Natural Causes | 1

Summary

Death County, PA – Episode 1: "Natural Causes"

Release Date: April 28, 2025
Host/Author: Wondery
Podcast Title: Death County, PA
Episode Title: Natural Causes | 1

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Introduction

In the gripping premiere of Death County, PA, Wondery delves into the mysterious and troubling deaths within Dauphin County Prison (DCP), also known colloquially as the "county toilet." This episode, titled "Natural Causes," sets the stage for a deep investigation led by Lamont Jones, a former inmate determined to uncover the truth behind the unexplained demise of his cousin, Tyreek Riley.

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The Mysterious Death of Tyreek Riley

[00:17 – 03:43]
The episode opens with a vivid description of Tyreek Riley's lifeless body in a coroner's office. At just 21 years old, Tyreek's death was categorized under "questionable circumstances." Forensic pathologist Graham Hetrick conducts the autopsy, revealing multiple injuries: contusions on Tyreek's forehead and tongue, abrasions on his lips, cuts on his wrists and knuckles, bruising on his forearms, legs, feet, and a significant bruise on his right hip. Internal examinations show hemorrhaging in the lungs and oxygen deprivation in the brain.

Graham Hetrick, the county coroner with a notable presence both in his office and on his reality TV show, I Speak for the Dead, is responsible for determining Tyreek's cause of death. His initial findings hint at a disturbing pattern of unexplained deaths within DCP, suggesting something far more sinister is at play.

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Lamont Jones: A Beacon of Hope

[03:43 – 07:53]
Lamont Jones, a 44-year-old rehabilitation worker recently released from Dauphin County Prison, is introduced as a central figure striving to reform the system. Having spent 11 years behind bars, with part of that time at DCP, Lamont is deeply familiar with the prison's inner workings and its flaws. His commitment to helping inmates transition back into society is evident as he reflects:

Lamont Jones [07:26]: "That was like, all right, you know, I'm doing something, man. I'm really making a difference, you know? So that felt good."

Despite his efforts, Lamont yearns to create broader, systemic changes rather than assisting one prisoner at a time. His alter ego, Montmont, a feisty and tougher persona developed during his time in prison, resurfaces as he confronts the challenges posed by Tyreek's death.

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The Tragic Incident Leading to Tyreek's Death

[07:35 – 18:44]
Tyreek Riley's distress began months before his death. His parents noticed alarming behavior: migraines, confusion, and paranoia about someone lurking outside their home. On June 18, 2019, Tyreek's condition worsened dramatically when he confronted his father with a sledgehammer, leading to a struggle that ended with Tyreek being hospitalized and subsequently arrested. Despite a preliminary hearing scheduled on July 1, Tyreek remained in the ICU and was declared dead shortly after.

Lamont, upon learning of his cousin's death, becomes determined to uncover the truth. His initial inquiries led to vague responses from DCP officials, igniting his suspicion that Tyreek's death was not merely a medical incident but possibly a result of foul play within the prison walls.

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Unveiling Corruption: Resistance and Advocacy

[18:18 – 24:39]
As Tyreek's family grapples with unanswered questions, Lamont discovers disturbing autopsy photos showing severe bruising and injuries inconsistent with natural causes. These revelations galvanize the family and community:

Lamont Jones [18:18]: "The body doesn't do this. You can see where the marks are on the back of his legs, the tightening of the handcuffs around the wrist. You know, you have beat marks all up and down the back. This is not from a fall, and I'm not a doctor. You don't need to be. This is bruising. This is like physical bruising."

Simultaneously, Tyreek's cousin Quincy Irvin, grappling with grief and confusion, channels his emotions into music, highlighting the personal toll of Tyreek's untimely death.

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The Coroner's Press Conference: A Turning Point

[25:34 – 33:14]
Two months after Tyreek's death, Coroner Graham Hetrick holds a highly anticipated press conference to announce his findings. Despite the mounting pressure and public outcry, Hetrick maintains that Tyreek died of "natural causes," attributing his death to medical conditions such as cerebral vasculitis and encephalitis, and even traces of cocaine in Tyreek's system.

Lamont, present at the conference, is skeptical of Hetrick's assertions:

Lamont Jones [29:05]: "When he was revealing all the things. It took us so long, I was like, well, man, just tell us what the hell happened and how he passed."

Hetrick's dismissive explanations and the classification of Tyreek's death as natural fuel Lamont's determination to seek further answers, suspecting a deliberate cover-up to obscure the truth about DCP's conditions.

