Scientist Won’t Sue To Exhume Explorer

A forensic scientist says he will do “anything and everything short of litigation” to exhume the body of Meriwether Lewis to determine whether the explorer was killed or committed suicide.

On Tuesday, a Tennessee coroner’s jury recommended that Lewis’ body be dug up so it could be examined, but the National Park Service refused. The federal agency administers Lewis’ grave in the Natchez Trace Parkway.

James E. Starrs said he wanted to clear Lewis’ name of the black mark associated with suicide, but he will not take the National Park Service to court over its refusal.

“I was simply trying to establish a record of the value of science in contrast to the speculation of historians,” Starrs said Wednesday.