A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by the parents of fallen Marine Corps Sgt. Brian LaLoup against the Greek government and a hospital in Athens for misplacing their son's heart after autopsying his body, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
LaLoup, 21, committed suicide the night of Aug. 12, 2012, while serving at the U.S. Embassy in Greece.
As Home Post reported in late 2013, LaLoup shot himself in the head, and survived long enough to be taken to a Greek civilian hospital in Athens, where he died.
LaLoup's parents' lawsuit, as reported by The Associated Press, claimed the Greek hospital performed an unauthorized autopsy on their son's body a full six days after his death. When LaLoup's body arrived at Dover Air Base, he was missing his heart:
The LaLoups don't know what happened to their son's heart. They say a heart arrived months later and the Department of Defense and Greek authorities claimed it was their son's. However, a months-long wait for DNA results proved otherwise.
While U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell threw out the LaLoups' claim against the Greek government, he did give the go ahead for the family to "pursue a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress against the U.S. government, which the family says withheld information about their son's incomplete remains."
