Gov. Suspends Medical Examiner

Governor Deval Patrick has suspended, and is considering firing, his chief medical examiner after the examiner's office yesterday admitted to losing a body last week.

The Boston Globe is reporting the body is that of Thomas Brissette, a 49-year old man who was found dead in a Yarmouth motel. Brissette reportedly had a history of poor health, and police say there are no signs of foul play.

Senator Jarrett Barrios says a high ranking aide to the Senate Public Safety Committee told him the missing body may have been stored with other bodies being removed.

The chief examiner, Mark Flomenbaum, has been in place since 2005, when he was brought in by the Romney administration to help the troubled facility, which had misidentified bodies, among other mistakes.

But since that time, Flomenbaum has struggled with similar problems.

Earlier this year, state authorities began an investigation into reports of a rising number of unclaimed bodies at the morgue, which led to corpses being stacked in an unsanitary manner, and other issues.