Charlotte Observer Investigates Medical Examiner’s Office

A new investigative series conducted by the

Charlotte Observer

explores the perils of North Carolina’s medical examiners’ systems and how its failures have impacted the community. Unanswered questions in suspicious death rulings and the discovery that thousands of bodies were never viewed during investigations left families without answers and the justice system at risk.

The five-part interactive series makes recommendations for how the state can improve its practices by looking at what other states are having success with. The expert recommendations, ranging from required training for all examiners to increased spending, come more than a decade after proposed changes were ignored in 2001.

Check out the

five part series

.