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Pregnant woman's death ruled homicide

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 2, 2007

CLEVELAND

A medical examiner announced Wednesday that the death of a pregnant mother was a homicide, but she was not able to determine how the woman was killed. Jessie Davis, 26, was killed in her home near North Canton on June 14, authorities said. Her body was found nine days later about 25 miles away after thousands of volunteers searched the area. Davis' death will be listed as unspecified homicidal violence, Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler said in a statement. Investigators had said that the advanced decomposition of the body would make determining a cause difficult. Canton police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. has been charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Davis and her unborn child.

WASHINGTON

FDA to hire more food inspectors

The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Andrew von Eschenbach, said Wednesday that the agency will likely increase the number of its food safety inspectors, possibly placing some in foreign countries, to stem the tide of imported food coming into the United States that is contaminated with disease or foreign substances. Von Eschenbach also said the agency is working on a memorandum of understanding that he said will "assure the quality of the products imported to the United States" from China. Von Eschenbach also said that he has suspended a plan to consolidate the FDA's laboratories that conduct food safety testing to await the findings of a recently formed presidential commission on the safety of imports.

DETROIT

Woman hid body, posed as roommate

A woman who posed as her dead roommate and lived three weeks with the corpse was sentenced Wednesday to seven months in jail. Christina Nicole Tracy, 28, also received two years of probation. She pleaded guilty to felony charges of identity theft and misdemeanor larceny. Ashley Pierce was 19 when she died of a heroin overdose Feb. 16 in an apartment they shared, authorities said. Tracy called Pierce's father and asked for money on behalf of his daughter, police said. She called him four other times for money, telling him Pierce was fine. Police found Pierce's body under a pile of clothing in the apartment on March 6. In addition to the sentence, Tracy was ordered to pay $1,800 in restitution to Pierce's father and to undergo monthly drug testing while on probation.

[Last modified August 2, 2007, 01:38:13]