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Attorney & Private Investigator for Joseph Smedley

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5 years ago, Joseph disappeared and 5 days later, he was found with approximately 66lbs of rocks strapped to his chest, floating in Griffy lake, right outside of IU Bloomington's campus. He was last seen out with is fraternity brothers of Sigma Pi. He was found with binoculars around his neck, most likely from being out there, with his brothers, to catch a rare glimpse of the blood moon phase that was happening that night. Monroe county claims he committed suicide.

We were able to hire a forensic pathologist to have a second autopsy done and when he reached out to Bloomington Police Department to collaborate and go over the circumstantial evidence and photos taken at the scene, they shut him completely out, which is abnormal for a police department to do when a family disagrees with the results. 

Our forensic pathologist was able to tell me that the autopsy showed hemorrhaging on his back and that he definitely does not believe it is suicide but cannot finish the report until he sees information on how he was found at the scene. He also said that BPD did a poor job of retrieving his body, didn’t bother to put his clothing into evidence, just shoved everything in his body bag. 


What We’ve currently been working on is trying to subpoena documents from BPD so that we can conclude his second autopsy but there have been several attorneys, who have offered to help and then ended up getting spooked while working on this case with us One dropped out the day before our hearing, due to “conflict of interest”. 

Joseph was a pre-pharmacutical science major, a great swimmer and was destined to do incredible things...but his life was stolen from him, and then quickly swept under the rug by Bloomington Police Department. These are the facts. They have always been the facts and we will never stop sharing his story until something is done about it.

We are asking for your help in fighting for justice, by hiring an attorney to subpoena the documents, from BPD, needed to finish our private autopsy and to hire a Private Investigator.  We currently have over 17 Thousand signatures supporting the reopening of Joseph's case. This could be YOUR brother, YOUR son, YOUR best friend. If you know something, do the right thing and bring justice to Joseph. He deserves that, at the very least.
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Donations 

  • Laura Sass
    • $25
    • 1 yr
  • Maritza Cancel
    • $10
    • 2 yrs
  • Bryn Thomas
    • $50
    • 2 yrs
  • Wanda Surber
    • $100
    • 3 yrs
  • Jessica Gatlin
    • $50
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer

Vivianne Bernas
Organizer
Fishers, IN

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