A quarter century after he died, a Cape Breton family has hired private investigators as they look for answers and seek closure in the death of their son.
Clayton Miller’s body was found face down in a brook in May 1990, two days after New Waterford police raided a teen party in the woods.
Miller’s mother, Maureen, says she's been in contact with forensic pathologists in South America.
“Somebody's listening and willing to tell the truth,” said Maureen Miller.
Ray Wagner, the family’s lawyer, says they've hired investigators who have already been looking into the case.
“We're trying to contact some additional witnesses so we can get further information from them, with respect to their involvement at the time Clayton passed away,” said Wagner.
Nova Scotia's medical examiner, Dr. Matthew Bowes, and the head of SIRT reviewed the case a year ago and came to the conclusion Clayton Miller's death was an accident.
“We felt there was a lot of evidence that was not looked at or considered in the narrative that was explained by SIRT,” said Wagner.
The report concluded Miller was drunk when he fell into a brook. His body was found two days later.
Maureen Miller feels police played a role in her son's death, saying there's evidence to prove he was beaten.
But she says some evidence is missing.
“Dr. Bowes only has 14 slides and two X-rays,” said Miller. “We want to see those X-rays because they're of the skull. But three slides that are missing are from Clayton's brain and they have to be examined.”
In a letter to Miller and Wagner, the medical examiner states he doesn't know where those slides are.
“We're talking about something as profiled as Clayton Miller's death, you would think that it would be well-documented as to the location of these samples,” said Wagner.
Both Wagner and the Miller family say they will continue to work with private investigators and a number of pathologists. They say they will release their findings in June.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
