Widlak investigation focuses on gun despite mistaken first autopsy

Mt. Clemens (WXYZ) - The mysterious death of David Widlak has the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department digging for new leads and the medical examiner’s office under scrutiny.

Investigators scrambled to find a weapon after a second, independent autopsy revealed the banker was shot in the back of the head. They discovered Widlak’s own gun buried in the muck during a second search of Lake St. Clair on Wednesday, just six feet from where his body was found.

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said he believed Widlak was shot and killed there. “There’s a greater likelihood because the gun is there. The gun is not going to float or go any distance in the water. Whatever happened, happened at that location,” said Hackel.

Sheriff Hackel said they are in the process of re-interviewing people, and following leads to figure out what happened to Widlak. But they have never changed the direction of their investigation, regardless of what an initial autopsy found or didn’t find.

“From the moment we found his body, we’ve continued to look at this as a homicide investigation,” said Hackel.

The miss by Macomb County Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Spitz was initially explained that the wound was found using a digital x-ray by Oakland County Medical Examiner L.J. Dragovic, using equipment Macomb County didn’t have. But in published reports, Dragovic said he found the bullet wound by a simple physical exam.

“This is a situation where the M.E. missed something that he should have seen. And people are going to be critical of it,” said Hackel.

Could the mistake have an effect on other cases Spitz has handled? Former prosecutor, now private attorney, Carl Marlinga isn’t sure. “Where this is disturbing is families who have had deaths ruled as natural causes and now if they’ve had doubts about that, they may want a second autopsy,” said Marlinga.

Hackel stresses that this is not affecting their investigation into Widlak’s death, and they are devoting huge resources and time to solve the case. “There’s a lot of speculation, innuendo and people being suspicious with one another. Our job is to basically find out who is responsible for this death,” said Hackel.