Murder or Suicide? The Suspicious Death of Michelle O'Connell
Michelle O'Connell met Jeremy Banks in 2009 and the duo initially got on like a house on fire. Within six months, they were living together with Michelle’s 4-year-old daughter, Alexis, from an earlier relationship. From the onset, the relationship was said to be an extremely tempestuous one, with Michelle’s mother even recalling that she once witnessed Jeremy body slam Michelle onto the floor. Jeremy was a police officer and when questioned about this episode, admitted he used police tactics to bring Michelle to the floor during an argument. Little Alexis even witnessed the violence perpetrated against her mother, saying she witnessed him hit Michelle as well as jump on top of her and smack her with a belt.
It is no surprise that Michelle had planned to leave Jeremy. On 2 September, 2010, Michelle and Jeremy attended a concert with her brother and a couple of other friends. Michelle planned to end the relationship with Jeremy later on that night, however at approximately 11:20PM, Jeremy called 911. Michelle had committed suicide, he claimed. When police arrived at the scene, they found Michelle lying in a pool of her own blood, a gunshot wound through her mouth and out the back of her throat. She was dead. Beside her left hand lay Jeremy’s police-issued gun. She was right-handed. It was decided that Jeremy’s colleagues would handle the case. While from the scene, it seemed very plausible that they were dealing with a homicide as opposed to a suicide, Jeremy wasn’t treated like a suspect and was able to chat away with the officers. Her death was ruled a suicide, St John’s Sheriff’s Office determined.
Michelle’s family were outraged - not only were Michelle’s packed bags discovered in the house, but they knew she wouldn’t kill herself because of the love she had for her daughter. Jeremy killed her, they insisted, and so did many others. Michelle’s family ordered an independent investigation into her death and the findings suffered substantially to those of St John’s Sheriff’s Office. The independent investigation uncovered two neighbours who reported hearing two gunshots as well as a woman screaming and crying for help in between the two shots. Another unexplained bullet hole had been found on the floor beside Michelle’s body - St John’s Sheriff’s Office claimed Michelle had missed the first shot. A wound was discovered above Michelle’s eye. Dr. Predag Bulic claimed that Michelle must have held the gun, which had a torch attachment, upside down and that the wound to the eye was caused by the recoil. However, when asked to re-create this scenario, he was unable to produce any single instant of the gun recoiling in such a way. Furthermore, the size of the gun would have made this a physical impossibility. So what caused the wound above her eye?
A separate pathologist found that Michelle’s lower jawbone was broken - a fact that was left out of the police-issued autopsy. Ironically, Jeremy’s gun did not contain any of his own fingerprints even though he used it daily. Had he wiped it clean? That would explain why very little of Michelle’s DNA was found on the gun even though the gun had been shot while inside her mouth. Additionally, no blood was found on Michelle’s hand, arm, or even the gun which would be indicative of a suicide. Michelle had already made the decision to leave the toxic and violent relationship. She had packed her bags and told her friends she was ending things with Jeremy. So why would she have ended her life?
Despite the glaring inconsistencies with the evidence and the claims of St John’s Sherrif’s Office, Michelle’s death is still ruled as a suicide.
Wow. Just wow.
