Police tossed bloody mattress before dead cop's autopsy

On Sept. 2, 2015, Officer Dina Markham reported finding her husband Chicago Sgt. Donald Markham dead in bed at their Northwest Side home, shot in the head, his gun in hand.

The mattress - soaked with blood and other bodily fluids - would have been among the critical pieces of evidence for investigators to determine what happened.

But the Chicago Police Department quickly removed the mattress from the Markham home in Norwood Park and threw it in the garbage behind a police station, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The mattress was discarded before the Cook County medical examiner's office completed an autopsy in a death that has drawn FBI interest.

For more, check <URL destination="http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/chicago-police-threw-out-bloody-mattress-in-mysterious-cop-death-donald-markham-dina-markham-denis-walsh-the-watchdogs/">chicago.suntimes.com.