her name was Lori Klausutis!

her name was Lori Klausutis!

Fast-forward to July 19, 2001. Two people looking for assistance in an immigration case open the door to Scarborough’s district office and find a grisly scene: Lori Klausutis is lying dead behind a desk.

From an Associated Press report:

A 28-year-old office worker for U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough was found dead Friday in the congressman’s district office.

Preliminary findings from the medical examiner’s office showed no foul play or any outward indication of suicide, said Police Chief Steve Hogue.

Authorities identified the woman as Lori Klausutis of Niceville. She had worked for Scarborough since May 1999, said Mick Serrano, press secretary for the congressman.

A month later, a medical examiner concluded that Klausutis had been feeling unwell and had died after heart problems caused her to fall and hit her head on the desk. There were no apparent signs of foul play. Case closed.

It was Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn’t, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of a former staff member in 2001, according to two former high-level Harris staff members, a GOP donor and Scarborough.

His Wikipedia page currently includes this unsourced passage: “There had been speculation that Scarborough was having an affair with one of his Congressional aides, Lori Klausutis, who was later found dead in Scarborough’s office after allegedly fainting and hitting her head on a desk in July of 2001.”

Lost in all this fracas, of course, has been Klausutis herself, whose story is a grain of sand in the annals of pre-9/11 America. Meanwhile, Joe Scarborough has failed upward, again and again.

the plot thickens!

Morning Joe’s mysterious case vanished into thin air.

Why?

Begin with former Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Berkland whose autopsy results help bury Lori and all legitimate questions surrounding her death.

Who is Dr. Michael Berkland?

He was a Pathologist whose medical license in the state of Missouri had been revoked in 1998 as a result of Berkland reporting false information regarding brain tissue samples in a 1996 autopsy report. Berkland never denied the charges.
He moved to Florida in 1997 and in July 1999, Berkland was suspended from his position as Medical Examiner in the State of Florida. Yet in 2001 he was issuing reports on Klausutis’s death that were questionable if not downright false.

Berkland continued to get into trouble and in 2003 not only was he fired but had his license as Medical Examiner withdrawn.

In 2012 he was arrested & charged when this gruesome discovery was made:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dr-michael-berkland-former-medical-examiner-arrested-for-storing-human-body-parts-in-fla-storage-unit/

It is more than fair to question the competency and accuracy of any and all Dr. Berkland’s autopsy reports especially given the inconsistent reports of Lori’s health prior to her death. Joe himself said that Lori had a "complicated medical history" including "stroke and epilepsy," though this was absolutely not true.

To this day no one truly knows how and why a healthy 28 year old woman died in her boss’s office?

her name was Lori Klausutis!