A murder mystery you say – I can almost see the fans of Making a Murderer licking their lips.

So this weekend Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at a hunting resort in Texas, the owner finding him after he became worried that the Justice hadn’t arrived for Sunday brekkie.

Now in the wake of the body being found Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara pronounced Scalia dead of natural causes without seeing the body. This is actually allowed under Texan law, although that hasn’t stopped confusion reining in the aftermath of that decision.

The Washington Post can take it from here:

“If it had been me . . . I would want to know,” Juanita Bishop, a justice of the peace in Presidio, Tex., said in an interview Sunday of the chaotic hours after Scalia’s death at the Cibolo Creek Ranch…

Meanwhile, Guevara acknowledged that she pronounced Scalia dead by phone, without seeing his body. Instead, she spoke to law enforcement officials at the scene — who assured her “there were no signs of foul play” — and Scalia’s physician in Washington, who said that the 79-year-old justice suffered from a host of chronic conditions.

“He was having health issues,’’ Guevara said, adding that she is awaiting a statement from Scalia’s doctor that will be added to his death certificate when it is issued later this week.

I’m no doctor but surely you want someone to dig a little deeper and nail down the exact cause of death, if for nothing more than closure. Not the thoughts of his family though:

About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Scalia’s family declined to have an autopsy performed, Lujan said, so the body was being prepared for Scalia’s funeral and was expected to be transported to Washington on Monday. Late Sunday, it was under guard by six law enforcement officials, including U.S. marshals and Texas state troopers, he said.

The man was a lover of hunting – birds, bison and even mountain lions. Charming…

[source:washpost]