Murder charge withdrawn against Sheshatshiu father accused in infant son's death
Dead child's brain — key evidence in prosecution's case — now missing and presumed destroyed
A high-profile Labrador homicide case took a dramatic turn Thursday when the Crown announced it was withdrawing a murder charge against a Sheshatshiu man after critical evidence went missing.
Thomas George Michel was accused of killing his four-month-old son Matthew Rich in October 2013.
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The case was called in Supreme Court in Happy Valley-Goose Bay Thursday morning.
This is the most unfortunate set of circumstances that we've seen in a long time.- Elaine Reid, Crown prosecutor
Crown prosecutor Elaine Reid dropped a bombshell when she said the charge was being withdrawn because the child's brain has gone missing and was presumably destroyed while in the possession of the Chief Medical Examiner's Office.
"Our understanding was that this exhibit was to be retained by [the Chief Medical Examiner's Office] and it's not available to us," said Reid.
The prosecution said it learned the key evidence was missing when experts in the fields of forensic pathology and neuropathology went to examine the deceased child's brain.
The RCMP charged Michel a month after Rich's death.
Without the experts having access to the brain, there is no longer a reasonable likelihood of conviction, Reid said.
"This is the most unfortunate set of circumstances that we've seen in a long time," she said. "It was a decision which was not made easily by the Crown … and it did come after a really serious, real hard look at the case."
A statement from the Office of the Medical Examiner said the policy of the office is to "maintain relevant autopsy tissue for independent review."
However, in the case of Rich, the statement said, it appears "the specimen may have been inadvertently disposed."
Both the office and Eastern Health are jointly reviewing the policies pertaining to human tissue disposal "to prevent the possibility of a similar incident occurring in the future."
The statement also said the office would not be commenting further on the matter.
With files from Jacob Barker