Wrongful Death

NEW YORK - While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children. These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.

The parents of a passenger killed while riding in a Porsche with Jackass star Ryan Dunn last year are suing Dunn's estate and a local bar that served him alcohol. Dunn, 34, and Zachary Hartwell, 30, of West Chester, died in the crash just before 3 a.m. on June 20 when the Porsche 911 GT3 veered off the westbound lanes of the Route 322 bypass in West Goshen Township, Chester County. Dunn was driving as the sportscar smashed through a guardrail, flipped over into a wooded ravine, crashed into a tree, and burst into flames.

The parents of a man killed while riding in a Porsche driven by Jackass star Ryan Dunn last year are suing Dunn's estate and a local bar that served him alcohol. Dunn, 34, and Zachary Hartwell, 30, of West Chester, died in the crash just before 3 a.m. June 20, 2011, when the Porsche 911 GT3 veered off the westbound lanes of the Route 322 bypass in West Goshen Township, Chester County. The sports car smashed through a guardrail, flipped over into a wooded ravine, crashed into a tree, and burst into flames.

The parents of a man killed while riding in a Porsche driven by Jackass star Ryan Dunn last year are suing Dunn's estate and a local bar that served him alcohol. Dunn, 34, and Zachary Hartwell, 30, of West Chester, died in the crash just before 3 a.m. June 20, 2011, when the Porsche 911 GT3 veered off the westbound lanes of the Route 322 bypass in West Goshen Township, Chester County. Hartwell, 30, of West Chester, was a recently married Iraq War veteran. His parents, George and Arma Hartwell of Melbourne, Fla., are suing Dunn's estate and the tavern owner, Barnaby's West Chester Inc. The wrongful-death suit, first reported by Courthouse News, was filed in Common Pleas Court.

Like millions of older Americans, especially women, Lois Eskind suffered from osteoporosis, which can cause vertebrae to crumble and result in terrible back pain. Unlike most, Eskind died on the operating table from a heart attack in 2003 minutes after a surgeon injected into her vertebrae a bone cement manufactured, illegally promoted, and tested on unknowing patients by medical device-maker Synthes Inc. Synthes, which was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in June for $19.7 billion, and its Norian subsidiary pleaded guilty in 2010 to criminal charges and paid $23.5 million in penalties.

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Former NFL star Junior Seau was found shot to death at his home Wednesday morning in what police said appeared to be a suicide. He was 43. Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau's girlfriend reported finding him unconscious with a gunshot wound to the chest and lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful. A gun was found near him, McCoy said. Police said no suicide note was found and they didn't immediately know who the gun was registered to. "We believe it was a suicide," said Oceanside police Lt. Leonard Mata.

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Former NFL star Junior Seau was found shot to death at his home Wednesday morning in what police said appeared to be a suicide. He was 43. Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau's girlfriend reported finding him unconscious with a gunshot wound to the chest and lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful. A gun was found near him, McCoy said. Police said no suicide note was found and they didn't immediately know who the gun was registered to. "We believe it was a suicide," said Oceanside police Lt. Leonard Mata.

Synthes Inc. and four of its former executives involved in an illegal clinical trial of bone cement were sued Thursday in California Superior Court by the families of two patients who died on the operating table. Ryoichi Kikuchi and Barbara Marcelino were both 83 when they died after surgeons at the John Muir Medical Center in Northern California injected bone cement into their spines. Both died after their blood pressure dropped precipitously and doctors could not revive them, though the bone cement could not be definitively identified as the cause of death.

The mother of a man shot to death by police last February at the end of a stolen-car chase in North Philadelphia filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Thursday against six city police officers. The Common Pleas Court lawsuit by Carolyn Moses, mother of Jamil Moses, was announced at the Center City law offices of Paul J. Hetznecker. Hetznecker called for an independent probe of the Feb. 8, 2011, encounter in which Moses, 24, was shot to death after police boxed in the car in which he was a passenger at 23d Street and Susquehanna Avenue.