NEW ORLEANS -- An unsolved murder in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster has developed a Pittsburgh connection.
A Team 4 investigation uncovers new evidence in the case -- chilling videotape of a burned-out car with human remains inside, and for the first time, two Pittsburgh men are sharing the tape.
The following report by Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons first aired July 9, 2009, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.
Video:
Watch Jim's ReportMayor Ray Nagin confirms that some of his officers are under investigation for their possible involvement in the disappearance and death of a New Orleans man in early September 2005, and a videotape that's been collecting dust here in Pittsburgh -- until Team 4 discovered it and connected it to the case -- could play an important role.
Istvan Balogh, in 2005: "We found this dead body and this completely burnt-up vehicle."
Two Pittsburgh private detectives -- Istvan Balogh and Mike Orsini -- were in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina. They had their video camera when they stumbled across this scorched car. And inside, human remains.
Balogh: "Here are all the bone fragments of the body."
The Pittsburgh men had no idea what they had captured. But recently, Team 4 confirmed that it is the only known videotape of the remains of Henry Glover, whose death is now under federal investigation. Glover was last seen alive in the company of New Orleans police officers.
William Tanner: "He was shot around that area right there, but he made it right here. That's where his last stand was at."
New Orleans resident William Tanner found Henry Glover lying in this street, moments after he had been shot in the chest by an unknown assailant.
Tanner: "He was choking, coughing."
Tanner didn't know Henry Glover, but helped him into his car and sped over to a nearby school, where police had established a command post. But when he got out of the car, Tanner says police treated him like a criminal, assuming he was a looter.
Tanner: "They kicked me in the stomach twice. Hit me with an M-16 in the side of the face. Same guy who hit me with an M-16 is the guy who had the flares in his pocket."
Tanner claims a New Orleans police officer with flares sticking out of his pants got into Tanner's Chevy Malibu and drove off, with a bleeding Henry Glover still in the back seat. Six days later, Istvan Balogh and Mike Orsini found the torched car less than a mile from that school.
Istvan Balogh, in 2009: "Curiosity sent me down there to look inside the vehicle."
The immediate reaction from Orsini, a former South Fayette police officer, was this:
Orsini: "To be honest? Somebody is trying to get rid of evidence."
William Tanner's car with Henry Glover in the back seat couldn't have gotten onto the river side of the levee by accident. Somebody had to have driven it on top of the levee from this road down here. And just past that building over there with the American flag flying on top is the Fourth District of the New Orleans Police Department.
When Glover's remains were finally retrieved and turned into the local coroner, there were charred bone fragments -- a hyoid bone and some rib bones -- but nothing else. Specifically, no skull. But in Istvan Balogh's video, there was a skull with two holes in it.
Balogh in 2005: "This is the skull. You can see it was shot in the head. There's no question about it. That's an exit wound right there."
Forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht agreed to look at the video of the skull. He says there are two likely explanations for the holes. Intense heat from the fire is one. The other?
Wecht: "I would agree that it could well be a defect caused by a gunshot wound."
Wecht says if the skull had not vanished, he could have determined for sure what caused those holes. Still, until Team 4 discovered the videotape, investigators likely didn't know there was a skull with fractures.
Rafael Goyeneche, Metropolitan Crime Commission: "That will be yet another tool that law enforcement, particularly the Justice Department, may now have available to them with this video."
Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor here, says he has confidence in the Justice Department investigation of Glover's death, but not the one being conducted by NOPD.
Goyeneche: "New Orleans -- particularly the New Orleans Police Department -- has an abysmal record, as far as honesty and integrity."
Team 4 caught up with New Orleans' mayor on the Glover case following an impromptu news conference.
Parsons: "It took your department three years to even start investigating this after there was some reporting on the death of Henry Glover. Does that concern you?"
Mayor Ray Nagin, D-New Orleans: "Well, we had a little event called Hurricane Katrina, so it took us a little time to get through all the issues. We've had many claims, but this one seems like it has a little more legs and, therefore, the FBI is involved."
The two Pittsburgh private investigators say they did tell local and federal law enforcement agents about the burned-out car while they were in New Orleans in 2005.
But it wasn't until recently -- when Team 4 connected their video to reporting on this case by
propublica.org and
The Nation -- that the Pittsburgh men realized they had captured important evidence in a possible police cover-up, and they have since turned over their videotape to the FBI.
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Related Story:
Team 4 Investigation: Post-Katrina Shootings Discussed On Video)
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