Alfredo Olivares Jr

Alfredo Olivares Jr., a 19-year-old Hispanic male, was killed in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 19, 2020. In the early morning, shortly after 6 a.m., Olivares was hanging out in the street with others in the 4100 block of Valentine Street when he was fatally shot. He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Fort Worth police initially had no suspects and had not determined a motive for the shooting. The investigation soon faced a major and unusual complication related to the victim’s autopsy. Prosecutors grew concerned about the findings of Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Marc Krouse, whose report noted only one projectile, despite other records indicating there were two.

The discrepancy led prosecutors to make the rare request to have Olivares’s body exhumed. A Tarrant County judge approved the court order, and a subsequent examination confirmed that a second bullet had been missed during the initial autopsy. The serious error in Olivares's case prompted a wider review of the medical examiner's work.

The fallout was significant. An audit of Dr. Krouse’s autopsies revealed dozens of errors and omissions in more than 40 homicide cases. Dr. Krouse, who had worked for the county since 1981, was suspended from performing autopsies in murder cases and ultimately left the office. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office was forced to notify defense attorneys in numerous other cases about the questions surrounding Dr. Krouse's credibility.

Despite the challenges with the autopsy, the homicide investigation moved forward. Authorities identified and arrested Peter Cardona, then 23, charging him with murder in connection with Olivares's death. The case went to trial, and in February 2023, a jury convicted Peter Cardona of murder for the shooting.