Lack of autopsies let criminals get away with murder

Santo Domingo.- Prominent forensic pathologist SergioSarita Valdez on Sunday said the vast majority of the country’s deaths,robberies and assaults aren’t investigated, which in his view spurs even morefelonies.

"That’s an encouragement to crime, robbery, assaultbecause they (perpetrators) are confident of the little likelihood of beingcaught," he said. Interviewed on Santo Domingo TV.

"it’s not true that every time there is a violentdeath, there’s a detailed analysis and study, which is what we want," hesaid and warned that violent deaths that occur in Greater Santo Domingo areenough to saturate the system "and cannot respond."

"To this day not all deaths legally speaking are not investigatedin the Dominican Republic, in terms of autopsy by a coroner," he said.

The expert said in a sudden death, where no one knows whathappened, it’s important to determine if that person died from poisoning orother cause, which generates a doubt.

Sarita also said the country has the world’s highestmortality rate from traffic accidents for which in many cases autopsies aren’t performedfrom the high number of people killed.