Waco investigator found dead at his office in Maryland

April 30, 2000
Web posted at: 5:08 a.m. EDT (0908 GMT)

LAUREL, Maryland (CNN) -- The badly decomposed body of Carlos Ghigliotti, a key investigator into the U.S. government's 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Texas, was found on Friday at his office in Laurel, Maryland, police said Saturday.

Police on Friday were called to Ghigliotti's firm, Infrared Technology, by building management, who told police they had not seen Ghigliotti in several weeks.

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Police say they found no signs of a struggle or break-in.

The body has been sent to the state medical examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy. Results won't be known until sometime next week.

Ghigliotti was retained by the House Government Reform Committee, chaired by Indiana Republican Dan Burton, in late 1999 during its investigation into the government's raid on the Branch Davidian compound in April 1993.

After spending hundreds of hours viewing tapes of the raid, Ghigliotti claimed there was proof the government had fired shots into the Davidian compound during the raid, an allegation the government continues to deny.

Ghigliotti also said he believed the Davidians had also fired on government officials.

Between 1991 and 1995, Ghigliotti was paid by the FBI as a thermal imaging expert on an array of environmental dumping cases and, according to FBI documents, "performed reliable work."

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Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California
Branch Davidian

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