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Community Outrage and Investigation

[33:04 – 36:25]
The press conference's outcome does little to quell suspicions. Instead, it ignites a broader movement as more families and community members demand transparency and accountability. Reports of similar unexplained deaths within DCP emerge, many labeled under ambiguous terms like "natural" or "undetermined."

Journalist Joshua Vaughn begins his own investigation, uncovering systemic issues within DCP, including potential use of force reports and autopsy findings that hint at a pattern of corruption and violence. His discovery of a suspicious death with "undetermined" cause marked as a natural incident suggests that DCP officials have been systematically covering up lethal misconduct.

Lamont's relentless pursuit of the truth, combined with community support and newfound evidence, positions him at the forefront of a fight against the entrenched corruption plaguing Dauphin County Prison.

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Conclusion and Cliffhanger

The episode concludes with Joshua Vaughn revealing his findings and setting the stage for the next episode, where the depths of DCP's corruption are further explored. The unresolved nature of Tyreek Riley's death and the emerging pattern of similar incidents within the prison system underscore the grave challenges Lamont Jones and the community face in seeking justice.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Lamont Jones [03:43]: "This is serious. This is family. And I want to know what happened."

• Tyreek Riley [03:46]: "I knew I was gonna die in there. I could feel it. And I was like, you gotta get me outta here."

• Graham Hetrick [03:50]: "Dauphin County is the worst jail ever. How they treat us dead people?"

• Quincy Irvin [03:55]: "Rather die."

• Lamont Jones [07:26]: "That was like, all right, you know, I'm doing something, man. I'm really making a difference, you know? So that felt good."

• Lamont Jones [13:43]: "That's a whole different guy. That is someone that is feisty, a fighter."

• Lamont Jones [18:18]: "The body doesn't do this. You can see where the marks are on the back of his legs, the tightening of the handcuffs around the wrist. You know, you have beat marks all up and down the back. This is not from a fall, and I'm not a doctor. You don't need to be. This is bruising. This is like physical bruising."

• Lamont Jones [26:34]: "We needed to know what happened, what we were told we needed to know."

• Lamont Jones [32:53]: "Why is all of these cameras here? Why did we have to wait so long? I mean, he had a PowerPoint presentation. Man, man, come on."

• Lamont Jones [33:04]: "And it seems like it was there to misguide you, to take away any notion that there were any wrongdoing on the prison officials or the prison guards that were there."

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Looking Ahead

Death County, PA promises to unravel the intricate web of corruption and cover-ups within Dauphin County Prison. As Lamont Jones continues his quest for justice, listeners are left eager to discover the full extent of the systemic failures and the dangerous truths that lie beneath the surface.

Stay tuned for the next episode, where the investigation deepens, and the true horror of Dolphin County Prison begins to unfold.

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Follow Death County, PA
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Transcript

[Joshua Vaughn]

Wondry subscribers can binge all episodes of Death County, Pennsylvania, early and ad free. Join Wondry in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts.

[Graham Hetrick]

The body of Tyreek Riley lies on a table inside a coroner's office. A breathing tube from the hospital still hangs from Tyrique's mouth. IV catheters protrude from his neck and right. Tyrique was just 21 years old, a young black man whose death was unimaginable just two weeks earlier, when he had been arrested and sent to the local jail. Now it falls under the broad category of a death of questionable circumstances. So in a sterile exam room in a generic office park a few miles southeast of downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the autopsy of Tyreek Riley begins. A forensic pathologist in a surgical mask examines Tyreek's body. In some ways, he seems to have been perfectly healthy, the pathologist notes. Tyreek still looks well nourished and well built. But Tyreek's body also shows signs of injury. The pathologist jots down what he sees. Contusion to the mid forehead, contusion to the tongue. Abrasions on the lips. A quarter inch cut encircling the right wrist. Cuts on the knuckles, bruising on a forearm, abrasions on the legs and feet, and a 6 inch bruise on the right hip. The pathologist examines the internal organs, too. He sees hemorrhaging in the lungs, oxygen deprivation in the brain. It would be up to the pathologist to stitch together these findings into an official report. But another man would be responsible for actually deciding Tyreek's cause and manner of death. Graham Hetrick, the county coroner. Graham is there in the exam room during the autopsy, and he looms over the proceedings. In many ways, he looms over Harrisburg and all of Dolphin County. He has an unmistakable look. A neatly cropped white beard, tortoiseshell spectacles, often a white lab coat. He has his own TV show, a true crime reality series on ID discovery, named for his catchphrase, I speak for the dead. And in real life, it was Graham Hetrick's job to solve the mystery of how Tyreek's time in jail led to his death. Graham had ruled on thousands of deaths before. His findings were rarely challenged. But this time would be different. Graham's conclusions about why Tyrique died would unleash a furious response and expose a fact that local officials were trying hard to hide. Tyreek's death was part of a pattern. Something very bad was going on inside Dolphin County Prison.

