An administrative worker at Connecticut’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has reportedly been placed on a paid leave after allegedly allowing her husband to view the body of mass killer Adam Lanza two days after the Newtown school massacre.
Sources told The Hartford Courant that Jean Henry, a processing technician at the state’s Farmington facility, and her husband entered the refrigerated room in which bodies are kept pending autopsies on the morning of the day when the post-mortem would later be performed on the 20-year-old gunman.
Sources close to the matter told The Courant Wednesday that the couple went to the gurney where Lanza lay before Henry unzipped the bag so her husband could look at him for a moment. She then closed the bag before leaving the room, the newspaper reports.
Lanza fatally shot 20 first-graders and six adult staff members on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, then shot himself in the head as police arrived. Lanza earlier killed his mother at their Newtown home.
Henry and her husband, who is not employed by the state, openly went in and out of the refrigerated area, and at least one other employee was aware of what was happening, one source told the newspaper.
H. Wayne Carver II, the chief state medical examiner, placed Henry on leave after learning of the incident. An internal complaint was filed, sources said.
Henry's leave remained in effect Wednesday. Reached by phone, she had no comment.
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