GROSSE POINTE FARMS (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against police in the death of a Detroit-area woman, although she believes the case still has the markings of a mystery.
The body of 55-year-old Joann Matouk Romain was discovered in the Detroit River in 2010. She had disappeared two months earlier after attending an evening church service near Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms.
The death was ruled a suicide, although her family protested and filed a lawsuit, claiming Romain was murdered and that police in Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Woods had covered it up.
Federal Judge Linda Parker says there’s no evidence that someone who wanted to kill Romain knew that police would cover his tracks. Despite dismissing the lawsuit, Parker said there are “disputed facts” in Romain’s death that are “very disturbing.”