[Lamont Jones]

This is serious. This is family. And I want to know what happened.

[Tyreek Riley]

I knew I was gonna die in there. I could feel it. And I was like, you gotta get me outta here.

[Graham Hetrick]

Dauphin county is the worst jail ever. How they treat us dead people?

[Quincy Irvin]

Rather die.

[Graham Hetrick]

Shame on every single person responsible for.

[Lamont Jones]

The death of so many people inside of this building here.

[Quincy Irvin]

Why you gotta die? Die, die, die, die oh, so young.

[Graham Hetrick]

From Wondery and Penn live, I'm Joshua Vaughn, and this is Death County, Pennsylvania. And all joy but to be brave. I grew up in Waynesboro, a small town in central Pennsylvania. It's a great place to grow up. It was small and rural. You knew your neighbors. You got a lot of freedom as a kid. It was also homogenous, almost completely white, and it could feel a little stifling. Waynesboro is about an hour from Harrisburg, the state capital. And when I was a kid, Harrisburg was the big city. To me, it had a bad reputation and sometimes for good reasons. The longtime mayor of Harrisburg ran the city like a petty dictatorship. People called him mayor for life. He was blamed for putting tens of millions in public funds towards personal interests, like rare artifacts for a Wild west museum he wanted to build. The museum never opened. Instead, investigators found boxes full of those artifacts in the mayor's home. After he left office, he was indicted and eventually pled guilty to 20 counts of theft by receiving stolen property. When I became an investigative reporter in Harrisburg, that mayor was long gone. But I realized there were still plenty of bad things happening just outside the public eye. And nowhere was that more true than at the local jail, Dolphin County Prison, or as everybody calls it, dcp. Law enforcement actually has a more colorful name for dcp. They call it the county toilet. And inmates knew DCP wasn't just dirty and in disrepair. It could also be dirty, deadly. Tyreek Riley's death was when the community started waking up to that same reality. This is episode one, Natural Causes. Lamont Jones had just left a prison in Buffalo, New York, where he'd spent the day leading workshops with inmates, talking to them about life skills, building self esteem, and their plan for after they were released. Lamont was tired. It was tough work, but also rewarding.

[Lamont Jones]

That was like, all right, you know, I'm doing something, man. I'm really making a difference, you know? So that felt good. But then it also made me continuously look at the system.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont wanted to change that system, make it fairer and more humane. At that moment, the best he could do was help out one prisoner at a time. But he was ambitious. At 44 years old, he felt like he was ready for something Bigger.

[Lamont Jones]

And I want to be that beacon of light for other people, you know, that people can feel, that's magnetic, that is transferable, that they can see. Okay, this guy's different.

[Graham Hetrick]

As Lamont drove back from the prison in Buffalo to his home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he was thinking about his next steps when his phone rang. It was his cousin, Rhonda. Lamont and his cousins talked often. They were a sprawling African American family that had been well established in Harrisburg for generations. There was always some kind of minor drama or neighborhood gossip to catch up on. But Rhonda was distraught. One of their younger cousins had died. Tyreek Riley.

[Lamont Jones]

And I was like, what now? Not only did I lose a little cousin, now I have a family that's mourning.

[Graham Hetrick]

Rhonda said. Tyreek had been at Dolphin County Prison before he died. This was the first Lamont was hearing about that. It was a lot to process, but Lamont would do anything for his family. He put his feelings aside and wanted to know how he could help.

[Lamont Jones]

And then, you know, being in position and the things that I was doing, they were looking to me for answers.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont sometimes ran his programs at Dolphin County Prison. And from his work there, he had connections to senior Dolphin county officials. He figured maybe he could ask for a favor. But he tried to manage expectations.

[Lamont Jones]

I had to be honest with them, like, listen, you know, I don't think they going to give me much.

