Shawn Parcells: How forensics ‘expert’ with no medical degree assisted in Michael Brown autopsy
Shawn Parcells: How forensics ‘expert’ with no medical degree assisted in Michael Brown autopsy
The man commissioned by the family of Michael Brown to perform a second autopsy on the body is having his credentials called into question, and many wondering if he does indeed qualify as an ‘expert’ in his field.
Shawn Parcells, of Overland Park, Kansas, assisted Dr. Michael Baden in the autopsy of Brown, and briefly became a national figure, appearing on various news programs and being quoted in papers around the country after he revealed his findings.
This even though the man is not a doctor, can not conduct an autopsy alone, and is unable to prove his claim that he is a college professor.
The chief medical examiner of St. Louis County, Dr Mary Case, called what Parcells does ‘abysmal’ back in August, after learning he had been hired to assist on Brown’s autopsy.
Case, who conducted the first autopsy of Brown, told The Daily Caller, ‘He is doing forensic autopsies which may send someone to prison, and he is not a physician, much less a forensic pathologist.’
She then added that she was ‘shocked by this man and how bold he is to do what he does.’
Parcells claims he became interested in death as a child when his grandfather passed away, and began performing autopsies while he was still in high school.
He received a bachelor’s degree in life sciences from Kansas State in 2003, and he told CNN he was immediately accepted to medical school in the Caribbean, but his wife got pregnant and he wanted her to receive her care in the United States, so he did not attend.
He still has yet to attend medical school.
He does claim to have master’s degree in anatomy and physiology, with clinical correlation, but was unable to verify that with an actual diploma.
He also claims to be an adjunct professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, something that officials at Washburn have denied.
‘[Parcells] is not now and has never been a member of the Washburn University faculty,” according to a university spokeswoman.
Then, there are the alleged problems that have come up during his actual autopsies.
In 2012, Parcells Regional Forensic Services was hired by Andrew County, Missouri, to conduct an autopsy on Robert Forrester, a man they believe may have died as the result of a brain bleed after he had told officers two days earlier that his grandson had ‘knocked me the f*** out.’
Two deputy sheriffs in Andrew County say that Parcells presented himself as a pathologist, this even though he is not and must have a medical doctor present in order for the findings in his autopsy to be presented in a court of law.
There was no medical doctor present during the autopsy.
Making the situation even more odd, the pathologist listed on the autopsy form, Edward R. Friedlander, M.D., refused to comment on the case, and when Parcells was pressed, he claimed that the autopsy was actually performed by Dr. George Vandermark.
Dr. Vandermark said he had nothing to do with Forrester’s autopsy.
‘I see him as a fraud,’ said one of the deputies.
The sheriffs had been hoping to charge Forrester’s grandson with manslaughter, but with no legal autopsy having been performed and no way to present the findings of a medical expert, it has now been two years since the death and they cannot move forward to prosecute.
Then, there is the case of one funeral home, Northern Star Mortuary, Inc, who hired Parcells to perform an autopsy.
After waiting over a week for Parcells to come examine an unidentified body, so long that maggots had started to appear, he finally came to collect the body and perform an autopsy.
But Lenox Jones, the Pehlps County Deputy Coroner, says it has been over a year since the sutopsy, and he has no idea where the body is and has not heard from Parcells.
Parcells grew irritated when presented with Jones’ claim, and said the body in is his morgue in Topeka and could be collected at any time.
In another odd incident, Judy Walker says she paid Parcells to examine her husband’s brain after his death in 2011, and Parcells told her he would send the brain to Harvard to be examined.
Three years later she received a report from a doctor in New York.
She retained a lawyer, Michael Hodges, and at a deposition Parcells handed over a brain in a bucket saying it was that of Walker’s husband.
She did not believe him, and Parcells claims the brain is at his Topeka morgue if she ever wants to come pick it up.
