Local News in Brief : Inquiry on Misfiled Death
The head of the Hermosa Beach police and fire departments has launched an internal review of how investigators mistakenly concluded that a 63-year-old woman died of natural causes last month when she actually had been strangled.
Public Safety Director Steve Wisniewski may discipline four policemen and three paramedics for their judgment in investigating the death of Patricia Klein, according to a department spokesman.
Investigators failed to call for homicide detectives or to seal Klein’s home for inspection after concluding that the woman died naturally, Police Lt. Mike Lavin said. Suspicions should have been raised, he said, because of the way blood accumulated in the body and because the death was not reported until the next day.
An autopsy was ordered only after the mortician who handled the body insisted that the death was not natural.
Police arrested a man on suspicion of murder, but the district attorney’s office said it did not have enough evidence to file charges.
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