[Graham Hetrick]

But first, Lamont had to get the entire backstory. Earlier that summer, Tyreek's parents noticed their son seemed off. Tyreek was complaining about migraines and would sometimes have trouble making sense. On a few occasions, he told his parents somebody was outside their house, somebody who didn't belong there. But his parents hadn't seen anything suspicious. They weren't sure what to think. Then, early in the morning on June 18, 2019, Tyreek's behavior got scary.

[Tyreek's Mother]

Yes, I need an ambulance.

[Graham Hetrick]

His parents woke up to find Tyreek standing in the kitchen holding a sledgehammer, talking again about someone lurking outside. Tyreek's dad was alarmed. He lunged at Tyreek and grabbed hold of the handle. The two struggled for control of the hammer. Tyreek's mom was terrified. She called 91 1. Tell me exactly what's going on with him.

[Tyreek's Mother]

He has. He's had a heart problem with my. And my son was arguing.

[Graham Hetrick]

Okay. Did he get pushed over or did he.

[Tyreek's Mother]

Yes. Yes.

[Graham Hetrick]

Okay.

[Lamont Jones]

Okay.

[Graham Hetrick]

Are you with me?

[Lamont Jones]

Put it down.

[Tyreek's Mother]

Put that down. He got a second. Put it down, please.

[Lamont Jones]

What?

[Tyreek's Mother]

Does he have a sledgehammer? Please put it down.

[Graham Hetrick]

And as she was talking to dispatchers, she was trying to calm down. Tyreek breathing?

[Tyreek's Mother]

Yeah.

[Graham Hetrick]

Said he's breathing heavy, though.

[Tyreek's Mother]

No, we're not putting you away, Tyreek. We just gotta get help for dad.

[Graham Hetrick]

Help arrived in the form of an ambulance. But there were also police officers who arrested Tyreek and took him to dcp. Nine days later, Tyreek's parents went to the courthouse for their son's preliminary hearing. But when they arrived and announced who they were, they weren't ushered inside the courtroom. Instead, a police officer approached them. There was no hearing. Tyrique was in the ICU at Harrisburg Hospital. He was unconscious, and he never Woke up. On July 1, Tyreek was declared dead. Now Lamont was trying to figure out what the hell had happened to Tyreek. He called one of his contacts at dcp.

[Lamont Jones]

I was like, listen, this is serious. This is family. This is blood, and I want to know what happened.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont's contact seemed concerned. He told Lamont he'd find out what.

[Lamont Jones]

He could, you know, well, I'm going to go review the tapes. I promise you, I'm going to view the tapes. If there's any foul play, I'm going to let you know. He called and he told me that the cameras, you couldn't see inside of the cell. But there was a struggle.

[Graham Hetrick]

A struggle. Lamont felt there had to be more. A prisoner being transferred to the emergency room would have generated a lot of paperwork. Maybe Lamont's source was holding back. Or maybe Lamont's source hadn't been given all the information himself.

[Lamont Jones]

That's when my will started turning in. I was like, okay, they're not going to give me the information that I need.

[Graham Hetrick]

And for some people, that might have been it. They might say, hey, I tried. It's not happening. But not Lamont. He had made it through a lot of challenges in his life, some of his own making. Lamont had spent 11 years behind bars, some of that time at DCP itself. He sold cocaine in his teens and 20s and made a lot of money. He drove around town in a white Cadillac deville, the very picture of a street corner badass. But it had major consequences for him. Lamont was in prison when his kids were growing up. And when he got out, he found that no one was eager to hire a convicted felon. Lamont was done with that life. And now he spent his time trying to steer young black men away from making the decisions he had. But he also learned a lot in those years, hustling and fighting for his piece of Turf. He adopted an alter ego. His street name was Montmont.

[Lamont Jones]

That's a whole different guy. That is someone that is feisty, a fighter. When I went to prison, I went to a maximum security prison. I was 18 years old, probably 115 pounds, soaking wet around grown men. I mean, I had to grow up quick in this atmosphere. You had to survive. So I had to learn who people were and what they were about.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont left prison for the last time more than a decade ago. But he's not completely done with Montmont.

[Lamont Jones]

I need him because if I don't, you'll run over top of me. If I don't utilize him when people think they're going to put pressure on me, no, that's when you see the other guy.

[Graham Hetrick]

And now that Lamont had to stand up for his deceased cousin Tyreek, he felt Montmont coming out more and more.

