Winter, spring, and summer, have all come and gone since the death of Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter.
And while the last months have been anything but simple for his wife, Nicole, her answer to how she’s been doing was just that.
“Hell…hell," said Nicole.
Suiter, a Conewago Township, York County resident, was killed while on a call in Baltimore in November, and a report issued on Tuesday by an Independent Review Board determined his death to be a suicide.
But Nicole says her husband would never do that to her and their five children.
“Based on the fact that no one knew my husband better than I, I will not accept the untimely death of Sean as nothing other than a murder that is being covered up by reasons unknown to me or my family,” said Nicole.
Nicole says she, her family, or their friends, were never interviewed by the review board about Sean’s frame of mind leading to his death.
She says that is just one of many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the report…
Namely, this one, which states former officer Daniel Hersl pleaded guilty to charges in relation to the Gun Trace Task Force investigation, which implicated eight Baltimore City Police Officers.
Hersl did not plead guilty, and was on trial alongside former officer Marcus Taylor for three weeks before being convicted.
Suiter was scheduled to testify in that trial the day after he died.
The chair and co-chair of the investigation board admittedly did not speak with Suiter’s friends or family during their investigation, but they remain sure of their conclusion.
“We can say that we’ve increased the confidence in the findings of the report, and we’re going to leave it at that," said James Coldren, co chair of Independent Review Board.
Now as fall approaches, bringing with it the one year anniversary of her husband’s death, Nicole says she plans to continue searching for his murderer, despite how much it hurts.
“It’s like reopening wounds all over again.”
A copy of the report has also been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office, which will decide whether to leave cause of death as a homicide, or change it to a suicide.
If it is determined to be suicide, Nicole and her family could lose benefits they would otherwise receive if Suiter was, in fact, killed in the line of duty.
Suiter’s attorneys plan to fight any challenge to change the cause of death.