Thursday, 4:30 PM
Governor removes state's top pathologist
By Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
Governor Deval Patrick tonight removed the state's chief medical examiner from his duties after his office acknowledged losing a corpse that pathologists examined last week.
In the latest embarrassment for the troubled medical examiner's office, officials at the Boston headquarters called state public safety officials this afternoon to report that they had lost a man's body transported there from Cape Cod on April 23, said Charlie McDonald, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Public Safety.
Pathologists had performed an autopsy the following day. McDonald declined to identify the man or say when his body went missing.
Kurt N. Schwartz, the undersecretary of law enforcement, ordered the employees of Chief Medical Examiner Mark A. Flomenbaum to immediately suspend their search, McDonald said. Schwartz then told State Police to search for the body and begin poring over documents at the agency.
"If the facts as they have been summarized to date are borne out by the investigation, the chief medical examiner will be promptly fired," the Executive Office of Public Safety said in a statement.
