Tarrant County medical examiner to leave job after issues found with autopsies in 27 cases
A medical examiner who missed a bullet during an autopsy in a September homicide case will leave his job after an internal audit of his autopsies found dozens of errors in 27 cases.
Dr. Marc Krouse was originally suspended from performing autopsies in homicide cases in November. He was placed on administrative leave on March 25 and his last day will be April 24.
A copy of the summary audit, which was written by the medical examiner’s office, was sent to defense attorneys by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office and obtained elsewhere by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Moving forward, defense attorneys have the right to ask trial judges if they can question witnesses about the audit. The judges will decide if the information is admissible,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The audit examined cases from January 2020 to Nov. 9, 2020, and was completed on March 19, the district attorney’s office said.
In early March, the Star-Telegram reviewed Krouse’s work and identified at least 40 homicide cases from 2019 to 2020 that he had been involved in. The newspaper found that Krouse performed the autopsies in at least six of those cases.
The audit reviewed 41 of Krouse’s cases, including non-homicide cases. Descriptive errors and omissions were found in 27 cases, according the summary of the audit.
“In most cases, these did not necessarily impact the assignment of cause or the manner of death, the reports left questions unanswered and demonstrated lack of due diligence,” according to the summary.
For instance, in one case where a man was stabbed and set on fire, Krouse failed to identify some wounds as defensive and failed to clearly determine if the man was stabbed first.
The case that began the review involved the shooting death of 19-year-old Alfredo Olivares, whose body had to be exhumed because Krouse had missed a bullet during the autopsy, according to court documents.
The second autopsy revealed several “major and minor” issues with the first, according to the audit summary.
Krouse has been a deputy medical examiner since 1981, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office said.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 9:33 AM.
