Manner of Death
The Evidence – facts, not conjectureBackground
Background: The High Point PD effectively ceased all investigative efforts into the death of Robert Tipton within 3 hours of his death on 3/26/2012. Most of what you’re about to read was gathered as a result of private inquiries and through deposition; not through a police investigation.
There are graphic images of injuries to Robert contained in this narrative and linked to this page.
High Point Regional Hospital:
Robert died in the apartment of Marshal Jefferson, a brother in the Delta Sig Fraternity at approximately 10:30am on 3/26/2012. Efforts to revive Robert by Jefferson and EMT were futile. Robert was transported to High Point Regional Hospital where he was officially pronounced dead at 11:10am. Photographs of Robert’s body were taken at the hospital in High Point by HPPD.
The injuries from blunt force trauma to Robert’s body, including face, neck and head were documented photographically. The CSI technician for HPPD described the injuries she photographed in her report:
“I then responded to High Point Regional Emergency Room at 1223 hours in reference to photographing the deceased. I observed Robert Eugene Tipton (W/M, 02/10/1990) on a hospital bed. A substance, consistent with vomit was visible in deceased’s nostrils. Bruising was visible on the deceased’s right hip, both knees, and a large linear bruise was visible on the left buttock. Hemorrhages/bruises were also visible on the deceased’ s left eyeball, neck, and upper chest.”
A blunt force trauma injury and laceration to the right side of Robert’s head was noted at autopsy but not at the hospital. Because there was no communication between the Medical Examiner (ME) Dr. Privette and the lead Detective (Heather Meyer), the HPPD did not know of the blunt force trauma injury to Robert’s head until the ME report was received on 6/19/2012 (almost 3 months after Robert’s death). There was never any investigation into any of the injuries sustained by Robert by the HPPD.
Click here for images of Robert’s injuries. (WARNING: some are graphic)
Numerous individuals have since attested that Robert was fine with no injuries evident on the evening of March 25 . Further, two individuals (Stacey Meyer and Taylor Belcher) were with Jefferson and Robert at approximately 3:30 am on March 26 at Jefferson’s apartment. Belcher was interviewed by a private investigator after HPPD closed their case. Belcher indicated Robert had no injuries and appeared normal when he and Stacey left before 4 am. Robert sustained his injuries after 4am and before 9am on 3/26/2019, in other words these injuries to his face and head were inflicted within a few hours of his death. HPPD was never aware of two additional ‘witnesses’ with Robert in the early hours of 3/26 until our presentation in 2017 to the DA and HPPD.
Presumably, Marshall Jefferson would have noted the injuries, but HPPD never asked and he never volunteered information. It was not until further inquiries by a private investigator was it learned from Jefferson that Robert had no injuries when he (Jefferson) went to bed around 3:30 am on 3/26. One would think the HPPD detectives, after noting the injuries at the hospital, would have at least done a follow up interview with Jefferson and the other two HPU students interviewed at the scene. Sadly, any semblance of an investigation by law enforcement was over around 1pm on 3/26. There were no follow up interviews by HPPD with any of the three people interviewed initially; despite conflicting information in their original statements to police.
What happened at Marshall’s apartment in the early morning hours of 3/26?
Investigation into cause of injuries to Robert:
Lead HPPD detective in Robert’s death, Heather Meyer, wrote out a ‘time-line’ or investigative plan/to-do list after viewing the injuries to Robert. This is a common step in a death investigation, and provides the investigator with an initial plan going forward in the investigation. Click here for Detective Heather Meyer’s handwritten investigative time-line on what to do going forward in the HPPD investigation. Below is a table which itemizes Meyer’s time-line and what was accomplished.
Robert’s body was briefly examined by a physician (Dr. Arnold) functioning as a local ME at High Point Regional Hospital. Dr. Arnold took the information available to him at the time from police and provided a handwritten narrative. The narrative has some substantive inconsistencies and was not signed by Dr. Arnold until a week after Robert’s death. (Click here to see Dr. Arnold’s narrative) Highlighted areas reflect incorrect information which was likely provided Dr. Arnold by the HPPD. Unsure as to what information was passed on to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner prior to the autopsy, but it does appear likely Dr. Arnold’s narrative would have been provided to Dr. Privette in some fashion.
Toxicology Report and related information:
Marshall’s story to HPPD – According to a police report, Delta Sig brother Marshall Jefferson was overheard telling his roommate (Embler) that Robert had been eating a ‘shitload’ of Klonopin (Clonazepam) earlier. Klonopin is a benzodiazepam and is prescribed for anxiety, among other things. Robert had a prescription for Klonopin.
Marshall told police that nothing more than beer and liquor drinking had gone on at his apartment. After Robert’s death and during a walk- through of Jefferson’s apartment, police seized in plain view, a 40 mg tab of suspected Oxymorphone (a synthetic opioid), and a marijuana pipe located on a corner table in the room where Robert died. Amazingly, neither Marshal nor the other two HPU students at the scene were ever asked any questions about the oxymorphone tab or marijuana pipe by the police. (Note: neither Robert nor any other individuals known to have been at Jefferson’s apartment on 3/25 and 3/26 are prescribed Oxymorphone)
The Toxicology Report – The toxicology report (Click Here) was prepared and mailed to Detective Heather Meyer on April 17, 2012, less than 3 weeks after Robert’s death and 2 months before Detective Meyer received the autopsy report from Dr. Privette. The HPPD case file does not reflect receiving this report, but we do know if it was received, there was no investigative follow up. At any rate, the HPPD knew 2 months prior to receiving the autopsy report that Oxymorphone may have played a part in Robert’s death, yet never followed up on who provided the drug to Robert or the source of the purported tab of Oxymorphone tab seized from Marshall Jefferson’s apartment.
