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Pink Politic
Part 2: Parents find similarities in the deaths of their kids in Washington & Madison counties Missouri & want answers.
2022-05-02
Even more alarming than a "suicide" cause of death ruling overturned to "death by violence" is how many trials in which Dr. Deidiker's testimony was as the "expert" witness.
This year, a pathologist who works in Missouri & Illinois had his findings challenged. In one case, he ruled the death a suicide & in two other cases, he ruled the cause of death an overdose.
How many times did his testimony sway jurors and judges when determining prison sentences and even death penalty cases? How many suicide cases were closed, enabling murderers to walk the streets still? It is impossible to tell.
If you look at his average in the last couple of months, it doesn't look good. Dr. Deidiker worked in Missouri and Illinois for over 28 years in 25 different counties and two states.
He has ruled on countless deaths. Prosecutors in two states considered his rulings before filing formal charges in people's deaths and before sentencing people to death.
The exact reach of Dr. Deidiker's "expertise" is unknown, yet he is still working today, and he may be passing out "get-out-of-jail-free" cards to violent criminals in the form of inaccurate autopsies. It is also possible he is throwing innocent people in prison.
In both cases, if Dr. Deidiker ruled incorrectly on the deaths preceding Mikayla and Derantae, he may be the reason the people who ended the two teenagers' lives were able to avoid prison and kill again.
Had the parents of Mikayla and Derontae not requested a second autopsy, the same two people would be free to kill a third time. However, despite evidence disputing the results of Deidiker's initial rulings, Madison County Sherriff Katy McCutcheon and Washington County Sherriff Zach Jacobsen have not taken any steps to hold anyone responsible or even acknowledge the botched autopsies.
"I hope to help establish training standards for not only for the coroners but also for the sheriffs and/or their chief deputy that at times have to perform the duties of the coroner according to Missouri Revised Statute 58.205," McCutcheon said. "As of right now, the sheriffs or their chief deputies do not have to attend the mandatory yearly training that the coroners are required to."
Sherriff McCutcheon needs to quickly step up the yearly training for her and Dr. Deidiker.
She also stated:
"It's an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to serve on this board," McCutcheon said. "What can I say? It's an amazing feeling to know that Governor Parson has confidence in my abilities to appoint me to this commission."
Governor Parsons may need to revisit this appointment and consider removing Sherriff McCutcheon altogether. According to several families of missing or deceased kids, Sherriff McCutcheon outright refuses to do her job or take responsibility.
Sherriff McCutcheon made the news recently when the St. Louis Channel 5 I-team caught her in a parking lot and questioned her regarding missing evidence.
The Sherriff stammered through the questions and even got caught trying to cover up the missing evidence, stuttering, and making excuses before refusing to talk anymore about the ring.
You can watch the interview here:
After looking into a case of missing evidence in Madison County, Missouri, the I-Team asked Sheriff Katy McCutcheon if this happened in other cases. Her response? "Uh, I hope not."
I interviewed Barbara Hall, the mother of missing Timmy Dees. We discussed her experience with the Madison County Sherriff's Department and Sherriff McCutcheon. Her 26-year-old son went missing from Madison County, and she has had no cooperation from Sherriff McCutcheon or her department.
"I filed the first missing person report in Jefferson County where I lived," Barbara said. "I didn't realize Timmy was in Madison County until after I filed the report." she went on to say, "The last video of him was at C-Barn in Madison County a few hours before he called 911 for help because he said someone was chasing him."
Barbara said, "A detective from Jefferson County assisted me in my search for my son and contacted Madison County." also, "The detective was able to get video from the C-Barn showing Timmy alive and well."
Barbara continued, "He also told me my son made a 911 call to Madison County asking for help because someone was chasing him." "Deputies were dispatched to the address they were given and arrived in four minutes." "When they got there, they found someone with a warrant, arrested the kid, and went about their night."
"Nothing more was done about my son." When asked for the 911 tapes, Timmy's mom said, "I was told once that there was not enough funding for the 911 recordings to be made," "and the second time I asked about a recording, they told me lightning hit and that's why they couldn't record."
Barbara stated, "Chief Hovis of the Fredricktown Police Department asked to speak to me after reading about the missing 911 recordings." "He told me he was confused because Fredricktown paid a lot of money to Madison County to make sure the 911 lines were up and running and recording, and he questioned where the money is if they were not working."
Ironically, Sherriff McCutcheon is also the Director of Madison County 911 Communications and has been since 2013.