[Lamont Jones]

He's still professional, but he's a lot tougher than Lamont. Lamont is like, hey, you know, let's have some peace. But this guy, he's never going to allow you to back him into a corner. You understand what I'm saying? Good guy, too. But I know what I had to survive with out in the streets. And I need those skills to deal with this new world that I'm in.

[Graham Hetrick]

That toughness was about to be useful because Tyreeg's family had gotten their hands on photographs that would force the powers at DCP to give them some real answers.

[Narrator]

Are you captivated by the dark and mysterious world of true crime? Wondery offers you the ultimate true crime experience with early access to new episodes, exclusive content and a seamless ad. Free listening journey with Wondery. You'll get access to hundreds of podcasts, including more than 50 true crime series. Like Dr. Death, the shocking true story of a trusted surgeon who brought unimaginable pain and suffering to his patients.

[Graham Hetrick]

This was not an operation that was performed. This was attempted murder.

[Narrator]

And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a lighthearted nightmare. With Wondery, you get access to exclusive bonus content too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community.

[Graham Hetrick]

This case is one of those rollercoaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure. No, he for sure he did it.

[Narrator]

Each story is crafted to keep you enthralled, revealing the complexities and motivations behind every crime. Subscribe to Wondery on the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify today unlock the door to a world of true crime like never before. With Wondery. The best true crime stories are always at your fingertips.

[Joshua Vaughn]

In Death County, Pennsylvania, Lamont Jones thought freedom meant leaving Dolphin County Prison behind. But when his cousin dies under mysterious circumstances, Lamont uncovers a web of corruption, a reality TV corner, and a system designed to silence the truth. If you're drawn to stories of justice gone wrong, you'll be gripped by American scandal. Police corruption in Baltimore, where the Gun Trace Task Force, an elite police unit, turned into a criminal empire, robbing suspects and falsifying evidence while the city looked the other way. When the truth finally came out, it exposed a culture of corruption that went far beyond one rogue unit. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. Discover exclusive seasons, binge new seasons first, and listen completely ad free on Wondry. Plus, start your free trial in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spot.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont had been inside the walls of Dolphin County Prison. He knew just how easy it would be for the people who ran DCP to cover up the truth unless they were forced to reveal it. And in the days after Tyreek's death, it felt like that was exactly what was happening. Lamont kept tabs on any statements officials gave to the press. The District Attorney of Dolphin county said that whatever happened at dcp, quote, did not appear to be violent. But Lamont and his family didn't buy it. And soon they'd have plenty of evidence to support their suspicions that something violent had occurred. Because through their lawyer, they've been able to get photos from Tyreek's autopsy.

[Lamont Jones]

So I go and I see the pictures at my cousin Carmen's, which is Tyreek's. There's a few family members that came and gathered on the porch outside, and I was pulled to the side, and they let me see him. And I was like, wow.

[Graham Hetrick]

There were close ups of cuts encircling Tyreek's wrist. A massive purple splotch covering his lower back, deep wounds on his neck and upper back.

[Lamont Jones]

I was like, the body doesn't do this. You can see where the marks are on the back of his legs, the tightening of the handcuffs around the wrist. You know, you have beat marks all up and down the back. This is not from a fall, and I'm not a doctor. You don't need to be. This is bruising. This is like physical bruising.

[Graham Hetrick]

To Lamont, it was clear this had been a lot worse than the struggle his inside source had initially told him about.

[Lamont Jones]

I kept saying man, they beat him, they killed him. That's all I kept saying.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont figured those brutal autopsy photos of Tyreek would force something to happen. Someone would come forward with more answers, and the people involved would be held accountable. Families in Dolphin county are often kept in the loop after a suspicious death. Someone from the coroner's office might sit down with the parents to discuss preliminary autopsy findings. But as the weeks went by, Tyreek's family wasn't hearing anything.

[Lamont Jones]

We just kept asking, you know, where's the reports? Where's the reports? And of course, it do take time for toxicology and stuff like that, but for this one, I was like, we don't. We done buried him already. If we did want to get a second opinion, that mean we would have to exhume. So all of it. That's what was making my suspicions roll even more. I'm like, this is taking way too long. Way too long for them to do that.

[Graham Hetrick]

Tyrique's father, Tom, felt the same way. After several weeks of hearing nothing, he went to DCP to help lead a protest. As he camped out near the gates, he spoke with a local reporter. The one story, tan building, loomed in the background.

