My son, Brian, died July 31, 2006, shortly after returning from his tour in Iraq.  He came home in April 2006 with three Purple Hearts. 

Brian married a woman whom he had, for the most part, carried on a relationship with on the Internet.  She had filed for divorce from the father of her two young children, the youngest only months old, in December of 2005.  Her divorce was finalized on April 26, 2006. 

With a 60 day court order attached to her divorce, she took my son to Gatlinburg Tennessee, the "Marriage" capitol of east coast of the US, and they married on May 20th, 2006.  Brian had no idea that he was breaking the marriage/divorce laws of Alabama and Tennessee.

Two months and 11 days after getting married, buying a new jeep, receiving a two dollar an hour raise on his job the very day he died, and working in his yard, Brian was found hanging by the neck, bent knee'd,  in a five foot tall shed door. 

His "widow" claimed he had taken a "bunch of Lortab and drank a lot of beer".  There was an empty medicine bottle, label removed, and two cans of Coors Lite found close to Brian's body.  One can of beer was half empty.  

The Coroner's pictures CLEARLY show swelling and bruising on Brian's right cheek.  The Coroner claimed "They must have dropped him when they cut him down".  (Brians face was about three feet from the soft grass he landed on.  When Brian was cut down, he fell to his LEFT side according to witnesses.)

Brian's death, my Soldiers demise, was ruled a suicide without autopsy.  The 9-1-1 call went in at 7:32pm.  The Coroner pronounced Brian a "suicide" at 8:05pm. 

I know, as the Mother who knew him before birth, that my son did not do this, especially where a little girl would have been witness to his dead body hanging in a shed door.  That baby got out of the car, ran to Brian's limp body and hugged him screaming "Daddy Boo". 

That was 19 months ago. 

Brian's body was buried in a cemetery where he has no relatives, no friends.  His alleged wife did not purchase the plot next to him.  As a matter of fact, that she was pregnant with her new little baby girl by May 31, 2007, when she appeared on the front page of the local news in HONOR of my son. 

To THIS DAY she fights me diligently from exhuming my son and giving him the autopsy he deserves.  She knows what that autopsy will prove.  There are no scratch marks on my son's neck of the body's act of self preservation.  There were no bulging of his eyes, nor was his tongue protruding.  The rope mark was UNDER his adam's apple.  Brian was not conscious when that noose went around his neck. 

My thought's on the Coroner?  Well, he MUST be 100% correct every time.  It's ELECTION time for goodness sake!  The same goes for the Sheriff of St. Clair County Alabama.  The Detectives, when I ask questions, are rude and condescending to me.  They treat me like a convict.

As I wait for the Judge to order Brian's exhumation, and it WILL come, I try to keep my mind on things like "What can I do to make Brian's death matter"?  I mean, something GOOD has to come of it, right?  God doesn't make mistakes.  Brian's death has to count for something.

I have established a website to help homeless veterans across America because, since Brian is not buried in his ancestral burial ground, I consider him "Homeless".  It's a noble cause, but somehow it just didn't seem like that was what I needed to do.  The site is up and being organized.  We will be running on grants.  Still...

So, today, on the 19th month anniversary of my baby's death, I have decided to begin a new cause.  I have decided to fight for Mandatory Autopsy Laws.  In my studies of state to state laws, I am appalled at the lack of caring for the deceased.  It's a CRIME to mishandle a dead body, and not receiving an autopsy should also be...a CRIME. 

In 2001, Florida passed a law, known as the "Earnhardt Family Protection Act". The bill, named for NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, made autopsy photographs, video and audio recordings confidential. Violators could be charged with a third degree felony that could be punishable by jail time and up to a $5,000 fine.

LET MY CHILD GO! 

GIVE MY SON HIS AUTOPSY! 

I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!  

SPC Brian Patrick Shaver"Operation Iraqi Freedom"167th Combat Infantry Pelham Alabama

SPC Brian Patrick Shaver 1977 - 2006

Please sign the Petition

Help bring our Soldier Home to his Ancestral Burial Ground. Help him get the autopsy he deserved!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-bring-him-home   Please, ask ten of your friends to read and sign it!