According to two independent forensic pathologists with experiences gained through thousands of forensic autopsies, Robert did not die from Oxymorphone Poisoning as indicated in the June 18, 2012 Report of Autopsy.
Dr. Cyril Wecht’s review and opinion of the toxicology report:
“Further, the levels of drugs set forth in the toxicology report were not in the range that would be expected in a case of fatal drug toxicity, and are not high enough to be considered lethal or even significantly toxic. In fact, the OCME·s determination that the levels of oxymorphone in Mr. Tipton ‘s vena cava blood were sufficient to support a conclusion that Mr. Tipton died of oxymorphone poisoning is at odds with earlier findings by OCME personnel regarding levels of oxymorphone toxicity, which were published in April 2009 in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology. The OCME analyzed 33 cases encountered between 1999 and August 2008 in which oxymorphone, was a suspected contributor to death, and concluded that the mean concentration for oxymorphone in postmortem central and peripheral blood samples in those cases was 0.15 mg/L, a level that is ten times higher than the concentration found in Mr. Tipton’ s blood sample. In the only case examined with oxymorphone concentrations similar to Mr. Tipton’s – i.e., 0.011 mg/L – the OCME ruled out oxymorphone toxicity as a potential cause of death, and found the oxymorphone concentrations present in that case “were approximately equivalent to concentrations observed in the antemortem plasma under therapeutic dosing.” The absence of any significant natural disease processes, and the absence of significant drug levels likely to have caused Mr. Tipton to aspirate gastric contents, strongly suggest the physical injuries he sustained were the precipitating cause of his fatal aspiration.
Dr. Jan Gorniak’s review and opinion drawn from the toxicology report:
According to the toxicology report, the levels of alprazolam, clonazepam, and oxymorphone detected in the peripheral blood are not in the fatal range, let alone toxic range. It is reported that Mr. Tipton Jr. was consuming alcoholic beverages the evening before being found unresponsive, yet ethanol was not detected in the blood.
The opinions expressed herein are based upon my personal review of the documents mentioned, my education. training, and background and they shall all be considered to have been stated within a reasonable degree of medical certainty. It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Mr. Tipton did not die as a result of oxymorphone poisoning as stated inthe autopsy report.
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (Dr. Jonathan Privette, associate ME:
The associate ME, Dr. Privette, performed the autopsy of Robert on 3/27/2012. Dr. Privette’s notes and diagrams establish he never 1) turned Robert’s body over to examine the numerous bruises/contusions on the posterior; 2) failed to conduct the proper testing to determine whether the blunt force trauma actually caused a concussion; 3) failed to note details of the multiple abrasions/contusions on Robert’s body (e.g. size, shape, extent of underlying tissue damage, etc.) and 4) failed to communicate with law enforcement (HPPD) at any point, including a failure to instruct law enforcement to obtain additional information regarding the injuries to Robert before providing a conclusion on the cause of death occurred. Dr. Privette concluded: “Based on the history and investigative findings, it is my opinion that the cause of death in this case is oxymorphone poisoning.”
Dr. Privette has declined media interviews and has not been deposed.
Prior issues with the quality and reliability of Dr. Privette and OCME Autopsies
Mistakes in the OCME in North Carolina were common according to the Charlotte Observer’s 5-part investigation report on the OCME, entitled ‘Fatally Flawed’ and published in 2014. Their investigation covered the period of 2001 through mid-2013. In fact, it was lawsuits involving the OCME filed by families in 2012 which was the impetus for their in-depth investigation. Their investigation found that N.C. medical examiners often skip crucial steps when investigating suspicious deaths. The living face the consequences. Widows can be cheated out of insurance money, families are left in limbo. killers can go free. The Charlotte Observer (in 2014) conducted the most comprehensive analysis of state death rulings ever conducted, and found that examiners regularly close cases without following recommended practices
Dr. Privette as had at least one manner of death determination overturned by an administrative judge. In that case (Santimore v. HHS), Dr. Privette had conducted the autopsy in February of 2012 (one month prior to Robert’s death). In overturning Dr. Privette’s manner of death determination, the court stated Dr. Privette arrived at an incorrect conclusion largely because he “failed to investigate and scrutinize all the evidence available.” (Does that sound familiar?)
Media Coverage
YouTube Narrated PPT Presentation to HPPD (2018)
In late 2018 a detailed Power Point presentation on the circumstances surrounding the death and private investigation into Robert’s death was made to Walt Jones and his 1st assistant of the District Attorney’s Office of Guilford County (High Point) NC. The lead...
Bloomberg Article
In September 2018, Bloomberg published a detailed investigative article on Robert’s life at High Point University and the Delta Sigma Phi chapter he was pledging. This article, written by renowned journalist John Hechinger details the circumstances...
CBS17 – Appeals court upholds NC frat’s dismissal in pledge death
An appeals court agrees a fraternity should be dismissed from a lawsuit alleging a pledge at a private North Carolina university died from hazing. The state Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday the mother of Robert Eugene Tipton Jr. didn’t offer sufficient evidence that...
Do you have information regarding the case?
A $100,000.00 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for Robert’s death. If you have any information, please contact us at 866-760-0028.