Montgomery County Pennsylvania – a place I had never visited until after my son, Raymond Marc Zachry went to live there in May 2007. Ray lived and grew up in Cecil County Maryland. he worked for American Color Graphics for 18 years prior to making a career change and living arrangement to accommodate a promotion and career advancement of his new wife. (They were married January 17, 2006)
Ray was anxious to begin work at Vertis Communication in Chalfont. His wife of slightly over a year, Darlene Miller Zachry was hired at Pennridge High School as special education supervisor.
Four months later, Ray was discovered by a neighbor, unresponsive beside his truck. He was pronounced dead by Montgomery County coroner at 12:20 PM on September 25, 2007, according to the autopsy report. 
Unattended death investigation procedure is covered well in a publication “Death Investigation: A Guide for the Scene Investigator”, published by US Department of Justice as an update to an earlier publication, “National guidelines for Death Investigation”. The new publication includes a message from Attorney General, Janet Reno; it is endorsed by a review panel of 14 professionals in the field including mayors, forensic scientists, American Bar Association, American Medical Association, ollege of American Pathologists, International Association of Chiefs of Police, International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners, National Association of Counties, National Association of Medical Examiners, National Conference of State Legislators, National Governor’s Association, National Sheriff’s Association, Colorado Coroner’s Association, South Dakota Funeral Director’s Association.
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania is well represented in the list of professionals on the review panel. Their coroner at the time, Herbert E. Fillinger, Jr. MD represented the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners on the panel. His commentary is included in the 17 entries for commentary in the Contents of the book.
Dr. Fillinger endorses the project as “a long-vacant gap in the training and investigation of sudden, suspicious death”. He continues in the next paragraph, “With many of the deaths today having more and more civil as well as criminal implications, top-quality death-scene investigation becomes a must in any jurisdiction”.
And again, Dr. Fillinger writes, ” I am incorporating the guidelines developed thus far in the mandatory training program for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as directed by the Attorney General’s Office“.
Apparently, upon Dr. Fillinger’s death in June 2007 no one continued the program in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; no one continued the program in the “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” or by direction of the “Attorney General’s Office”. Raymond Zachry’s sudden, unexplained and suspicious death, September 25, 2007 has never been investigated.
Raymond Zachry was discovered, unresponsive, yet it is obvious that no one considered an investigation was necessary; only six sentences are on the police report, case closed in 90 minutes – no news coverage, no follow-up, no information to Ray’s family. Case closed.
The office of the coroner, was apparently disorganized following the death of Dr. Fillinger, and plainly the interim coroner did not know of these recommendations (so much for training). That acting or temporary coroner completely disregarded inquiries from the family of Raymond Zachry, refused all requests for information from his Mother and only sent a partial coroner’s report after many letters from an attorney and a request from two US Congressmen.
When a courtesy request from Congressman Dent’s office ( relayed from Florida Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite in response to a concern for her constituent), the reaction to the Mother was, “you didn’t have to do what you did”, complained the representative of the office of Montgomery County Pennsylvania coroner by telephone regarding her request for aid by a congressional representative.
So much for training, so much for concern for the health and welfare of the community of Souderton, Pennsylvania.
Check www.denied-justice.com for the police report, autopsy correspondence and other legal matters involving the nearly four years of pleading with Montgomery County to assist the family find out what really happened that day to cause a healthy person to just drop dead.
In the past few months several requests have been sent by a family member to organizations in Pennsylvania for information under the Right To Know law. That information should have been requested by the local police or district attorney. The information gathered offers some insight but more questions must be asked by local authorities before this incident can be considered a natural cause death. More Right To Know requests are being considered by the family of Raymond Zachry since information is not forth coming from officials. One recent claim is that this is a cold case……
NOTE: If you or anyone you know has information regarding this incident on September 25, 2007 – please contact this writer.
Also, information regarding any resident of Souderton who became ill or died from exposure to “unusual chemicals” either physical contact, through drinking water or food, please contact the writer by email gmom2010@verizon.net
You can also comment here or at www.denied-justice.com
Have a happy and safe weekend.
JUSTICE FOR RAYMOND 