At the end of last year, there was a strange case in Alabama, USA.
The man, Brandon Clay Dotson, was sentenced to 99 years in prison for multiple burglaries and parole violations.
He had previously been held at the Ventress Correctional Facility, where he had served 19 years. But on November 16 last year, he passed away inexplicably......
（Brandon Clay Dotson死在了监狱）
For some reason, five days after Brandon's death, the prison authorities agreed to allow the family to bring his body back for burial.
But they didn't keep the body properly, so when the parents finally got Brandon, they were faced with the tragic condition that their son was so badly decomposed that he was "barely recognizable."
At that time, Brandon had already undergone an autopsy. In response to his death, the prison authorities responded that Brandon was unresponsive in the cell and was taken to the infirmary, where medical staff took resuscitation measures, but in the end, the rescue was ineffective, and the doctors declared him dead.
It sounded like Brandon's own body was in condition, but after a closer look at the body, the family found that something was wrong, Brandon had bruises on the back of his neck and his head was excessively swollen......
Suspecting that Brandon was likely to die of an unnatural cause, they called in a pathologist for a second autopsy to find out the exact cause of their son's death. As a result, I didn't expect to find something even stranger in this investigation - Brandon's heart disappeared......
（Brandon Clay Dotson）
The heart is the key piece of evidence, without which experts cannot accurately determine the cause of death.
Now, Brandon's death is even more doubtful.
His family immediately sued the jail, accusing them of failing in their duty to protect Brandon, ignoring his medical needs, and mishandling the body...... On top of that, they suspect that the prison authorities deliberately took Brandon's heart in order to conceal the true cause of his death.
This is not a guesswork, as something similar has happened before......
（Brandon Clay Dotson）
After learning what happened to the Brandon family, a woman named Charlene Drake took the initiative to tell her family's story.
Charlene的父亲名叫Charles Edward Singleton，生前也被关押在阿拉巴马州监狱。
On November 2, 2021, she suddenly received a call from the prison pastor, informing her that Charles had passed away and that the prison could arrange the funeral.
Charlene and her family were adamantly opposed, hoping to claim the body and tell the prison authorities to take her father's body to a funeral home.
But when her father's body arrived, the funeral director told her that it was difficult for people to look at it, because the body was clearly in a state of decay and the skin was badly peeled off. What's even more terrifying is that all the internal organs are gone, and even the brain has been taken away......
Like Brandon, Charlene's father underwent an autopsy after his death, with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in charge, but they were never able to come up with a plausible explanation.
Her father's mutilated body became a thorn in the heart of the Charlene family, and when they saw the same thing happen to the Brandon family, they resolutely stood up and supported the prosecution of the prison.
（另一位被取走器官的死者Charles Edward Singleton，享年74岁）
So in December last year, the Brandon family officially filed a lawsuit.
In January, the federal court held a three-hour hearing on the issue, but the results were somewhat disappointing......
Prison authorities said Brandon's heart was still in his body when he left the prison.
All inmates who die in custody are subjected to autopsies, while Brandon's autopsies are performed at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
According to the Department of Forensic Science, in a standard autopsy, the internal organs of the deceased are cut off for further testing, after which the organs are put into special biohazard bags and put back into the body.
So why wasn't Brandon's heart put back?
They couldn't say anything about this, and they just prevaricated with "I haven't seen Brandon's specific documents and can't answer any specific questions about him......
Anyway, after talking for a long time, no one admitted to taking Brandon's heart. The cause and whereabouts of the heart loss remain a mystery to this day......
(Prison map)
The ambiguity of the prison authorities and the Department of Forensic Science increased the suspicions of Brandon's family, who became more certain that Brandon did not die of natural causes, and speculated that Brandon had been exposed to drugs while in prison and that he had been violently assaulted.
This is not impossible, and the number of prisoner deaths and assaults has skyrocketed in the past two years due to the already chaotic management of Alabama prisons due to overcrowded and understaffed prisoners.
In particular, a report in September showed that the actual number of inmates in the prison was almost double the reasonable number of prisoners, and that life in prison would not be peaceful with so many convicts crowded together.
Whether it's drugs or violent attacks, Brandon's accident in prison must be blamed on the prison authorities.
This made Brandon's family confirm their suspicion that the heart was deliberately taken away for fear that they would find out the real cause of death, and they strongly demanded that the heart be returned immediately so that it could be properly buried after the truth was ascertained.
But at the moment, it seems that this should not be possible......
（Brandon Clay Dotson）
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala for the Northern District of Alabama dismissed the case after the Brandons and the state government "jointly proposed a withdrawal agreement."
The whereabouts of Brandon's heart are still unknown, and all the mysteries have not been solved, so why the case is being dropped now, there is no elaboration at this time.
Some netizens said that it is estimated that the Brandon family reached an agreement with the prison in private, and they will not be held accountable when the money is in place.
Of course, this is just a guess. But if this is the case, the prison's wishful thinking may have been wrong.
Just last week, more families filed lawsuits against the prison and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which performs autopsies on inmates, saying their loved ones had experienced "organ theft after autopsies."
The case is only the beginning, and it is estimated that it will be a protracted battle.
Let's hope that the mystery that the Brandon family has not been able to solve can be revealed through the efforts of others......