My 10 year old brother, Glen Davenport, was found "hanging" on February 4th, 1968 in Jacksonville, Florida. The evening before he had been reported missing to the police.
The police never searched for him; it was members of my family, neighbors, and friends that searched for him.
The lot of land he was found "hanging" on was down the street from our home. The lot had been searched multiple times throughout the evening and night Glen was missing. The last search was around 4:00 a.m. Glen was not there.
But then just a few hours later he was found hanging. That means that someone put him there sometime after the last search of the area at 4:00 a.m.
Glen was in a kneeling, almost sitting position; with his knees touching the ground or slightly drawn up. The toes of his shoes were pushed into the ground. We found out the rope had been looped twice around his neck and tied loosely in the back. If Glen had been conscious or alive he could have stood up to save himself; he could have untied the loose knot in the back and unwound the rope from around his neck.
The first police officer or officers to arrive made statements that the rope was not tight enough to have killed him, and to my father "That rope is not what killed your boy".
But then when the detectives and investigators took over, they ignored everything suspicious about Glen's disappearance and death. They ignored the fact that Glen was terrified of the dark and would not have been out all night. They ignored the WITNESS STATEMENTS that Glen was not there during any of the searches, even the last search at 4:00 a.m.
They ignored that his jacket was unzipped; despite it being cold. If Glen could have he would have zipped his jacket up.
They ignored the dirt under Glen's fingernails that was not normal for him; he couldn't stand to be dirty or even sticky from candy, etc.
They ignored the bruises around his mouth (toward and under the cheekbones) that looked like someone had had a hand over his mouth.
They decided that Glen's death was an "accidental" death. Glen would not have stayed gone all night. He would not have waited in the dark and the cold (not even zipping his jacket up) until the searchers stopped looking for him; and then gone to play on or with the rope swing. He was not out playing at that time of morning and neither were any other kids.
The assistant ME performed only a preliminary autopsy on Glen's body, and ruled his death as accidental; asphyxiation due to hanging. But how could a rope that the first police officer or officers to arrive on the scene and stated as not being tight enough to have killed him; be tight enough to have caused the asphyxiation that caused his death?
Last year I contacted the Cold Case Team and a review was done of Glen's case. The Cold Case detectives made several written statements that Glen's death was suspicious; but yet would not interview a man in prison for a very similar hanging death of a 10 year old in 1957 in NY that was known to be in Florida. They stopped short of interviewing this possible suspect, and closed the review of Glen's case.
After getting copies of what I thought was Glen's autopsy report, it turns out to not be the autopsy report; but a report that had been sent to the State Attorney's Office. That is something that I think is required for every autopsy done.
Recently while re-reading this report, I noticed that Glen was embalmed before an autopsy could be done.
He was found "hanging" around 7:30 or 7:45 a.m. By 11:00 of that same morning his body was being sent to be embalmed, but without the signed release from anyone in my family that was required for Glen's body to be embalmed prior to examination by the ME or assistant ME.
The body of this little boy who had been found dead under very suspicious circumstances was being hurredly sent to be embalmed; and without the required release for it from any of Glen's nearest of kin (including his parents).
Shouldn't the rush have been to do an autopsy on the body of a child who had died under very suspicious circumstances?
I found out from an embalmer that during the embalming process the body is thoroughly disinfected and cleaned. If Glen had been molested any outward evidence of it would have been destroyed and cleaned away by the disinfectant.
We had always been told that Glen was not sexually molested, but there is nothing on the papers from the ME's Office to show that his body was examined for possible molestation during the autopsy.
On the copy of the review report done last year by the Cold Case detectives there is a statment "No sexual assault was noted, and no kit obtained".
The assistant ME was doing an autopsy on a body that had already been thoroughly disinfected and cleaned, then embalmed. All outward evidence had already been cleaned away; it was destroyed.
When there is a rape or sexual assault victim, a "kit" is supposed to be obtained before the victim or victim's body is cleaned up.
If Glen's body had even been examined for possible molestation, with the outward evidence of it (semen, etc.) having already been destroyed and cleaned away during the embalming process; of course no "kit" was going to be obtained.
I found out other things that the embalming process would have changed about Glen's body before the autopsy was done.
The autopsy results on an already embalmed body are going to be different than on a body that had not been embalmed first.
Seems to me that someone wanted Glen's body to yield as little evidence as possible.
