Parents can’t halt 2nd exhumation

4/24/2013

FREMONT — Preparations will begin to exhume for the second time the body of a teen who died last year.

The family of Jacob Limberios, 19, of Castalia, who died March 2, 2012, of a gunshot wound in the head, opposes officials’ efforts to exhume his body and tried to stop the disinterment during a Tuesday hearing in Sandusky County Common Pleas Court.

Visiting Judge Charles Wittenberg indicated he will not halt an exhumation, attorneys said.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh was hired by the family and performed a September autopsy. He disputes the suicide ruling made by Dr. John Wukie, Sandusky County coroner. Dr. Wecht wrote he considered the death a homicide.

Officials plan to exhume the body again and have the Lucas County Coroner’s Office perform a second autopsy. It likely will take a week or two to make those arrangements, said Tiffin attorney Dean Henry, a special prosecutor in the criminal investigation who also represents Dr. Wukie in a suit filed by the family challenging the death ruling.

Parents Michael and Shannon Limberios continue to oppose a second disinterment, their attorney Daniel McGookey said. He plans to ask the Margaretta Township board to stop an exhumation at the Castalia Cemetery in Erie County.

He said Dr. Wukie refused for months to do an autopsy, forcing the family to arrange for one to resolve their questions.

He said a tissue sample provided by Dr. Wecht proves the young man did not shoot himself.