CHICAGO COP COUPLE’S MYSTERIOUS DEATHS UNDER INVESTIGATION
05/31/2017
[Excerpts] On a hot summer night in 2015, Chicago Police Sgt. Donald Markham’s wife found him dead in their bed with a bullet wound to his head hours after they’d argued at a bar and later at their home, according to police reports. But before a Cook County medical examiner’s investigator could view the scene — standard procedure — police removed the body of the 51-year-old narcotics cop from the home... The FBI and the city of Chicago’s inspector general have launched investigations... Investigators want to know whether someone killed Markham and the police mishandled the investigation or were involved in a cover-up... Now, the case has taken a shocking turn. Markham’s widow, Dina Whitson Markham, 47, also a veteran Chicago cop, was found dead Sunday in the bathtub... Days earlier, Dina Markham had told the Sun-Times she didn’t know her husband’s death was under renewed investigation... With suspected suicides or homicides, the bodies are not supposed to be “handled, disturbed ... or removed from the place of death by any person except with the permission of the medical examiner” except under limited instances... Besides allowing Donald Markham’s body to be removed, along with pillows and sheets, before a medical examiner’s investigator could examine the scene, sources say investigators’ other concerns include the failure to test Dina Markham for gunshot residue to determine whether she fired a weapon during the early-morning hours of Sept. 2, 2015, when her husband died... Donald Markham’s .380-caliber, semi-automatic Glock handgun was in his right hand... Toxicology reports found his blood-alcohol level was well above the .08 percent standard for drunk driving... The Markhams had been quarreling the night he died... The police reports say Dina Markham was locked out of the house, so she knocked on a window that one of their sons opened, letting her in. She went to the master bedroom looking for her keys... and she observed Donald laying on the bed, on his side with his back towards her,” a police report says. “Dina continued looking for her key unsuccessfully. Dina felt the outside of Donald’s pockets, again looking for her keys and felt moisture on her hands. Dina realized the moisture was blood and called 911 for assistance... At the time of her husband’s death, Dina Markham was assigned to the Internal Affairs Division. After the FBI began investigating, she was transferred to Area North, working for Cmdr. Kevin Duffin... On May 22, Sun-Times reporters went to Dina Markham’s house and asked whether she was aware the FBI and inspector general were looking into her husband’s death. She said she wasn’t aware... Their five children are between 13 and 27 years old... [Full article here]
CHICAGO OFFICER DIES AMID PROBE OF HER COP HUSBAND'S SUICIDE IN 2015
June 1, 2017
Chicago police recently sought the FBI's help in reinvestigating the apparent suicide nearly two years ago of a sergeant [Donald Markham] after officers raised concerns about how evidence was collected at the scene... Then, over the Memorial Day weekend, the renewed probe took a stunning twist after the sergeant's wife [Dina Markham], herself a veteran police officer, was found dead in the couple's same Northwest Side home... The tragic turn of events came as the FBI, in an unusual move, was re-examining the September 2015 death of Markham's husband... The death was ruled a suicide at the time by the medical examiner's office. But the source said Superintendent Eddie Johnson sought the FBI's help after an officer had raised concerns about how evidence was handled at the scene... The medical examiner's office did not conduct its own investigation at the scene because the detective hadn't contacted the office about the death until almost 5:30 a.m., at least two hours after the incident, the report said. By then, Markham's body was being transported to the morgue.... Records show the Markhams were married in 1995 and had five children... Three of the Markhams' underage children were home at the time of the shooting and were interviewed by detectives, but their statements were redacted from the reports provided to the Tribune. Records provided by the Office of Emergency Management and Communications showed Dina Markham called 911 at 3:12 a.m. She told the operator that an off-duty police officer was "bleeding from his head" and needed an ambulance, but refused to answer questions as to what happened or whether he was breathing, then hung up. The Tribune's request for the audio of the 911 call under the Freedom of Information Act was denied by the city, which claimed releasing it would be a violation of privacy... The crime lab tests also showed Donald Markham had gunshot residue on his hand... Markham had no drugs in his system when he died, but blood tests later confirmed he had been drinking... [Full article here]
ANOTHER MYSTERY IN CASE OF CHICAGO COP COUPLE’S MYSTERIOUS DEATHS
06/16/2017
