LA Coroner Cremated Michael Hastings' Remains Without Family's Consent

San Diego 6 News' Kimberly Dvorak continues to do the investigative reporting into the bizarre death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings that the lamestream media refuses to do. She learns that the LA Coroner's office sent Hastings' remains home to his family in an urn after cremating his body without their consent. Police have still not released the toxicology report performed during Hastings' autopsy. Dvorak added that she has been threatened for investigating Hastings' death.

WhoWhatWhy has an interesting update on the story from Michael Krikorian, a former crime reporter for the LA Times. He has seen video footage captured by a nearby pizza restaurant showing Hastings' car crash and explode. "The crash ended with a hellish explosion and fire," Krikorian wrote describing the video footage. "The officer, watching the video with us, was as stunned as we were. He said, 'I have never seen a car explode like that.'" Krikorian spoke to a detective at the LA police department the day after the crash. Here's the chilling statement the detective made to him, even though officially the department has ruled out foul play: “Stanley got him. Took his time, but got him. That wasn’t an accident.” As Krikorian describes the footage:

The camera shows the view from near the entrance of Pizzeria Mozza.

Four seconds into the start of the tape, a minivan or SUV goes by the front of restaurant. Three seconds later, another vehicle goes by, traveling from the restaurant front door to the crash site in about seven seconds. At 35 seconds into the tape, a car is seen driving northbound and appears to slow, probably for the light at Melrose.

Then at 79 seconds, the camera catches a very brief flash of light in the reflection of the glass of the pizzeria. Traveling at least twice as fast as the other cars on the tape, Hastings’s Mercedes C250 coupe suddenly whizzes by. (This is probably the “whoosh” that Gary, the Mozza employee, heard.)

The car swerves and then explodes in a brilliant flash as it hits a palm tree in the median. Viewed at normal speed, it is a shocking scene—reminiscent of fireballs from “Shock and Awe” images from Baghdad in 2003.

I have heard and read a wide range of guessed speeds, up to as much as 130 mph. I think it’s safe to say the car was doing at least 80.

Driving 80 on Highland is flying. Over 100 is absolute recklessness.

Highland has a very slight rise and fall at its intersection with Melrose. It’s difficult to tell by the film, but based on tire marks—which were not brake skid marks, by the way—chalked by the traffic investigators, it seems that the Mercedes may have been airborne briefly as it crossed the intersection, then landed hard. Tire marks were left about 10 feet east of the restaurant’s valet stand.

(Later, I drove the intersection at just 45 mph, and my car rose up significantly.)

About 100 feet after the car zooms by on the tape, it starts to swerve. At about 195 feet from the camera, the car jumps the curb of the center median, heading toward a palm tree 56 feet away.

About halfway between the curb and the tree, the car hits a metal protrusion—perhaps 30 inches tall and 2 feet wide—that gives access to city water mains below. This is where the first small flash occurs. This pipe may have damaged the undercarriage of the car, perhaps rupturing a fuel line.

I looked at the tape frame by frame. A second flash immediately follows the first. It might be the brake lights, but it’s hard to tell. The next frame is dark. Then comes the first explosion, followed immediately by a large fireball.

I showed the video to a number of people. Everyone had the same reaction: essentially, “Wow!”