One Year Later: Investigation at a Standstill, Dispute Over an Autopsy Photo

“We’re stuck,” said Sergeant Kevin Manning of the Las Vegas homicide division shortly before the first anniversary of the shooting. Tips were constantly coming in, many of them false, and the murder weapon had not been found. The case, one of the biggest in the city’s history, had been featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” and “Prime Time Live,” without making any progress.

A Photo That No One Had Released

On September 7, 1997, exactly one year after the night of the crime, the book The Killing of Tupac Shakur by Las Vegas Sun reporter Cathy Scott was published. It contained a photo from the coroner’s office showing the dead Tupac. The coroner demanded an investigation into how the picture had reached the public. Publisher Anthony Curtis defended printing it: The photo answered the question of whether Tupac was still alive.

On October 23, police closed the internal investigation without result. Nine employees from the police department and coroner’s office had been questioned; Polaroids that two detectives had taken for a training book were destroyed. More on this: Publisher defends Tupac’s autopsy photo.