Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Doctor Can’t Say If Mom Killed Self Pathologist Retracts Claim Of A Suicide In Quadruple Deaths

Associated Press

The Idaho Falls pathologist who performed the autopsies on four people found dead in a Rigby home last week has backed away from his initial statement that one of the fatal wounds was selfinflicted.

Dr. J. Thomas Mitchell told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday morning that his autopsy indicated the wound suffered by Mary Myers, 44, apparently was selfinflicted while the fatal wounds of sons, Anthony Lewis Rice, 20, and Keith Alan Rice, 16, and Keith’s girlfriend, Christine Danielson, 17, were not.

When questioned moments later about Mitchell’s comments, Jefferson County Sheriff Blair Olsen said he had not talked to Mitchell or received his report and if the doctor was making such statements he was “talking out of turn.”

Later in the day, however, the Idaho Falls Post-Register reported that Mitchell claimed in an interview with it that his original statement was based only on “word of mouth” from investigating officials.