The Columbiana County Coroner certainly is qualified. He has held the position since 1988. Sometimes, these Coroners are elective offices without requirements and yahoos end up with the job. It is not the case here.

I suspect that what happened is an awful thing that happens from time to time. This was an accidental death. The police saw it and immediately knew it was an accidental death. But to the Mother of someone who dies suddenly, that is very... unsatisfying. It is only natural, for a person to want the causes to match the effects. And it is only natural for a person to use their feelings to make that assessment. So when a mother is told that her only son is dead and it was an accident, that doesn't sit well sometimes. People will say things like, "Well, he was never in a fatal accident before." It just doesn't make sense on an emotional level.

So the family goes to the Coroner's office, gets an autopsy. The autopsy comes through and the Coroner rules it a possible homicide. The police go back, measure tire tracks, look for finger prints on the car. They interview a few people nearby. They talk to friends, family, coworkers, etc... and nothing comes up. The case goes cold.

It is terribly sad, and not at all unexpected at that point, for grief-stricken family members to start trying to come up with theories and conjecture that match the level of pain they are enduring. Something as simple as "fell asleep at the wheel," doesn't match the level of horrendous suffering they are enduring. They start to believe in all kinds of crazy things, anything really, to explain the tremendous gulf between their despair and the sad, simple reality. In his mother's own words, which she proffered that he had worked 12 hour shifts for the previous eight days.

What's more likely? That someone who had worked 96 hours in the last week fell asleep at the wheel, or that a gang of corrupt police and horse traders orchestrated an elaborate murder?