(Submitted by Violet McCullough, Jimmy's mother):
JIMMY MCCULLOUGH went missing in June 2005. 7-10 days after his disappearance, small-town Ardmore authorities did an air and ground search of the rural area where Jimmy had last been seen. According to authorities, they found nothing. Nine months later, in March of 2006, a man found human bones in the same creek area that authorities had previously searched (and obviously missed the body).
This is where Violet, Jimmy's mother, began her nightmare experience not only with local authorities, but with the Medical Examiner's Office. Because Jimmy had been in good health, his death was obviously one of foul play. Losing nine months before the body (as yet still undentified) was damaging enough to a prosecution. However, the real nightmare started when the bones were transported to the ME's Office for identification and examination. Violet later learned the ME's Office misplaced her son's bones for over two years, holding up his identification. She was given the run-around, being told they had been sent to a facility in Texas for DNA testing.
Violet discovered her son's remains had actually been sitting on a shelf in the ME's Office and had not been sent anywhere. When she asked the ME's Office how this could have happened, she was told someone dropped the ball. It was only after repeated phone calls to law enforcement, OSBI, the ME's Office, and even the FBI, that Violet finally got the lab in Texas to call the ME's Office and get Jimmie's bones transported for identification. It was during one of these distressing phone calls that an employee of the ME's Office told Violet, "What's the big deal? They're just bones." As Violet told Channel Four in July of 2010, they're not just bones. That was her son. We as Oklahoman's deserve better than this callous, cavalier treatment from State employees paid from our tax dollars.
It was not until May 29, 2009 - just last year - that Violet finally got her son's remains back and was able to have a Memorial Service. To see Jimmy's "Delayed Filing" death certificate, dated May 19, 2009, click HERE. Authorities had Jimmy's remains ever since a layman discovered them in March 2006. It is unconscionable that the ME's Office's ineptitude caused this death certificate to be delayed until May 2009.
Four years of frustration, ineptitude and staggering incompetence cost this mother not only inconceivable emotional devastation, but also let any chance at a murder investigation grow cold.
This is not justice. This isn't even close. Please join us as we fight to change the law that applies to the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office and create accountability and efficiency to the taxpayers that fund it.
