Justice for Janie: Solving Cold Cases

There are more questions than answers surrounding the death of 16-year-old Olivia Jane Ward, known as "Janie" to many of her family and friends. The investigators at Safetynet Associates have created a web site to present information to the public and solicit additional facts. http://www.janieward.org/

Janie Ward was a tall, strong young woman, known to most people for her wholesome friendliness. On September 9, 1989, Janie's high school class had an unofficial class party at a house up on Zack Ridge Rd., just outside of Marshall, Arkansas. At some point before, during, or after that party, Janie met her death.

The state police investigation into Janie's death pointed toward a drunken fall from a porch being the actual mode of death, but the autopsy results and independent evaluations of those results do not entirely support that conclusion. It is also a bit difficult to swallow that a tall, athletic girl like Janie fell from an 11-inch porch and died from the fall.

It's not impossible. But it is very difficult to believe. So difficult in fact to believe, that the Medical Examiner changed the cause of death to unknown.

What the state police investigation shows is that:

1. Janie was a minor child.
2. Fruit punch laced with isopropanol was made available to her by adults.    
3. Sworn statements alleged that she had consumed fruit laced with isopropanol.
4. Isopropanol is a poison.
5. Janie died.

Safetynet Associates, a Texas based group of private investigators and other parties interested in public safety, has been investigating this cold case for over a year at Janies parents request. The first question they have in this case is why were no charges filed?

Given that a poison was made available to a minor child who died, even without a positive connection as to the cause of death, charges were justified in any jurisdiction in the country. Why is Searcy County any different?

Because there was a cover-up, which extended all the way up to then Governor Bill Clintons office. This cover-up was orchestrated by the State CID agent in charge of the case, the Arkansas State Crime lab and Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak (yes, the same Fahmy Malak that according to Arkansas officials and state records, helped Clinton's mother, a nurse-anesthetist, avoid scrutiny in the death of a patient.) The record shows that Malak testified erroneously in criminal cases, that his rulings were reversed by juries and that outside pathologists challenged his findings. In one instance, he misread a medical chart and wrongly accused a deputy county coroner of killing someone. In another, he based court testimony on tissue samples that DNA tests later indicated had been mixed up with other tissue samples.

Janies case was one of those in which Malaks findings were reversed when outside pathologists reviewed her case, and found she had not died from a fall. As the state would not exhume the body for definitive lab tests, the death certificate was changed to show the cause as unknown."

As Safetynet Associates investigators had received information that Janie had in fact drowned, they started looking for a way to prove drowning after such a long time. They only had to look to West Memphis, Arkansas, for the precedent. The state had used the absence of diatoms (microscopic plants") in an alleged victim of the West Memphis Three. They had to prove that a body recovered from a canal had been dead before it had been put in the water.

In drowning cases, diatoms will enter the bloodstream through the lungs before death. From there they will be distributed to other organs. Thus, if long bone marrow, spleen or other "deep" tissues hold diatoms, the person drowned. While there is much more to Janies case, the shortest path to the truth will be through examination of her body tissue. Her body is the last evidence available. The State Crime lab destroyed all the rest of the evidence because they did not have room" to store it. This included clothes, personal effects and tissue samples which could contain diatoms as evidence.

So why would the highest authorities in the state conspire to cover-up the death of a young girl, using tactics that included obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, perjury and extortion? Politics. The investigators at Safetynet Associates believe that a web of deceit was woven to protect those actually responsible for Janies death.

Informants have told investigators that Janies death involved the daughter of the judge with jurisdiction in Janies case and a state trooper.

There was the boy who was shot trying to stop Janies death. He left the state that night, assisted by state troopers. Politics.

There was the witness that decided to come forward and spill the beans on Janies death. He was shot dead before he could make a statement. But that's another story...

With the introduction of diatoms as evidence accepted in court in Arkansas, Janies cold case is nearer resolution. It is ironic that the same agency that worked to cover up Janies cause of death may have provided the one tool necessary to get justice for Janie.

For more, please visit: http://www.janieward.org/