CRAWFORD CO., Ill.—In news this morning that has startled many, a coroner’s jury held last night in Crawford County has ruled the death of an elderly woman a homicide.
Lois Cutright’s obituary photo
Heritage Health nursing home resident Lois Cutright, 86, died October 17, 2013, at the Crawford Memorial Hospital emergency room, after enduring a handful of “back-to-back” days, as they were called at the inquest, that she was taken to the emergency room. Heritage Health is located in Robinson.
During these ER visits, Cutright had tested positive for both hydrocodone and morphine, the former for which she’d had a prescription…but the latter, she did not have a prescription for. Further, records showed that she hadn’t been issued any hydrocodone since August 2013…and Crawford’s coroner, Earl Deckard, during questioning of his witnesses, determined that no one knew how Cutright could get morphine in her system if she hadn’t been prescribed it.
The ruling of homicide prompted Deckard to have to explain the matter, since coroner’s inquests are held so infrequently and people aren’t familiar with the terminology involved in rulings: coroner’s juries determine manner of death, and there are only three manners they can choose from: homicide, suicide, or unknown. Homicide is death due to action/inaction of another. Suicide is death at one’s own hand. And of course unknown is simply unknown: there’s not enough information for a jury to draw a conclusion. The most notable case of the latter that we’ve covered widely is that of Molly Young, whose March 2012 death was ruled “unknown” a year ago by a coroner’s jury in Jackson County on the west side of the state.
But Mrs. Cutright’s was determined homicide, after two police investigators and six Heritage Health employees gave testimony. Deckard was careful to explain that this did NOT mean Cutright was murdered…but only that the jury definitely believed someone else was responsible, again through action or inaction, for her death.
Where this will go from here remains to be seen. The investigation continues; watch the site as well as the print version, for updates.