Damn! Another coverup uncovered.
By Joseph Walther
No one has ever accused me of being at a loss for words. For the most part, there are plenty of topics for me to write about and I don’t have to go much farther than the end of my block. Sometimes, though, things happen and the occasion simply screams, “Write about this!” It happened to me a couple of days ago.
On June 1, 2007, a youngster by the name of Leonard Fowajuh graduated from William Penn High School at the age of 16, and with a grade point average of 4.0, no less! He wanted to become a neurosurgeon. His life-long friend, 15-year-old Martin Chinje, also a William Penn student, was with him. Both boys and their families came from a West African country called Cameroon. Their families had planned a traditional party of celebration to honor the two of them on June 2nd.
The celebration began, but ended quickly and tragically. Yesterday, June 15th, their mothers, along with other family members, held a memorial service for them. The two youngsters drowned in the family pool where the party was taking place. There was no foul play involved. The pool area was vacant. One of the boys fell in. The other jumped in to save him. Others found them on the bottom of the pool about an hour later.
I don’t want to make this about these two kids. Their mothers have been through enough. Both boys were fine, decent, well-behaved, and academically gifted teenagers. Their families had irrefutable bragging rights. In fact, we should all grieve a little at their passing because our world will be worse off without them.
This is about the myriad responses to the newspaper article that announced the tragedy. The News Journal has a web site at www.delawareonline.com. Everything appearing in the print version of the paper also appears on the web site. In addition, readers have a forum in which to post responses to the many articles and columns.
You need only access an item online and click to post a comment, to see that racism, illiteracy, bigotry, general hatred, and old-fashioned stupidity are alive and well among those who post comments. The News Journal’s online staff does its best to remove the truly egregious comments. Unfortunately, some slip through anyway.
The general theme of the comments regarding this matter was conspiracy. Some of the comments were hate-filled and racist—both youngsters were black. The paper’s online staff removed them within minutes of other readers reporting them. The remaining ones were respectful and sympathetic toward the families of the deceased, some offering prayers and best wishes. However, the remaining comments implied that the New Journal intentionally kept the “whole” truth from us.
The state medical examiner had ruled the drownings as accidental. Prior to this, the Delaware State Police had also announced, from the scene, that it looked like an accident. The conspiracy theorists would have none of it, though.
There HAD to be more to this story. The general line of thinking was that these were teenagers and they were probably drinking. Most of the posters found it impossible to believe that BOTH teenagers could not swim! Therefore, the News Journal, in conjunction with the Delaware Medical Examiner’s Office, Delaware State Police, and the boys’ families, had gone into cover-up mode.
I rarely respond to these articles, not because I don’t want to, but because my father taught me, many moons ago, never to argue with morons. “They’ll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience,” he always told me. However, I came across the following response, a voice that made some sense. I had to respond to it.
enoughalready wrote...
"...Does anyone think that this is what happened: friend #1 (who knows at this point which one) gets in trouble in the pool. friend #2 tries to help even though he cannot swim. Both end up in trouble and then drown. sounds pretty reasonable and innocent to me..... sad loss of life."
“Enoughalready” is the poster’s screen name. Most of the people who post article comments use factitious screen names. I don’t. I use my real name. Out of over forty comments to the original article, this is the only one that was literate and sensible. As I said, I had to respond to this one.
Enoughalready…
This makes perfect sense to me, but it's never going to satisfy the conspiracy theorists. They’ve already made up their minds. As usual, they hate people who confuse them with facts. In their minds, there HAS to be something sinister going on. The News Journal, State Medical Examiner, AND the State police are conspiring to keep us in the dark.
Now, there could be a conspiracy going on. But, I don't think there is in this case. Legally, the Delaware Medical Examiner is not required to release a full autopsy report in non-criminal cases. So, the public is never going to see the full report.
Keep in mind that I'm not saying that the News Journal has never screwed up a fact, or two, or three from time-to-time throughout its history. But, medical examiners tend to become pretty snotty whenever people question their medical reputations, not to mention the fact that they’re not into intentionally jeopardizing those medical reputations, as well as their professional licenses.
The fact that these two youngsters had been inseparable from early-childhood, and remained so up until their deaths, makes your suspicion all the more credible. You make a great deal of sense.
In addition and contrary to some opinions expressed in this forum about this case, the police do not rule on causes of death. Only a medical examiner, a board-certified pathologist (an MD), can make such rulings.
The police may speculate by making statements to the effect, "Based on the conditions at the scene, it appears to be an accident." I think the police did this. However, upon completion of an autopsy, the state medical examiner officially ruled it as such.
The pontificators, who seemed to have had it all figured out, conveniently forgot a couple of minor facts. A medical examiner would have been in a position to view, first hand, the presence of physical evidence that is always consistent with accidental drownings. Neither of these kids could swim, a fact provided by their families and the reason they gave for why the pool was not in use. Then, combining this physical evidence with the attending circumstantial evidence (non-swimmers, best of friends, etc.), the ME issued a logical, sensible ruling.
Oh, yes, let's not forget that there was no toxicological evidence of illegal drugs, either--including underage drinking. Had there been such evidence, this matter would have then become a criminal matter. By state law mandate, the ME would then have had to publish the full autopsy report, undoubtedly, a circumstance that would have piqued the Attorney General’s interest.
I readily admit that both scenarios I described above have happened. However, when you take such occurrences as a percentage of the total autopsies performed, they constitute an infinitesimally small number of cases. But, I’m going to go with the medical examiner in this case, even though there is something so... shall I say, EXOTIC about a good, old-fashioned conspiracy.
Finally, if anyone posting in this forum, about this matter, has some hard, physical evidence that seriously challenges the ME's findings, please email me. Send me your name and how to reach you at truefactseditor@comcast.net. I'll personally see that the Attorney General's office contacts you for a deposition.
No one has contacted me yet; and, there has not been a single additional comment posted to the original article. Perhaps they’ve all gone back to reexamining the Warren Commission Report on Kennedy’s assassination. Or, it could be those damn crop circles, too.
Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Copyright laws apply to all material on this site. Send your comments. Just click here.
posted by The True Facts at 12:32 AM
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