RI Woman Believes Mother’s Death Is Unsolved Homicide - Says New Info Should Reopen Case
Friday, May 06, 2022
A Rhode Island woman whose mother died nearly 30 years ago believes it is an unsolved homicide.
Despite the original medical examiner’s report ruling the death as "natural," she says she is now armed with another forensic pathologist’s opinion that the case should be reexamined.
Lauren Lee Malloy told GoLocal she is simply seeking justice for her mother Lori Lee “Sled Dog” Malloy, who died in 1993.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAt the time of her mother's passing, East Providence police noted in their report, that upon finding her mother's body, that the circumstances appeared “suspicious.”
“I don’t want money; I don’t want to go after the original medical examiner,” Malloy told GoLocal. “I just want the case closed the right way.”
Lauren Lee Malloy was just 18 months old when her mother died.
About Case
On March 7, 1993, East Providence police were alerted to a welfare check for Lori Lee Malloy, as friends and family said they hadn’t heard from her in days.
According to police officer Antonio Britto, once he entered Malloy’s apartment on Waterman Avenue along with an acquaintance of Malloy’s, he found a shocking scene.
His report states:
“The sound of running water appeared to be coming from the bathroom, so I walked toward there…as we got there, [we] could see a person's head lying on the floor of the bathroom,” Britto reported.
Malloy was naked, and he noted “had obviously expired.”
Britto continued:
“Some of the suspicious conditions were the fact that the door was apparently left open, there were small tufts of the victim's hair found all around the apartments, she was found nude on the bathroom floor, with slices of bread all around her. The victim herself has pieces of hair wrapped around her left hand and around one foot. The refrigerator in the kitchen was found to be unplugged and there was food still inside. There were two empty glasses found on the table and a small tub (plastic) of some sort of food salad, also the faucet in the bathroom was running freely.
At this time, until the investigation should perhaps prove otherwise, the detective division is investigating this matter as a homicide.”
The following day, Dr. F. John Krolikowski in the state Medical Examiner’s office conducted the autopsy.
On August 11, 1993, Malloy’s death was ruled “natural” — with Krolikowski attributing it to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, due to Molloy’s history of cocaine use.
In December 1992, Malloy’s case was closed by the East Providence Police Department.
Krolikowski would soon come under fire for his work in the medical field, however.
Questions About Original Medical Examiner
In 1999 Krolikowski was investigated by the State of Massachusetts for his role in misdiagnosing dozens of cases at Sturdy Memorial; he extended an agreement not to practice medicine while the investigation was ongoing.
In 2002, he was reprimanded by Massachusetts and sanctioned for the incorrect analysis of multiple cases and was banned by the state Board for Registration in Medicine from continuing to practice surgical pathology in the state.
In 2022, Lauren Malloy contacted an expert pathologist — Dr. Zhongxue Hua — to take another look at her mother’s case.
New Perspective From Forensic Expert
In response to Malloy’s request, Hua emailed her back on March 13, 2022, with the recommendation the case be reopened.
Teaming Up With Uncovered RI
Now, Malloy is pressing to have the case reopened — but so far has been unsuccessful.
She has a change.org petition asking people to support her case that currently has over 1,800 signatures, which explains more of the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death — including that more witness information has recently come to light.
“In August 2020, new information was brought forward that led to Lori's case being reinvestigated by EPPD, the RI Medical Examiners Office, the Attorney General's Office and Unsolved RI,” wrote Malloy. “The MEs Office determined that Lori Malloy did not die of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; in fact, she had no obvious natural or unnatural reason to die. Based on his observations, the senior ME handling Lori's modern case review believed she needed to be exhumed and her investigation completely redone.”
On April 20, she provided an update.
“There's nothing really ‘new’ to share right now, except to say that her case is now being reviewed by legal counsel for the Medical Examiners Office and the Attorney General's Office. We look forward to an update from either party in the near future.”
Malloy is working with team members at Uncovered and Unsolved RI, two online platforms with dedicated teams focused on cold cases.
Jolynn Rice, who is the founder of Cold Case Digital Advocacy, shared with GoLocal how she got in touch with Malloy.
“Lauren and I were in a shared Facebook group together and she had posted some information regarding an open case she was looking into for Nicole Parsons Bucki. It was clear she needed some of the tools that we developed in the digital advocacy inside the uncovered community,” said Rice.
“I reached out and told her a little bit about uncovered and what I was doing as a family advocate and I kind of felt that we had synergies and what we were trying to do and that she needed to get in touch with Rachael to learn more about how we could support her efforts. The relationship just grew from there,” she added. “Lauren is a passionate advocate and she cares deeply about families and wanting to bring some sort of conclusion or answer to them regarding what happened to their loved one. The collective power that exists within the Uncovered community is second to none.”
Rachael Rosselet, who is the Head of Case Research and Data at Uncovered, explained why it can be difficult to get cases reopened.
“Jolynn introduced Lauren to me so that we could display the cases she was working on our website. The relationship between Uncovered and UnsolvedRI has grown from there! We noticed a lot of synergies between what she was doing and what Uncovered offers. UnsolvedRI is now linking to Uncovered as their primary way to display cases from the Rhode Island area,” said Rosselet.
“I think there is a myriad of reasons why cases are so difficult to reopen. Law enforcement agencies are inundated with current cases and their resources are limited. They often need to focus on the issues that they are currently dealing with,” she added. “Sometimes law enforcement is hesitant because mistakes had been made in the past, corruption, etc. I believe there are also issues regarding biases and stereotypes. In the past, cases that involved persons who had a drug addiction, engaged in sex work, or other riskier lifestyle choices were deemed as not important to solve. We're hoping to change that. Everyone, regardless of where they were at that moment in their life, deserves to have justice.”
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