In ten days, Nortel Networks issued the first check for $29,360—the balance after taxes were deducted from Kathleen’s longterm investment funds. In the past two years, the value of this account had suffered a dramatic drop. David Rudolf moved to have Kathleen’s autopsy photos sealed and not released to the public. He claimed that the release violated the privacy of the victim’s family. He lost that battle with this response from the attorney general’s senior deputy on February 8: “The status of autopsy reports as public records was established more than 25 years ago by this office. Since then, it has been the attorney general’s consistent opinion that autopsy reports constitute public records. Our office opined in 1995 that legislation would be the appropriate avenue to clearly exempt autopsy reports from the public records law.” The existing law dictated that only District Attorney Jim Hardin could have the records sealed. Three days later, Candace sent a fax to Investigator Holland with a description and a drawing of a possible murder weapon—a blowpoke, a gift Candace gave to her sister years earlier.