[Excerpts] Months after Chicago police Sgt. Donald Markham was found shot to death in the master bedroom of his Northwest Side home in what police concluded was a suicide, the FBI got a tip that the narcotics unit supervisor might have been murdered. In the course of its investigation, the FBI — suspecting that someone killed Markham in the early-morning hours of Sept. 2, 2015 — contacted the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs. Look into Markham’s case, the FBI urged. But police brass were concerned, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times, that the dead cop’s widow, Officer Dina Markham, who discovered the body, had worked in internal affairs, an assignment she’d held for years, until June 2016, when she was transferred to the Area North detectives division at Belmont and Western.n But Markham’s new assignment created another problem, according to sources, because she now was working in the detective division that concluded that her husband killed himself — the finding the FBI has called into question... Among the questions investigators are trying to answer: why detectives didn’t test Dina Markham for gunshot residue to determine whether she fired a gun... The Chicago Police Department won’t say who decided to transfer Dina Markham from the Bureau of Internal Affairs to the detective unit that handled her husband’s case... Her death is under investigation by the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County medical examiner’s office, whose staff is awaiting toxicology reports to determine how she died. The police have said they believe she took pills and described the death as a possible suicide... [Full article here]
COP DRANK, DROWNED IN BATHTUB AMID FBI PROBE OF COP HUSBAND’S DEATH
07/17/2017
[Excerpts] A Chicago cop, found dead amid an FBI investigation into her cop-husband’s shooting death, accidentally drowned in her bathtub after drinking alcohol and taking an antidepressant, the Cook County medical examiner has ruled. Officer Dina Markham’s body was found at 5:58 p.m. May 28 — about 14 hours after she texted a friend, Patti Thornton, saying, “Help. Please ... no kidding,” according to records released Monday by the medical examiner’s office. Thornton and another friend, Christine Jummati, had gone to Markham’s home on the Northwest Side around 5 p.m. and were let inside by one of her sons, the records show. When Markham’s friends found her bathroom door locked, “They assumed Markham was inside ‘hiding’ from them . . . and didn’t want to talk with them at the time,” according to the medical examiner. “They left a note on her pillow but returned shortly afterwards out of concern.” When they came back about 45 minutes later, they were let inside by the same son. He unlocked the door to his mother’s bathroom, where she was found “fully immersed in a bathtub filled with water,” according to the medical examiner’s office... Markham, 47, had a blood-alcohol level of .187 percent, an autopsy found... A medical examiner’s investigator found “an empty bottle of champagne and Jack Daniels” on the kitchen counter and also found an empty bottle of the prescription medication alprazolam... [Full article here]
AUTOPSY FINDS CHICAGO COP DROWNED IN BATHTUB, RULES DEATH ACCIDENTAL
07/18/2017
[Excerpts] On the day she was found dead in the bathtub of her Northwest Side home, Chicago police Officer Dina Markham sent a desperate, predawn text message to a friend. "Help. Please ... no kidding"... It wasn't until 14 hours later, after Markham failed to show up at a Memorial Day weekend get-together, that her friends went to her home and asked her son to help open her locked bathroom door... Autopsy reports provided to the Tribune on Monday show the Cook County medical examiner's office has ruled Markham, 47, died of an accidental drowning after consuming a dangerous mix of alcohol and the powerful anti-anxiety drug alprazolam... While a police spokesman had previously said Dina Markham's death was being investigated as a possible suicide, the medical examiner's office report stated there was no suicide note or other signs that she killed herself... Through an attorney, relatives of Markham issued a statement saying they were not surprised by the autopsy findings. "We have never believed that this was a suicide," the family said. "There are still some unanswered questions and things that have been published that are not true. We will continue to work to clear Dina's name and do everything we can to provide support for the Markham children"... Investigative reports released Monday show police were called to Dina Markham's home in the 5900 block of North Newark Avenue shortly before 6 p.m. on May 28. When officers arrived, they met up with two of Markham's friends who said they discovered her unresponsive in the water-filled bathtub. One of the friends told police Markham had called her twice at 3:59 a.m., but the friend didn't answer the phone because she was sleeping, the reports show. Six minutes after the calls, Markham sent the same friend the text asking for help. The friend told investigators she saw the calls and text message later that morning but did not respond because she was scheduled to see Markham at a gathering that afternoon. The friend also said that "the early morning phone calls from Markham were not unusual, often when she was in an intoxicated state," according to the reports. But at about 4 p.m., after Markham failed to show at the gathering, the friend and another acquaintance drove to Markham's home, where her teenage son answered the front door, the reports show. Finding the bathroom door locked, they assumed that Markham was inside "hiding" from them and didn't want to talk, one of the friends told police. They left a note on her pillow but returned about 45 minutes later out of concern, according to the reports. The friends had Markham's son open the bathroom door with a key and found the body... Dina Markham's sister, who is a Chicago Fire Department paramedic, came to the scene and took responsibility for the couple's minor children... [Full article here]
DONALD MARKHAM, Age 51. Police sergeant with the Chicago Police Dept. Beloved husband of Dina nee Whitson.C.P.D. Loving father... Dear son... Dear brother... [Full article here]
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