The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-06-04
DEAD BODY LIES
. ADAY INMORGUE
THROUCHNEGLECT
Police Put It In Cooler and Fail
To Notify Health Officials -
OF Their Action
-, - ~.
NOT EVEN ATTENDANT ......
KNEW IT WAS THERE
Only BY Accident Which Startled
Several Persons Was
Corpse Revealed

y Life IL full Of surprises; even tho
morgue harbors thems A fine one was
sprung last Monday afternoon.
The double shooting at 1wilai had
taken place and the body of the man
WAC had committed suicide was taken
- TIC lnorguo in the patrol wagon.
Gathered IN the place of death were
police oSacials and representatives OF
,Ec Lcard OF health. @ iys
liter 4 cursOry glance at the body,
hofGEo Attendant Fisher directed tha
TRUSTEES who had accompanied the
body to place it on ice in one of tho
compartments of the eoolcr. y ~
The men i'm blue denim stood by
with the body and Fisher unlocked, n
compartment and drew out a metal
tray. On it was the body of we'll
dressed japanese man.
Dead Japanese SURPRISE
"What' 3 this3" exclaimed Fisher in
surprise. ...
"Give it up" replied a board Of
health man who stood near, at looks
pretty dead, anyway" ~.
"Never saw il before, -. said the at
tendant in charge. wonder how it
got heref"
The body of the man who killed him
self was slid into another cpmpart.
ment, and after a short while the body
Of. the woman he had done to death
was brought in and laid in an adjoin-
ing section to keep her slayer company.
Then all hands went away, to work
or play through Decoration Day, and lt
was not until yesterday morning taaE
anyone gave another thought to tho
nameless corpse in the morgue.
Sinclair Advised Yesterday
Yesterday morning DIR. A. n. Sin,
clair, who performs the autopsies at
the morgue, had his attention, called to
the body for the first time, the boarl
of health folk explaining to him how
its CHASTITY presence had surprised them
on Monday.
Asked yesterday why the police de-
partment did not notify the board o.
health of the presence of the body III
the morgue on Monday, Sheriff Rose
said that his department had nothin;
to do with the morgue, except that tho
board of health left a key at the
police station and allowed bodies to b.,
brought there when there was a doubt
that death had not resulted from ma
tural causes, and there was a possiLl-
ity of an autopsy being held.
Eheriff Gives His Version
"When a death is attended by
suspicious circumstances or is the re-
suit of violence" said the sheriff,
We pick the body up and take it t.
The morgue, where it is held, pepdinS
an autopsy. If the autopsy establishes
the fact that death was due to IA
tural causes, We try to locate TO
relatives of the deceased and turn It's
body over TO either them, or the citJ
for burial. In cases of death by VIC
lence we hold coroner 8 inquest, be-
ing brought back into the case
through the medium of the report OF
the surgeon conducting the autopsy.
Rose further stated that it was un
10 the board of health TO notify Doctor
Sinclair of the presence of body
needing a post norton examination,
and that if this were done there woulu
be no need for a corpse to lie on thu
ice a day and a half before receivin
proper attention.
The board of health, on the other
hand, contends that whereas the police
took the body to the morgue they
should have communicated with. til
board the first thing the +Ollp"in
morning.
In the case under cOnsiuuratr 9
body was that of japanese. II
might just as well have been the son
or daughter of some prominent resi-
dent Of Honolulu.
Or the corpse might have been that
of murdered person whose slayer
would have had ample time to get or
the Island before the ma tier received
official attention.