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Last updated on Tuesday, March 10, 2015
(COLUMBUS) - The official investigation into the death of 49-year-old Cary Owsley is far from over, if new Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers has his way.
Sheriff Myers released a statement on Friday saying that he is officially requesting the Federal Bureau of Investigations look in to Owsley's death and the Sheriff's Department's investigation.
WCSI reports that Myers says he is reaching out to the FBI in the hopes of providing closure for members of Owsley's family and the men and women of the Sheriff's Department.
Owsley's death from a gunshot wound was ruled suicide by County Coroner Larry Fisher, who made that determination without an autopsy being performed.
Owsley's sister, Cheryl Jackson, accused the department of a possible cover-up and led a successful campaign to have her brother's remains exhumed and be tested by two medical examiners. They ruled the cause of death to be "undetermined."
Three deputies who were at the death scene were reprimanded over their involvement in the case. Former Sheriff Mark Gorbett suspended the deputies in 2013. One of them is DeWayne Janes who was once married to Lisa and the father of her two son. And the gun Owsley allegedly used to shoot himself in the chest once belonged to Deputy Janes.
"I don't know when he got there, but I know when he got there, he obstructed justice. He touched the gun, body, rug everything in the crime scene. He's been an officer for 20 years, he knows better," Jackson.
Janes was facing possible firing last year due to a different matter, but ultimately chose to retire before a disciplinary hearing.
According to the police report, there was someone in the home with him when it happened: Owsley's wife, who called 911.
There was no note left behind, but using Lisa Owsley's testimony, the coroner called the death a suicide.
Miles away in Chicago, Cary's sister, Cheryl Jackson, a former Indianapolis television reporter, happened to be on a blind date with a retired police detective. The call came from her mother about Cary's death.
Fox59 reported, immediately, Cheryl made her way back to her childhood home of Columbus to find the brother she talked to on the phone daily was dead.
"I've done stories of people dying," Jackson said. "I know that that's like and I think that helped me, knowing it could happen to anyone, helped me because it just seemed so unfair."
Cary told his sister the night before that the problems he and his wife of three years were having were coming to a head.
"The night before, he was finished with his family, he was moving out, he was divorcing her," she said. "He'd been through all this angst."
The trouble had a lot to do with the friction over their mixed-race marriage and her two adult children. According to Jackson, there had been insults and threats.
"When I heard he was shot, I started to think that one of his stepsons had pulled a gun on him how they called him (racial slur) over and over again, and that he's been in constant conflict over months with these two adult boys that live in the house with him on and off," Jackson said. Owsley, she added, had told her the night before he died that he was moving out.
"He was in the process of moving and we're supposed to believe that he just stopped and shot himself. We just don't."
And Cary was taking all of his belongings with him; belongings he had stashed in a safe he needed help carrying out...that's why he called his son, Logan, to help.
"Why would he call me and tell me to come out and help him move and talk about getting a place if he was just a couple of minutes later going to commit suicide?" Logan Owsley asked. "It just doesn't make sense."
On the ride from Chicago to Indiana, Cheryl spoke to Cary's wife and another red flag went up: "She said we're going to cremate (Owsley) with no service. I begged her, please don't do that."
Jackson couldn't help but think that safe became a motivation. In that realization, Jackson surmised a theory.
"There was an argument in the family and my brother got shot - I believe that it was because of that safe."
After Indiana State Police stepped in and ordered the sheriff to investigate, Deputy Janes and others were suspended, but the suicide ruling stood.
"I believe someone committed a crime and I believe DeWayne Sr. helped cover it up. I believe Cary's wife helped cover it up. I believe now that the sheriff's department and the coroner ...I believe they're covering their tracks because they botched this so completely," Jackson said.
Cary's mother, Rose Owsley, has the same suspicions.
"I think all of them are capable, all of them are culpable, including her. If she was in the house, I don't care whether she was in the room, she withheld medical care for him," Rose Owsley said.
On the 911 call, Lisa is heard trying to wrangle the family dogs away from the bloody scene, while Cary is gasping for air.
"She's going to fight with two dogs and there's her husband bleeding out?" Rose Owsley asked.
The family has theories. Assuming someone else shot Cary, time is stalled because the gun hasn't been located. Rescuers can't enter until the gun is secured. Precious time is lost with help right nearby.
"I don't know how far a gun can go if you shoot yourself, it should be pretty easy to find," Jackson said.
Evidence was not only touched, but burned. Neighbors told Jackson that they saw her brother's chair burning in the backyard.
"They told me the fire lit up the sky, I think they burned more than a chair," Jackson said.
What's more, the bullet that had purportedly penetrated Cary's body, passed through the chair and a wall was misplaced. It seemed as if scene was staged.
"The gun expert I spoke with said, 'How's a 180-pound man going to fall back and not fall out of the chair? His hands were basically at his waist,' " Jackson said.
Owsley's family has pored over police documents, hoping for answers. They have since filed suit against Bartholomew County officials. And they have asked the FBI to investigate possible civil rights violations.
They have created a Facebook page "Cary Owsley Mission For Justice" and rallied throughout Columbus on their mission of justice.
In a letter to the Special Agent in charge of the FBI's Indianapolis Field Office, W. Jay Abbott , Meyers legal counsel Jeff Beck, officially asks for federal involvement. While noting that neither he, or Sheriff Myers were involved in the original investigation, Beck states that they came into possession of the investigative file on Jan. 5. He adds that it has remained under double lock and key since that day.
Beck's letter was part of an overall package sent to the FBI. That letter states that since neither he, or Sheriff Myers, knew what information was originally known to the FBI, the Sheriff's Department included a number of items in the package. These include: autopsy reports, handwriting analysis, DNA analysis, firearm analysis, court orders that led to the autopsy, historical information and a list of documents in the Sheriff's Department's file.
There is no indication as to when, or even if, the FBI will respond to the sheriff's request.
Sheriff Myers says he will not comment on the case until hearing from the FBI.
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