[Tyreek's Father]

They don't have any words to give you, to tell you what went on. They're not going to tell you what went on. That's between the goons in there. They keep it under control. They keep it quiet in there.

[Graham Hetrick]

Tom figured the silence was part of a game plan. Say nothing, wait it out.

[Tyreek's Father]

You're assuming that he didn't have parents, like a lot of them that go in. Well, this case here, you're wrong. You're figuring, okay, you don't have next to kids, you can do what the hell you want.

[Graham Hetrick]

The longer the official silence persisted, the more the circle of people demanding answers expanded. It wasn't just Tyrique's parents in Lamont anymore. On Facebook, people who hadn't even known Tyreek personally started posting about him. A few circulated the graphic photographs of his injuries that Lamont had seen. A hashtag started to spread. Justice for Tyreek.

[Rhonda]

I'm his older cousin, so he took interest in me a lot, in the things I was doing.

[Graham Hetrick]

Quincy Irvin is one of Tyreek's cousins. He's also Lamont's son. Quincy and Tyreek pretty much grew up together.

[Rhonda]

It was a good vibe, like we get around each other straight. All laughing jokes.

[Graham Hetrick]

You know, back when Quincy and Tyreek were kids, they'd meet up on Friday nights and go to the high school football game. The lights Would be on, and the stands would be packed. And Tyreek and Quincy would try out their own game.

[Rhonda]

We had a bet. We was supposed to see who get the most numbers that night. But it was these two specific girls, indeed, that we were supposed to go at.

[Graham Hetrick]

It didn't go well.

[Rhonda]

Neither of us got the numbers. We was laughing. But Matado.

[Graham Hetrick]

So they weren't particularly smooth. But what Quincy remembers is everything about Tyreek was clean. He wore his hair in neat braids. Kept his lineup fresh. Loved his sneaker collection in Ralph Lauren clothes. And he had a cool car, a green Impala. He loved it. Worked on it himself. Made sure that it was always as crisp as he was. Quincy and Tyreek spent a lot of time in that Impala together.

[Rhonda]

Yeah, just joyride. Yeah, we was. We used to listen to G herbo. We like G herbo.

[Graham Hetrick]

They'd roll down the windows and just kind of enjoy life, Enjoy being young. Enjoy not having anything else to do. It was their first real taste of freedom. But that freedom ended when Tyreek got sent to dcp. And after he died, Quincy was hurt and confused. Now, Quincy was looking for answers. And he was hearing a lot of things. Rumors, speculation.

[Rhonda]

What I was hearing on the streets. And, like, between some of the family, it was just saying that, like, he got beaten, and they was trying to cover it up.

[Graham Hetrick]

There were rumors that Tyreek had broken ribs. In fact, that one was so badly broken that it had protruded from his body. There was a rumor that a footprint was on Tyreek's back, presumably from being stomped. There's nothing that I've seen to suggest these rumors are accurate. But Quincy didn't know what was true. And while he was trying to figure out what had happened, Quincy was also coming to grips with his grief. A lot of that processing happened through music. Do you remember any of the songs that you wrote around that. That time?

[Rhonda]

Yeah, I remember songs.

[Graham Hetrick]

You willing to give me a couple bars?

[Quincy Irvin]

Oh, why you gotta die oh, so young Die by the bullet when you live by the gun why you gotta end up on the shirt? Die by the bullet End up in the hearse? Why you gotta die, die, die, die, die, die oh, so young.

[Graham Hetrick]

Tyreek's family had waited two months for answers. They kept being told they'd hear more soon. But then, finally, in early September, Graham Hetrick, the county coroner, announced that he would be holding a press conference to reveal his findings in Tyreek's case. Graham was the guy who claimed in his job and on his TV show that he spoke for the dead that the only people he answered to were the corpses that arrived at his office as they prepared for the press conference. Tyreek's family couldn't help but wonder just who Graham really spoke for.

[Carmen]

I grew up in a funeral home. For me, being around dead bodies is a normal part of life.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham Hetrick had been the coroner of Dolphin county for more than 25 years when he got his own TV show and started telling the world about just what his job required.

[Carmen]

I've participated in nearly 3,000 autopsies. They say everybody has a story to tell. But I say everybody has a story to tell. It's my job to listen.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham was often making high stakes determinations in autopsy reports, and Tyreeks was one of them. If he found Tyreek had died due to injuries he suffered in the prison, then that could force the hand of the district attorney to start a major criminal investigation. So what Graham had to say at this press conference mattered. The stakes were high and Lamont Jones wasn't going to miss it.

