BULLHEAD CITY — What should have been a happy homecoming for Suzanne Post and her mother Sharon Haugen turned to tragedy when Post was found dead outside of a friend's home in mid-July. "Everything just seemed odd to me," Haugen said. Putting together the pieces of her daughter's last day hasn't been easy for Haugen, who reported her daughter missing on July 15.
Unbeknownst to her, Post had been found dead two days earlier. Post had visited a friend on July 13 to swim in a pool, Haugen said, but had stepped outside — possibly to make a phone call — sometime while she was there. Post was found lying beside her car, still parked outside of the friend's home hours later, deceased.
Post had only recently moved to Bullhead City to live near her mother after separating from her husband in Seattle. "Everything was finally coming together. She was starting the new job and .
.. she had a beautiful place to live, renting a room from this wonderful young man who was gone most of the time.
A lot of people helped me with donations, other angel moms," Haugen recalled. "Things were just going well for her. I'm glad we had three and a half months together, but I'm drained by the whole thing — it's so awful.
" Confusing for the grieving mother is how the authorities have handled the investigation into Post's death, specifically the Medical Examiner's office refusal to conduct an autopsy. According to Haugen, the daughter's death was deemed to have been the result of natural causes. Bullhead City Police Department Public Information Officer Emily Fromelt told Mohave Valley Daily News that the cause had been reported as heat related or a possible overdose by the medical examiner's office.
"How do you know it's natural?" Haugen asked. "How do you know just by looking at her and determine that it's natural because she is lying down in the sun? How do you get heat exhaustion from that description? What happened to her?" Haugen said she questioned the nature of her daughter's death, because Post had been in relatively good health and said other people who saw her that morning said she seemed fine. According to Haugen, statements made by the friend on the matter also were contradictory.
"Her landlord saw her between 9:30-10 a.m. and then she went over to their house by about 10:30 a.
m.," Haugen said. "I don't know why (her friend) said she was acting debilitated.
I think they're making up a story because there's no proof." Deaths don't always meet the requirements for autopsies, according to the Mohave County Medical Examiner's office. "Even when foul play is suspected, investigators work with law enforcement to determine the need for an autopsy," Mohave County Communications Director Roger Galloway said.
Criteria for autopsy include homicides, suicides (with the exception of hanging), in-custody deaths, motor vehicle accidents, accidental deaths, suspicious deaths and overdose in younger patients. Although there can be unique circumstances, all cases are reviewed by the on-call investigative supervisors and a pathologist when deemed necessary. Autopsies are also not performed on natural deaths.
"There were some extenuating circumstances involving that investigation," said John Hassett, director of operations of the Mohave County Medical Examiner's Office. "But I can assure you that both the Bullhead City Police Department as well as my division did ample due diligence during the day of the investigation." The autopsies performed by the Medical Examiner's Office were subject to an investigation earlier this year by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
Among other allegations, the office was accused of only performing autopsies once per week, and only six a week. One witness claimed that if a body was pushed back in priority, it could be another week before the procedure was actually completed. Another witness alleged medical examiner investigators were not going to death investigations in situations where a death appeared natural.
According to statistics provided by Galloway, as of July 31, 264 autopsies had been performed in the last 12 months..
