Hidden Homicide: Part Two
Mary Ann Hayes was found dead in her north suburban home in 1996. Authorities determined that she died of a suicide. But a team of criminal justice experts is now pushing to reopen the case, claiming evidence shows she may have been killed.
Those same experts say hers is not the only suspicious suicide in the family.
Mary Ann’ son, Steven Altman, was found dead the morning of May 11, 1984.
Authorities said he hung himself from the boom of a forklift at his stepfather’s business on Chicago’s North Side. His death was ruled a suicide.
Steven, 21, had a history of depression and had spent time in a psychiatric institution. Chicago Police didn’t open an investigation and no autopsy was performed.
But now, experts are raising questions about his death.
Alliance for Hope International is an advocacy group that trains law enforcement throughout the U.S. to identify and investigate strangulation assaults and staged crime scenes. Dr. Bill Smock is a Louisville-based forensic physician that works with Alliance.
He reviewed the medical examiner investigator’s report on Steven’s death, as well as photographs from the scene, obtained by WGN Investigates.
“I think it’s very suspicious,” Smock said. “I’ve never seen a knot this complex, this unique in a suicide.”
Smock said he identified “three separate ligature marks on [Steven’s] neck.”
“That’s a huge red flag,” he said. “Whenever I see more than one ligature mark, it’s an assault or homicide until proven otherwise.”
Steven’s death remains classified as a suicide and is not currently under investigation.
Robin Altman is Steven’s brother and Mary Ann’s oldest daughter. She said her mother was devastated by Steven’s death but Robin doesn’t believe her mother killed herself.
“That was a promise she made to us – that she would never, ever do that to us,” Robin said.
Alliance believes Mary Ann’s death was a homicide, made to look like a suicide.
They allege that Northfield Police overlooked crucial clues in the case.
“If you have officers, detectives investigating a death and they don’t have specific advanced training, then of course, they’re going to find nothing because they don’t know what to look for,” Smock said. “If they haven’t had the training, how can you expect them to come up with a correct conclusion?”
Authorities allege that Hayes died of self-strangulation, using an extension cord.
However, there is no evidence of a knot or locking mechanism on the cord, according to police records reviewed by Alliance.
“I think everybody, immediately sees – where’s the knot?” said Gael Strack, co-founder and CEO of Alliance. “How are you going to continue to apply continuous pressure? Because that’s what you need in order for someone to die.”
“Any type of ligature that’s going to stay around the neck, has to be locked in place,” Smock said. “You have to maintain that pressure in order to die, to block that blood flow to and from the brain.”
“Even if you were laying down, you can’t strangle yourself to death because you’d go unconscious in six to eight, nine seconds,” said Casey Gwinn, co-founder and president of Alliance. “You’d let go of the ligature and your hands would fall to your sides.”
Thursday, in the third and final part of our series, the mysterious and unexplained injuries Mary Ann appears to have suffered and what Alliance believes it reveals about her death.