Court yet to rule on autopsy in Baruffaldi case

SALEM ? An Essex County Family and Probate Court judge has named attorney David Eppley to oversee the multi-million-dollar estate of the late Lynnfield veterinarian Joan Baruffaldi, taking control away from the woman’s husband, Robert Harris.Harris told authorities his wife committed suicide by hanging herself Nov. 3 in the bathroom of their Westin Hotel room on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The victim’s family has alleged in a wrongful death suit filed in Middlesex Superior Court that Harris murdered the woman.The lawsuit was filed by the victim’s father, Lawrence Baruffaldi, in Middlesex Superior Court. Judge Garry V. Inge on Friday heard testimony there on whether to allow a second autopsy, during which Eppley told the court that he is in no position to make any decisions immediately as he need time to reviews the facts of the case.Essex Superior Court John Cronin appointed Eppley as special administrator with powers to make key decisions regarding the woman’s estate and other pending legal matters, such as making a demand for a subsequent autopsy.”This is good news. It’s just terrific,” said Boston attorney Donald McNamee, who represents the Baruffaldi family. “The judge’s order gives Eppley all kinds of authority in the case. He can now ask the court to order the autopsy.”The original autopsy performed in the Caribbean listed the cause of death as suicide.McNamee said Judge Inge has been asked to name Eppley on the wrongful death suit rather than Baruffaldi’s father and to authorize an autopsy.”Our actions in the Essex probate court are like an insurance policy in case anything gos wrong with the Middlesex case,” McNamee said.If the autopsy is ordered, the Baruffaldi family has asked that it be conducted by Dr. Michael Baden.Baden is the former chief medical examiner for New York City and is presently the chief of forensic pathologist for the New York State Police. He has been a medical examiner for over 40 years and has performed more than 20,000 autopsies. He has been a consultant to the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Department of Justice.Baden was chairman of the Forensic Pathology Panel of the U.S. Congress Select Committee on Assassinations that re-investigated the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1970s.He was part of a team of U.S. scientists asked by the Russian government to examine the newly found remains of Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra and the Romanov family in Siberia in the 1990s.He has been an expert court witness in the deaths of John Belushi, Yankee Manager Billy Martin, Marlon Brando’s son Christian, O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake and Phil Spector.Baden is host of the HBO “Autopsy” television series, now in its twelfth year, which focuses on how forensic sciences assist in solving crimes. The writer or co-writer of more than 80 professional articles and books on aspects of forensic medicine, he is author of two popular non-fiction books, “Unnatural Death, Confessions of a Medical Examiner” and “Dead Reckoning, the New Science of Catching Killers.”