Angel Downs: another bungled Baldwin County, Alabama "suicide" investigation

The dead greyhounds, the incarceration and death of former officer Patrick Swiney, the recent train-track death of former Baldwin County deputy Mike Malone, and now with Angel Down's death, will her family ever be sure of what happened or who the killer was?

Baldwin County Sheriff's Department is also where Don Siegelman lost his race for governor. Something happened the night of the vote count in the basement of the sheriff's department that gave the governor's seat to present governor Bob Riley. It wasn't long before Don Siegelman was in prison in what has been sensationalized as one of the most noteworthy political prosecutions in American History.

Strange as Angel Down's family is connected to Warner Robins, Georgia, that's exactly where I was living temporarily and being falsely arrested and harassed by Georgia police when I received the news about my son's suicide in Baldwin County. So what's the connection? Are the two areas connected in criminal ways the media can't unravel?

In 1998, my son allegedly died there, too. And Baldwin County deputy Hoss Mack, and John Garner did everything they could do to prevent me from getting the police records.

WHY?

And now, Hoss Mack is sheriff, and his father, the long-time Baldwin County coroner passed away just last year.

Why did Journalist Jillian Kramer of the Mobile Press Register write a slanted and cruel story with so many false statements about my son's disappearance and alleged death?

What's really going on in Baldwin County, Alabama?

There is something desperately wrong with police investigations, and reporting in Baldwin County. With the Angel Downs death and the attempt to find suicide as a cause, news accounts indicate her hair may have been positioned, her body moved, initially unreported bruises were on her body and more.

The CBS account and some local reporting, which shows conflicts and confusion in evidence regarding her death, which can result in a permanent unfair acquittal or wrongful conviction.

My son, Gerard J. Sniffen, III, reportedly died in Baldwin County of a shotgun blast to the head ruled suicide, in 1998.  His body was released by the state of Alabama after his memorial service had been held at Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home in Cobb County, Georgia.  I was unable to attend any services because of circumstances created by his father and Atlanta lawyers in our divorce.

My Atlanta attorney, Kenneth Schatten, initially said he believed my husband murdered my son.  He also stated in a letter that Private Detective Billy Carter had been over to Baldwin County, Alabama, talked to some of the police and knew more about situation but that I should not involve the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  

I was lead to believe investigating Deputy Huey "Hoss" Mack that John Garner was sheriff.  The police records relating to the "suicide" were withheld from me for several years with Mack and Garner saying I would need a subpoena and lawyer to get them. There was a runaround as whether the A.B.I. investigated, one saying they didn't and another saying they did. It was incredible. By chance, I discovered James B. "Jimmy" Johnson was actually sheriff.  

I wasn't able to get my son's police records until 2004, and they were swiftly delivered by Sheriff Johnson when I contacted him directly.

The records indicated the deceased had shoulder length hair. My son never had shoulder length hair.  There were shotgun shells discharged from the gun indicating murder instead of suicide.

I have tried now for years to unravel the mystery with little cooperation and plenty of stonewalling. Even the mortuary records held by Hoss Mack's father, Huey Mack, Sr, who was coroner at the time and owned the funeral home, required a subpoena and court order.  

I haven't been able to get funeral records from Cobb County, Georgia's funeral home, Mayes Ward Dobbins funeral home.

The investigating deputy's (Hoss Mack) father, Baldwin County Coroner Huey Mack, Sr. died last year and was succeeded by another man, Mr. Small, who died within three months.  Another, Mr. Vinson took Small's place and had been with the coroner's office for 16 years even during the time my son is said to have died.

There was more conflicting information in the forensics reports which can be seen at one of my blog posts indicating, that contrary to Hoss Mack's information given to the media, the body tagged as my son did not have alcohol in the body. Forensics reports indicated three-inch scars at each knee indicating knee surgery, or serious injury and my son had neither.  Please see the links below.  

I was advised that Mr. Huey Mack, Sr. had a powerful position at the State Forensics crime lab for many years although I have not been able to verify the information.

2008, I was contacted by Mobile Press Register journalist, Jillian Kramer after she found a blog where I had posted my story.  She interviewed me by phone in the summer of 2008 wanting to write an article, and I told her I hoped she would allow me to proof the story and notify me before it was published.   

Instead, she published the story without any warning or announcement during the Christmas holidays more than six months later. I was never allowed to correct any errors before her story went public.

The story she wrote was filled with errors and slanted to the police department with the sheriff Hoss Mack portraying my young son as less than the respectable boy he had been raised to be. 

It was horrible.

The article misstated his age. The autopsy showed there was no alcohol in the body while Ms. Kramer reported via Hoss Mack he'd taken swigs of whiskey.  And as I told Ms. Kramer there were no scars on his legs or knees of any kind, while the autopsy report showed 3-inch scars, one at each knee.

My son was not a thief, and from an affluent family, his father was Assistant Vice President in charge of Communications and Signals for Norfolk Southern Railroad.
 
Ms. Kramer had assured me she was going to "hit the ground and do research" before she wrote the article. She apparently did none, other than speak with the deputy (now sheriff,  Huey "Hoss" Mack) who was the main investigator on the scene.

The Atlanta Attorney, Kenneth Schatten also just this past summer said I should stop trying to uncover the truth, stop blogging about it on the internet, I am making "them" angry and because "they" might have my son somewhere "they've" told him if he tries to contact me, his brother or sister, they'll kill us.

He suggestion indicates a criminal organization may have arranged the entire situation, and Mr. Schatten says there is "too much money" against me to ever get the truth. He won't name names.

So, if it wasn't my son who died in Baldwin County 12/9/1998, then who did?

And why did Hoss Mack and John Garner stonewall my access to the police records? And why did Coroner Mack's office say I would need a subpoena and court order to get the mortuary records?

It's important that Americans are able to trust their police departments if they are worthy of trust. The question is whether Baldwin County police have the skills or integrity to carry out a proper investigation in any event.

Just last year Baldwin County, Alabama Deputy and Detective Mike Malone was killed on the railroad tracks. Even before Sheriff Hoss Mack got the autopsy records, he reported to the press the deputy's death scene was scattered with beer cans. It was a disrespectful and unprofessional action by Mack, and I question the man's ability to have respect for families and to properly report or withhold crime scene evidence to the media until getting the facts with a thorough investigation.

Americans should be grateful to the media as it tactfully delivers truth to the American people including the exposure of incompetent or dishonest police organizations.

The death of Baldwin County Deputy Mike Malone
Ms. Kramer's article:
My Response to Ms. Kramer's article:
The Baldwin County Angel Down's murder

UPDATE:
It's being reported former District Attorney David Whetstone might be involved in a new trial for Nodine. I had written to Mr. Whetstone and received a quick answer after giving him legitimate reasons my son's death should be investigated.

Since that time, through this blog, I've been given information of other deaths in Baldwin County of question: Mr. Boyette, an elderly gentleman who died of snake bites; a man found dead in his car near the scene of my son's incident, shotgun blast to the face; a young African American man found hanging in a house ruled suicide but suspected otherwise by the family; among others. Was Mr. Whetstone the district attorney when these things happened?

Which of these deaths made it to the D.A's office? Do those files simply stay in the sheriff's department to be withheld from family members?

I have also received information that indicates former associates of the law enforcement community live in fear of death or retaliation, and have been intimidated in Baldwin County. Considering the death of Deputy Mike Malone the stories aren't easy to ignore.