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Liberia: Govt. Agrees to Exhume Angel's Body
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
9 April 2008
Posted to the web 9 April 2008
George Bardue
Monrovia
All is now set to exhume the decomposed remains of 13-year-old Angel Meideh Togba to undergo a third autopsy and DNA examination by three foreign forensic pathologists expected in Liberia next week.
Addressing a news conference Tuesday in Monrovia, the lawyer representing suspects Hans Williams and Mardea Parkue in the murder case involving little Angel, Cllr. F. Musa Dean confirmed that the government has endorsed their request to bring a team of pathologists to conduct an autopsy on Angel's decaying remains.
Cllr. Dean said the forensic pathologists will arrive on April 18, 2008 and begin work the next day.
He noted that the pathologists are from the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences in the United States of America.
He disclosed that the team comprises of Doctors Mathias Okoye, Thomas L. Bennett and Kalu Ogbureke. The three pathologists will be in Liberia at the expense of the accused, Hans Williams and Mardea Parkue.
Cllr. Dean indicated that the team of pathologists will examine the "preserved organs" of the deceased.
He said the coming of the forensic pathologists followed his request to the government.
In response to Cllr. Dean's request, Justice Minister Philips A. Z. Banks welcomed the decision to conduct autopsy on specimen of the late Angel.
In a letter dated April 4, 2008 Minister Banks added "We welcome the measures, of which you have informed us, and we reiterate as we have done on several occasions in the past, that the state and prosecution arm of the Ministry of Justice will accord your clients their fullest due process rights."
Minister Banks also informed Cllr. Dean that government will designate key members of the Ministry of Justice and seek the involvement of medical personnel of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center as well as other key persons interested in observing the process.
Little Angel Togba was discovered hung dead in the bathroom of her guardians Hans Williams and Mardea Paykue last November.
Two autopsies were conducted on her body, but the first autopsy report ruled out any foul play while the second disclosed that the 13-year-old was strangled to death and later hung.
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However, Cllr. Dean discredited the second autopsy report for which his clients are hiring the services of three pathologists to carry out their own autopsy.
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