Stacey Castor's Victims Call For Change In State Law
SYRACUSE -- The trial of Stacey Castor has led to important changes in the way deaths are investigated throughout New York State. The families of murder victims David Castor and Michael Wallace say it's about time.
During the criminal investigation of Stacey Castor for the anti-freeze murder of her second husband, David, police discovered that her first husband, Michael Wallace was also murdered by anti-freeze. Wallace's murder wasn't determined until authorities exhumed and autopsied his body seven years after his death. When he died in 2000 in Cayuga County, Wallace's family decided against an autopsy. "It was a good thing they were able to dig him up." said Wallace's sister Rosemary Corbett, "so we could find out exactly what happened."
The families of Michael Wallace and David Castor want to change state law to set new criteria for mandatory autopsies. Under the current state public health law, it is generally up to either the families or law enforcement to decide when an autopsy is necessary. According to Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick, those decisions can vary greatly from one county to another, especially where elected coroners have the last word. It's a system, Fitzpatrick says, that needs to be revamped. "In the 21st century, the coroner system is, in my judgement, outdated."
Fitzpatrick favors the use of medical examiners offices with complete laboratories, which follow specific criteria for reportable deaths. In Onondaga County, those criteria include any violent deaths, suicides, accidental, suspicious, unusual, drug related and any sudden death of a person in good health. The medical examiner can then decide whether an autopsy should be performed.
Fitzpatrick says, had Michael Wallace died in Onondaga County, Stacey Castor might have been stopped in 2000, and David Castor would be alive today.
