{"id":170064,"date":"2026-02-26T13:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170064\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:36:07","slug":"medical-examiner-wont-discuss-controversial-cases-its-inappropriate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170064\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Examiner won’t discuss controversial cases; ‘it’s inappropriate’"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 This is a CBS 12 News I-Team<\/a> follow-up: Holding the powerful accountable.<\/p>\n

The medical examiner\u2019s office for District 19 covers four counties: Indian River County, Okeechobee, Martin, and St. Lucie.<\/p>\n

The I-Team has been contacted by several families who say they have been waiting for justice, and they are desperate for answers, but they question whether the examiner got it right when she ruled (or did not rule) on suspicious deaths.<\/p>\n

Relatives of a woman named Jackie Long<\/a> say there\u2019s no urgency, and they don’t know where else to turn.<\/p>\n

Long was found dead inside an abandoned house.<\/p>\n

Officials say it had been torched in a case of arson, perhaps to conceal the details of Jackie\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Fort Pierce Police Department<\/a> tells the I-Team that until they get a final report from the medical examiner, they can\u2019t move forward.<\/p>\n

To date, no one has been charged, and the family doesn\u2019t even have Jackie\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n

The Longs feel there\u2019s been a murder, but the authorities have yet to launch a full-scale investigation.<\/p>\n

Their story felt reminiscent of two previous I-Team special reports:<\/p>\n

Dr. Patricia Aronica<\/a>, the medical examiner for the four counties, is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death in all three of these cases.<\/p>\n

She would not appear on camera for this story, but Dr. Aronica agreed to talk with us by phone.<\/p>\n

When pressed, she would not address anything about these three cases.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think it\u2019s good practice. I don\u2019t feel it is appropriate,” Aronica said.<\/p>\n

In the case of Alysse Steed, the cause of death was officially changed after the I-Team’s reporting. Aronica wouldn’t talk about it.<\/p>\n

In the case of Jackie Long, Dr. Aronica said the remains have been sent to another lab for testing, but she would not say where.<\/p>\n

“I don’t even know where my daughter is,” Leon Long told the I-Team.<\/p>\n

The family is aware that the body was in an unrecognizable condition, but they would like to take whatever is left of the remains, and they are standing by for the Fort Pierce Police Department to open a homicide investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 This is a CBS 12 News I-Team follow-up: Holding the powerful accountable. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-170064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}