Background

A grieving father had serious concerns about an investigation into his daughter’s death. He thought police were blocking the murder probe because one of their colleagues was a suspect.

Maigonis Emars’s daughter, S.J., was found dead at her home on 21 May 2004.

Police first treated her death as a suicide, but Maigonis knew S.J. had had no reason to kill herself. He told police he believed she had been murdered.

Two months later, forensic experts uncovered new evidence suggesting foul play in S.J.’s death. Police began a murder probe.

S.J.’s husband, A.J., was interviewed as a suspect. Witnesses had seen his car outside the couple’s home the night before S.J.’s body was found. But A.J. had an alibi. He was a police officer, and colleagues said he had spent the night with them at the local station.

Maigonis was sure that A.J. was involved in his daughter’s murder, and that his colleagues were protecting him. He complained to the authorities, who told him that the investigation was being handled fairly and there was nothing to suggest the police were blocking it.

Later, however, the authorities told Maigonis that two police officers had been disciplined over investigative failures. One of the officers had been charged with a crime because of the way they examined the scene when S.J.’s body was found. The officer was later cleared.

Nobody was ever charged with S.J.’s murder.