Save It

Email It

Print It

(CBS4 News) The body of 14 year old Martin Lee Anderson will be taken from his grave and examined by a second Medical Examiner, after his parents give permission for the exhumation to a special prosecutor examining his death.

Martin died January 6th at a boot camp operated by the Bay County Sheriff’s office, where he was sent after he took his grandmother’s car for a joy ride. A videotape captured him being kicked and hit by guards shortly before his death, but the Bay County medical examiner found that Anderson died of Sickle Cell trait.

That autopsy finding has been roundly criticized by experts who claim it is not very likely the teen died of that hereditary syndrome.

Without consent, State Attorney Mark Ober of Tampa, acting as special prosecutor, would have needed a court order to have the teen’s body removed from his grave.

It was a tough decision for his family. They had said they preferred to let their son rest in peace, but they disagree strongly with the medical examiner’s findings.