[Lamont Jones]

We needed to know what happened, what we were told we needed to know.

[Graham Hetrick]

So on Friday, September 5, he walked into the county coroner's office, not sure exactly what to expect. The room was bland. It had institutional gray carpeting and fluorescent lights. In the vast majority of his cases, Graham would simply issue a coroner's report. No need to address reporters. But this time was different. Graham was here to deliver the answers people had been demanding. Dressed in a suit with his signature bow tie and tortoise shell glasses, leaning on the authority of his office and celebrity, he seemed to assume that today he'd be giving the final word on the matter. Graham took a seat behind a desk at the front of the room, queued up a PowerPoint on the screen behind him, and began to speak. This audio is from a livestream of the press conference. The quality isn't great, but Graham's tone is clear. He's the expert here.

[Tyreek Riley]

I'm going to start this press phone first by talking about the interest in this case.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham had seen the hashtags and comments circulating online and we're speculating the Lord. I'm astounded by some of the speculation, graham said. Essentially, don't believe all that garbage on the Internet. Just listen to what I'm going to tell you now in this press conference, because my agenda is this.

[Tyreek Riley]

Not speculation, the facts. But it's been tested by a thing called hypothesis.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham gestured to the slide behind him. It showed Tyreek's coroner's office case number in smaller letters. Beneath were the words Cause of death. This, said Graham, tells you why Tyreek died.

[Tyreek Riley]

He died because of cerebral vasculitis.

[Graham Hetrick]

Tyrique died because of cerebral vasculitis. And encephalitis. Encephalitis.

[Tyreek Riley]

Thrombi.

[Graham Hetrick]

Thrombi.

[Tyreek Riley]

And rhabdomyelitis.

[Graham Hetrick]

And rhabdomyolysis. Graham acknowledged these were probably unfamiliar terms. He would explain.

[Tyreek Riley]

I want you to remember one thing. Notice that each one of these terms has. In medical terms, that means inflammation.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont was standing off to the side, waiting, and not exactly appreciating Graham's lesson in medical jargon.

[Lamont Jones]

When he was revealing all the things. It took us so long, I was like, well, man, just tell us what the hell happened and how he passed.

[Graham Hetrick]

Eventually, Graham laid out his theory in plain English. He said Tyreek was likely suffering from a brain inflammation before he arrived at dcp. Graham said the inflammation could have come from a virus or it could have come from drugs. And Graham pointed out that traces of cocaine had been found in a chemical analysis of Tyreek's hair. But Graham wasn't going to make any solid conclusions about the drugs or almost anything else. The only thing he could say for sure was that Tyreek had died of natural causes.

[Tyreek Riley]

It has nothing to do with any of the bruising that's on his body.

[Graham Hetrick]

Tyreek's death had nothing to do with the bruising on his body.

[Tyreek Riley]

He did not see any trauma on his body that bruised and now, are there any questions?

[Graham Hetrick]

Yeah, Lamont had questions. He'd seen in the hospital records that Tyreek had arrived from DCP with missing teeth. But the autopsy from Graham's office didn't mention that.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Why?

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham said missing teeth could mean anything. It could mean Tyrique had had teeth pulled at the dentist. Not necessarily that they had been knocked out.

[Tyreek Riley]

It's not well described. You have to understand, medical records are not really all that reliable in exactly describing any Damn.

[Graham Hetrick]

To Lamont, this was a non answer. He kept going. What about the bruises on Tyreek's body?

[Tyreek Riley]

There was nothing to indicate the type of bruising I would be from punching or kicking. Anything?

[Graham Hetrick]

Nothing to indicate the type of bruising from punching or kicking. Graham said Lamont wasn't so sure. And he said so.

[Tyreek Riley]

I can't tell that, but you can.

[Lamont Jones]

Donald, ask.

[Tyreek Riley]

Okay.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham got on the defensive fast. He was the expert, after all. This was his room. But Lamont had expertise to share, too.

[Lamont Jones]

But I know from experience that restraint chair was brought out.

[Graham Hetrick]

Lamont tried to explain how he'd seen restraint chairs used as an inmate at dcp. But Graham interrupted him.

[Tyreek Riley]

Say, I'm not here. I'm not here for procedure.

[Graham Hetrick]

I'm not here for prison procedure.

[Tyreek Riley]

And that could very well be. But I'm telling you, his desk was not forced by any choice.

