Scalia Death Draws Conspiracy Theories: 'Stunned No Autopsy'

A former homicide commander is "stunned" at how the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was handled by local and federal authorities — suggesting there's "something fishy going on in Texas."

Former Washington, D.C., homicide commander William O. Ritchie's scathing critique in a Facebook post is raising conspiracy theories about the death of the revered conservative jurist, The Washington Post reports.

"You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician," Ritchie writes, according to the Post. "You have a non-homicide trained U.S. Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed.

"You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack. What medical proof exists of a myocardial Infarction? Why not a cerebral hemorrhage?"

He also laid into the federal deputy marshal sent to the scene from the West Texas headquarters.

"How can the Marshal say, without a thorough post mortem, that he was not injected with an illegal substance that would simulate a heart attack…" Ritchie writes.

"Did the U.S. Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation? Did the U.S. Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas."

The former head of criminal investigations also commented, "I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia."

Conspiracies theories have are already swirling, Breitbart News reports, spurred by confusion surrounding the sudden death.

The Post notes it took hours to find a justice of the peace to declare the death, and when Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara finally did, it was without seeing the body — which is allowed under Texas law — and without ordering an autopsy, based on law enforcement officials on the scene who told her "there were no signs of foul play."

The Post reports Scalia's family had asked that there be no autopsy, according to a funeral home handling the body.

Guevara also rebuts a report by a Dallas TV station that Scalia had died of "myocardial infarction," telling the Post she only meant that his heart had stopped.

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• Scalia's Death Saves Unions From Momentous Ruling Ending Political Power