Sons win order to exhume body for autopsy

The autopsy will be done before the end of the year.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The body of a Lawrence County man who died 14 months ago will be exhumed for an autopsy.

A court order issued Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court states that pathologist Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh will perform an autopsy on Joseph Tomei Jr., 59.

Tomei died June 13, 2006, alone at his Shenango Township, Lawrence County, home. His body was discovered after co-workers called police to report he had not shown up for work. No autopsy was performed, and the county coroner listed his cause of death as coronary disease.

His two sons, Jason, 35, of Las Vegas, and Joseph, 30, of Arizona, have been requesting an autopsy since late last year, but their stepmother, Edith Tomei, has refused to sign off on it.

The brothers will pay the autopsy costs, according to the court order. Jason Tomei said those costs are estimated at about $10,000.

Edith Tomei and her attorney, Peter Horne, could not be reached to comment.

The brothers and their stepmother have had a contentious relationship since their father’s death. She began court action shortly after her husband died to keep them from their father’s home.

The brothers said she had been estranged from their father for more than a year before his death. A judge eventually barred her from entering the home.

The home and its contents were left to the brothers in Joseph Tomei’s will.

What’s in dispute

But the proceeds of his life insurance and retirement accounts, about $250,000, are still in dispute between the brothers and the widow.

Jason Tomei said they sought the autopsy to determine how their father died.

“What happened? Was it a heart attack? A defective valve? Or something we need to know about for family planning purposes?” he said.

Joseph Tomei Jr. had a heart valve replaced a few years before his death, but his sons contend he had been living a healthy lifestyle. A doctor’s visit and blood work just weeks before his death showed no problems, they said.

Despite those concerns, the brothers contend that their stepmother refused to sign off on the autopsy, and they sought to have civil contempt charges brought against her in the matter.

The civil contempt action was dropped as a result of Wednesday’s court order.

Tom Earhart, attorney for the brothers, said the court action over the $250,000 in life insurance and retirement benefits will continue and could go to trial next year.

Edith Tomei is laying claim to the funds, but the brothers contend their father made them the beneficiaries on both accounts before his death.

At issue, however, is that Edith Tomei refused to sign off on her estranged husband’s change of beneficiary for his 401(k) account, something required by law when a spouse is not named beneficiary.

Earhart said they expect to exhume Tomei’s body from the Holy Redeemer Cemetery mausoleum near Ellwood City, Pa., and have the autopsy done before the end of this year.

Edith Tomei does have the right to have her own forensic expert present as part of the autopsy process, the court order says.

cioffi@vindy.com