As hundreds of mourners who had been touched by Leann Fletcher—from siblings and relatives who had known her her whole life to clients who had known her only for weeks or months, but felt they knew her intimately—made their plans to attend her funeral on Saturday, August 21, dramatic events were unfolding in two courts on Friday.
In the morning, an Oakland County Family Court referee awarded temporary custody of three-year-old Hannah to her maternal grandparents, Jack and Gloria Misener. "Hannah is suffering from a double whammy," said Referee Jean Dohanyos. "She has lost her mother. She has lost her father."
Fletcher appeared at the hearing in handcuffs and ankle chains. He gave brief answers to Dohanyos' questions and was accompanied by an attorney, Raymond Correll, but did not fight the custody ruling. "Frankly, we're in concurrence that the maternal grandparents' is an appropriate place for Hannah to be staying," he told reporters.
His request that Fletcher be allowed to speak to his daughter by phone was turned down by Dohanyos, who said it would be disruptive for the child in such traumatic circumstances. "I'm ruling that your contact, all contact, be suspended pending further court order," said the referee.
The Miseners then left for the Price Funeral Home in Troy to continue visitation. Early in the afternoon, though, they were told to hurry over to the Hazel Park courthouse nearby, that a motion had been filed by Brian Legghio asking that Saturday's scheduled funeral be postponed until an expert hired by the defense could examine Leann's body and come up with his own report.
The Miseners and their entourage, stunned, fled from the funeral home en masse. They sat in court sobbing as assistant county prosecutor Gregory Townsend argued against a delay. "To me, this is the final insult to the family. This request is horrendous," he said, arguing that any available evidence from Leann's body had already been documented in reports and photographs.
Legghio countered: "The warrant for his arrest was obtained on the forensic
evidence of the pathologist. To deny him the right to an independent examination is to deny him due process."
At 4:06 p.m. Judge Keith Hunt issued the order granting Legghio his request. He would have up to 48 hours to arrange for another examination of Leann's body, on site at the funeral home.
Hunt said the decision was "as difficult as any I have had to make as a judge. The community suffers with the family but I must insure the proper administration of justice. This case is heavily dependent, if not entirely dependent, on forensic evidence."
Townsend consoled the family that in the long run, the decision might be in their best interest. "I'm sure if the court had denied the request, it would have been brought up on appeal."
*
Over the weekend, one of the most prominent pathologists in the United States, Warner Spitz, conducted a post-mortem on Leann Fletcher's body at the funeral home. Ironically, Spitz had been Dragovic's boss at Wayne County before he took the Medical Examiner's position in Oakland County. Another headline- making name and element had been added to the case.
Spitz was the ME in neighboring Macomb County, now, and had a long and prominent history of taking part in famous murder mysteries and trials over the years. It was his testimony against O. J. Simpson that was crucial in the outcome of the civil trial against the former football star, with Spitz saying that injuries on the back of O. J.'s left hand weren't caused by broken glass, as claimed, but by acrylic fingernails. In 1969, he was hired by the family of Mary Joe Kopechne and affirmed she had died by drowning in the accident that forever ended Ted Kennedy's chances as a presidential contender. In 1963, he was part of a committee led by Nelson Rockefeller that concluded that only one gunman was involved in the assassination of John Kennedy. And he had written a guidebook on crime investigations that was in its fourth printing.
*
On Monday, August 26, after the longest week of the Miseners' lives, Leann was finally buried. More than 300 mourners filled the Price Funeral Home and shared stories of the young woman who had touched them all. TV and radio crews—prohibited all week from the lot of the funeral home itself—filled the parking lot of the 7-Eleven across the street, aiming their lenses and microphones at the mourners as they first arrived and then left in the funeral cortege.
Several days later, Legghio released Spitz's findings. His report, said Legghio, was that "it is inconclusive that Ms. Fletcher died as a result of homicide. She may have died by her own hand."
"Hazel Park Case Splits Medical Experts," read the headline in September 3's Detroit Free Press.
Many months later, courtroom observers were disappointed by the lack of a forensic showdown at trial between the two heavyweights, Dragovic and Spitz. Spitz, a colorful character with, like Dragovic, a thick accent—he was born in Germany and educated in Israel—who enjoyed talking with the media, had, jokingly or otherwise, responded to criticism that he was a gun-for-hire by saying he'd dance naked on top of a table for a thousand dollars. Townsend subsequently had used the quote to impugn Spitz in court. Legghio, not eager to have a jury hear such an utterance about one of his witnesses in a murder case, chose to seek expert opinions elsewhere.
In the meantime, though, the idea had been planted. Perhaps this wasn't a murder, after all. Maybe Leann had even committed suicide.