Second Autopsy Shows Banker Had Gunshot Wound to Head
October 21st, 2010Oh sure, “It could be either a homicide or a suicide.”
And how did the first autopsy miss a gunshot wound to the head and call it drowning?!
Spitz has said previously that his examination on Monday found no evidence of trauma or assault, and some evidence from the body is consistent with a death by drowning.
Via: Morning Sun:
A new autopsy shows that a Michigan banker whose body was found in Lake St. Clair was shot in the head, and authorities said Wednesday it could be either a homicide or a suicide.
Mount Clemens banker David Widlak was shot in the back of the head, Sheriff Mark Hackel said in a press conference.
A handgun – owned by Widlak – was found in the water near a boat launch ramp between Crocker Avenue and Shook Road in Harrison Township.
Hackel says gunshot was cause of death – not undetermined as initially reported by the county medical examiner, Dr. Daniel Spitz. But whether it was suicide or homicide is not known at this time, pending more police investigation.
“We are shocked at this latest turn of events,” the Widlak family said in a statement to The Macomb Daily. “We are now looking to law enforcement officials to conduct a complete and thorough investigation.”
The gunshot wound was to the back of the head at the base of the neck, Spitz says, and would have been fatal.
But the Oakland County medical examiner, Dr. L.J. Dragovic, who was retained by the Widlak family for a second autopsy in the case, declared Monday it was a homicide, and that Widlak was indeed shot “execution”-style. Dragovic says it was “mid-back” of the neck.
Spitz said the X-ray equipment available to him in Macomb County is not as good as Oakland County’s. In Macomb, the machine takes a series of digital photos, while the Oakland County equipment is able to provide a continuous electronic picture and a variety of angles can be viewed.
Widlak, 62, the CEO of Community Central Bank in downtown Mount Clemens had been missing until his body was found Sunday evening in a marshy area of Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township.
Widlak, of Grosse Pointe Farms, was last was seen at the Mount Clemens-based Community Central Bank Corp. administrative offices Sept. 19. His car was in the parking lot when a maintenance worker found the offices in disarray the following morning.
The Macomb County sheriff’s department released copies of 911 calls in the case on Wednesday.
In the first call Sept. 20, a bank employee described finding Community Central Bank Corp.’s offices in disarray that day. The caller says “there’s furniture turned upside down and everything.”
Authorities have said a maintenance worker at David Widlak’s offices placed the call.
The second call was placed Sunday by a duck hunter, who described finding the remains.
“Pretty sure there’s a dead body in the water over here. Floating,” the caller said.
The hunter said he was in the water in a canoe when he spotted the body.