In Barbara's interview, there continued to be questionable situations surrounding the Sherriff. Barbara told me the Sherriff refused to speak to her and said, "I went to the courthouse to try and talk to her about my missing son and was shown right out." "It's funny because she did an interview for the Riverfront Times and said she's working with Timmy's mom to find Timmy, but she's never spoken to me once."
"Jefferson County was confused as to why when the police found the video showing Timmy in their county, did they still refuse to take my missing persons report."
"I was told I couldn't prove Timmy went missing from Madison County even though Jefferson County found a video of my son in Madison County at a local gas station."
"I was also told I couldn't prove Timmy is the one who made the 911 call from his phone." Barbara went on to say, "None of this made any sense to me."
"I could not believe it." Barbara refers to the man whose house Derontae Martin was at when Deidirker ruled his death a suicide. A jury overturned this suicide in court and changed it to "death by violence."
In part one of this series, another man died years before Martin on the same property, Wade used a similar excuse, and it was ruled a suicide by the same Dr. Deidiker.
Barbara has been at the courthouse in Fredricktown every day with good weather since her son went missing. She stands outside the courthouse with signs about her missing son. She has been doing this since the beginning of March. Yet still, Madison County will not even talk to her. Barbara told me about a search a close friend helped her with for her son. She said he brought trained cadaver dogs.
Barabara claims, "The dogs hit on two storage units, so they called Sherriff McCutcheon," Barbara said, "When Sherriff Katy got there, she said, "My town, My show!" "After she arrived, they opened one unit and found nothing," "Sherriff Katy refused to open the second unit."
Barbara said, "The dogs were hitting on these two units over and over, and she would only open one." "She said the unit was fine, it was one of her officer's units, and he was a good cop, and they already checked the unit."
"When my boyfriend insisted she open the unit, Sherriff Katy said it could be a dead mouse or something, and she is not opening the unit and then told my people they needed to leave the search was over."
Barbara also said, "We were told we had to be nice to her and do what she said, or she would make everyone leave." Barbara said that Madison County turned Timmy's case over to the state police because Madison County still "refuses to acknowledge it."
Barbara also claims that a close friend who used to be a government official in the area told her that on several occasions, she heard Sherriff Katy say, "let the druggies kill the druggies, not my problem."
The problem with this stance is that it's the "druggies," as she allegedly called them, who are killing innocent kids in her county. These kids don't know what they are walking into when they go to Madison County. Experimenting with drugs is what they do. Kids will be kids.
Today's drugs are not suitable for experimenting. A small amount of fentanyl that fits on the tip of your pinkie is enough to kill someone. Pot, meth, heroin, and even Xanax bars can be laced with fentanyl and will kill you.
The fentanyl fad has made it easy to disguise a murder as an overdose. A hotshot is a term that typically refers to a lethal amount of drugs intentionally given to an unsuspecting user.
In the case of Timmy, Barbara said, "Timmy was visiting an old friend. He was naive and trusted the wrong person, and he was vulnerable because his brother died." "I believe he was killed." "I'm not sure if it was jealousy or money, but I just want to find his body and lay him next to his brother."
Regardless, killing a drug addict doesn't give you immunity from murder charges because it was just some "junkie." Also, not all people who happen to be taking drugs are addicts. Furthermore, just because someone has drugs in their system at the time of death does not mean they partook in them willingly.
In my interview with Timmy's mom, we discussed the possibility that people with cash or drugs may be lured to Fredricktown and robbed. With the fentanyl epidemic, overdose has become so common that people stopped questioning them.
People with habits and no way to support them become desperate, doing things they wouldn't normally do to get a fix.
According to parents I interviewed in Madison County, the blatant refusal to address murders and missing kids is just another day at the office for Madison County. "Everyone dies of a suicide or overdose, according to Deidiker," one mother told me.
Dr. Diediker also determined the cause of death for Deilo Rogers at the Farmington Correctional Center, and the family requested a 2nd opinion. Prison officials called Deilo's mother and said her son's "heart had given out" and "he fell."
Dr. Diediker ruled the death "acute fentanyl intoxication" even though he had two black eyes, a bruise, and scratches on the side of his neck. When Roger's mother viewed the body of her son, she said,
"I automatically knew something wasn't right." she also stated, "Godfrey found vomit all the way down in his lungs." "I honestly believe my son was murdered. I believe he was choked to death."
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