[Lamont Jones]

He was telling us things like, you know, Tyreek was going to die anyway because his blood was doing this, that, and the third. And that's where I had an issue. It bothered me, and I looked around and was like, nobody's seeing this happening in real time.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham's conclusion was clear. Nothing that happened to Tyreek Riley at DCP played any role in his death. As the press conference was drawing to a close, a reporter asked Graham about his catchphrase, I speak for the dead, which he had turned into a kind of mission statement of his integrity and incorruptibility.

[Tyreek Riley]

He said earlier, you speak for the dead. Talk to me a little bit about why.

[Graham Hetrick]

Is that an emotional thing for you.

[Tyreek Riley]

Or is that purely just a job required? That's a job requirement. We take care of the evidence on or about the body. And that's what we did was.

[Lamont Jones]

Looking back at it now it looks like he was doing his TV show.

[Graham Hetrick]

To Lamont, the press conference had been a carefully planned bit of stagecraft.

[Lamont Jones]

Why is all of these cameras here? Why did we have to wait so long? I mean, he had a PowerPoint presentation. Man, man, Come on.

[Graham Hetrick]

Like a magic show. Graham's remarks have been smoke and mirrors. Wow. The audience pull in their attention and distract them from the reality of what was unfolding in front of them.

[Lamont Jones]

And it seems like it was there to misguide you, to take away any notion that there were any wrongdoing on the prison officials or the prison guards that were there.

[Graham Hetrick]

Graham's conclusion also meant it would be harder for Tyreek's face family to pursue any legal action.

[Lamont Jones]

If you can mark that this was a natural cause, but it really was a homicide. You've changed every potential lawsuit. I mean, you could change a lot of things.

[Graham Hetrick]

Not only potential lawsuits, but other investigations as well. A detective from The Dolphin County DA's office was assigned to look into Tyreek's death. After he read Graham's autopsy report, he concluded his investigation. Death by natural causes seemed to mean no crime had been committed. That press conference that was meant to put an end to the speculation, it ended up being the beginning. By the time I started working at PennLive, it was two years after Tyreek's death, and Graham's press conference had become notorious. Tyreek's story had lived on through his family that had been able to advocate for him to organize protests, to file a civil lawsuit against the warden of dcp and through a cousin like Lamont who was always pushing for answers. Many inmates at DCP didn't have families like that. And as I dug in, I saw a lot of those inmates were dying. Many of those deaths seemed to come after what officials dubbed, quote, medical incidents. And the cause and manner of those deaths was often deemed to be natural or even undetermined. I recognized those words. They sounded official, even scientific, but they revealed nothing. They were as helpful as a politician saying no comment. I wondered what was hiding behind those words. And I knew what to do next. I put in a public records request with the county. I wanted to get my hands on any official documents pertaining to the deaths at dcp. I knew there must be use of force reports from inside the jail, hospital records from inmates who were sent there, autopsy findings from Graham's office. I remember when the first email arrived with a link to documents from the jail. I clicked on one. It was about a death that I was particularly curious about. A death where the official manner was undetermined, where there had been, quote, no evidence of physical assault, where, according to the official press release, a 29 year old man had just stopped breathing. And as soon as I started reading, I realized here was proof that something terrible was happening at Dolphin County Prison. And those documents were just the beginning. I remember feeling like I sat there and I watched my staff kill somebody. That's on the next episode of Death County, Pennsylvania.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Follow Death County Pa on the Wondry app, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Death County, Pennsylvania early and ad free by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey if you have a tip about a story you think we should investigate, please write to [e-mail] tips.

[Graham Hetrick]

From Wondry and Penn Live. This is episode one of six of Death County, Pennsylvania. Death County, Pennsylvania is written and reported by me. Joshua Vaughn. Producer is Rachel Yong. Senior producers are Eric Benson and Chris Siegel. Story editor is Michael May. Associate producer is Emily Locke. Fact checking by Annika Robbins. Sound design and mixing by Jeff Schmidt. Audio assistance by Daniel William Gonzalez. Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villalpando. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For Freesun Sing Senior managing producer is Latta Pandy. Managing producers are Heather Beloga and Matt Gant. Senior development editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Development producer is Olivia Weber. Executive producers for Advanced Local are Richard Dimon and Selena Roberts. Executive producers are n' J' Jeri Eaton, George Lavender, Marshall Louie and Jen Sargent. For Wonder.