family of a woman whose body lay unidentified in the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office for over fourteen [14] months. The family contacted the Cook County Medical examiner's office weekly between January of 2010 and June of 2011, seeking information regarding their missing family member. However, employees of the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office repeatedly told the family over a fourteen month period that they did not have her body, even though her body was at the morgue.
