MIDDLETOWN — A former longtime Connecticut chief medical examiner who played a key investigative role in the state’s most infamous murder cases has died.
Dr. H. Wayne Carver II was 67. The state’s current chief medical examiner says Carver died pf natural causes Thursday night at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown.
Carver joined the medical examiner’s office in 1983 and led it as chief from 1989 until his retirement in 2013.
He oversaw the death investigations of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, 1980s serial killer Michael Ross and the 1986 woodchipper killing of Helle Crafts.
The office of the Chief Medical Examiner released a statement regarding Dr. Carver’s death.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) mourns the loss of Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who served the State of Connecticut for over 32 years at the OCME, 26 of those years as Chief Medical Examiner. He fully retired in 2014. During his tenure at the OCME, he investigated thousands of deaths and testified over 600 times in criminal trials. His particular area of expertise was firearm injuries and he instructed and lectured countless medical students, pathology residents, law enforcement agents, and attorneys throughout his career.
He had a tremendous forensic knowledge and a relentless intellectual curiosity that lead him to many other interests including marine biology. Everyone at the OCME will miss him and never forget our time with him.
He died on December 26th at Middlesex Medical Center. He was 67.
