Coroner, State Police at Odds Over Garner Death

The Blair County coroner and the Pennsylvania State Police are at odds over the recent ruling that a man found dead in the parking lot of the former Bickel’s Surplus building in Roaring Spring committed suicide.

The body of John R. Garner, 64, of Everett, was found in the parking lot on the morning of April 18.

Garner had been treated for a laceration of the arm the evening before at Conemaugh Nason Medical Center in Roaring Spring, just a few hundred yards from where his body was found.

Police originally investigated Garner’s death as a hit-and-run, and sought the public’s help in identifying...