Police: CT Chief Medical Examiner Received Threatening Calls Referencing Newtown Shooting Probe

Written by Avon, CT Patch editor Jessie Sawyer.

State officials briefed the press in December on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. State Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II spoke to media, having examined the bodies of some of the victims. Photo Credit: Patch file photo

Connecticut's chief medical examiner, an Avon resident, was the target of harassing phone calls referencing his involvement in the Newtown school shooting investigation, police said in court documents. 

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, whose office is in Farmington, declined to comment at this time because of the possibility that he will be called to address the court in the case of suspect Jonathan Reich, 22. 
On Monday, Reich, of Flushing, NY, turned himself in to Avon police on an arrest warrant and was charged with second-degree harassment. Reich is currently out free while he waits for his June 5 arraignment at Hartford Community Court because he posted his $50,000 surety bond, police said.

Avon police received a complaint from Carver on Feb. 1 that he received phone calls "that were threatening in nature and resulted from the investigation" of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a press release from the police that did not reference Carver by name. 

During the investigation, "police also learned that calls were made to another state official and to certain families of the Sandy Hook tragedy," police said in the statement. State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance is the other state official who received similar calls, police said in the arrest warrant application.

It's not clear at this time whether Reich is also responsible for those calls, as the case is still under investigation. 

Carver played a role in the Sandy Hook investigation as the state's chief medical examiner, a job he's served in the Farmington office for 26 years.

At a January press conference, Carver told local and national media that he did autopsies on seven of the bodies of the victims. He also said then that he would be doing autopsies on the shooter and his mother.

"This probably is the worst I have seen or the worst that I know any of my colleagues having seen,” Carver stated at the January press conference.

Carver has worked in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington for 31 years, according to Newtown Patch.

Avon police continue to investigate the threatening phone calls made to Carver and the case remains active.