Father Believes Police Botched Investigation Into Daughter's Death, Wants Case Reopened

Dad says he has documents showing evidence was ignored by investigators.

ByABC News
August 9, 2013, 2:48 AM

Aug. 10, 2013 — -- An Illinois father is on a mission to prove his daughter's death was not a suicide as a coroner initially ruled. He contends the original police investigation was botched.

"Everything seems to have been investigated to see if she committed suicide, and she didn't, it's obvious," Larry Young told ABC News.

Molly Young, 22, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in her ex-boyfriend Richie Minton's apartment on March 24, 2012. A friend of Minton's called 911 and handed the phone to Minton, who was an emergency dispatcher in Carbondale, Ill., at the time. Minton reported that he woke up and Young was covered in blood in his apartment.

"It's my ex-girlfriend ... My girlfriend just committed suicide," Minton told dispatchers. "Can you send an ambu… can you send a car over?"

Minton told dispatchers he thought Young had overdosed because he said there was blood near her nose.

When police arrived at Minton's apartment they found Young dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Minton and his roommate were questioned by authorities at the scene and released. When Minton arrived at the police station he actually invoked his rights and asked for an attorney.

READ MORE: Calls to reform coroner system in statesThe coroner later ruled the death a suicide. In January, a coroner's jury reviewed Young's cause of death and changing it to "undetermined."

Larry Young wants the entire case re-opened and says that there is a bevy of evidence that his daughter did not kill herself.

"In my opinion the evidence is there," he told ABC News. "I would hope that they go after that evidence."

Young says he now has police documents recently obtained through a freedom of information request, which he says suggest investigators either missed or ignored key evidence.

When asked by ABC News, police would not comment on those documents obtained by Young or discuss the investigation. Minton also declined to comment.

The state attorney Michael C. Carr tells ABC News the case is not closed, but that so far it "has not resulted in sufficent evidence to support a criminal prosecution."

The decision has left Young seeking answers.

"It disgusts me that a young woman could lose her life like that and no one seems to care," he said.