State Morgue Worker Fired For Allegedly Giving Hubby Sneak-Peek Of Adam Lanza’s Body
The state of Connecticut has fired an employee who allegedly allowed her husband to check out Adam Lanza’s body before the autopsy took place.
Jean Henry, a technician in the Medical Examiner’s office, had been on a four-month paid leave while an investigation into the December 16 incident was underway. She is now contesting the firing through the state employees’ union grievance procedure.
Her dismissal from state employment became effective on April 10, but it evidently just became public. In a dismissal letter to the worker, H. Wayne Carver, the state’s Chief Medical Examiner, wrote of the December 16 incident that “On this day you violated the ethical mission of this agency, showed extremely poor judgment, were unprofessional and failed to follow agency policies and procedures.”
Adam Lanza was the gunman who went on a shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. that left 20 children and six adults dead.
Henry reportedly gave her husband unauthorized access to area of the morgue where bodies are refrigerated: “Henry and her husband entered the refrigerated room at the medical examiner’s facility in which bodies are kept pending autopsies. It was the morning of the day when a postmortem later would be performed on Lanza. They went to the gurney where Lanza lay. Henry unzipped the bag so her husband could look at him, closed the bag, and then they left the room.”
Under standard procedure, the only persons granted access to the morgue are authorized staff members and police who might be in the room during an autopsy as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. No members of the general public are apparently ever allowed in that area of the facility.
Jean Henry has an unrelated federal lawsuit pending against the current Connecticut governor and other officials over what she claims is an unfair demotion that was politically motivated.
