162 Days After Her Mother’s Remains Were Exhumed, Lauren Lee Malloy Is Still Waiting for Answers

162 Days After Her Mother’s Remains Were Exhumed, Lauren Lee Malloy Is Still Waiting for Answers

Lauren Lee Malloy is still waiting for answers about her mother's death, 162 days after the remains of Lori Lee Malloy were exhumed by the Rhode Island Medical Examiner’s Office. 

Lori Lee Malloy was deemed to have died of “natural” causes in East Providence in 1993, but Lauren Lee Malloy — who was 18 months old at the time of her mother’s death — believes her mother may have been murdered.

Her mother’s body had been found naked in her apartment, with hair wrapped around her hands and feet, a faucet running, and the front door open. 

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The detective 30 years ago wrote in his report that the circumstance appeared “suspicious,” and the case should be treated as a homicide investigation — but it never was. 

Armed with another forensic pathologist’s opinion that the case should be reexamined, Lauren Lee Malloy petitioned the state to reopen the case, and in November 2022, got the court to grant a motion to exhume her mother’s body. 

Malloy has been waiting. And waiting. 

“It’s hard to explain how it feels to still be waiting for my mom’s forensic exam results. It’s like holding your breath and not knowing when you’ll get to breathe again,” said Malloy. “You wait for the next gut punch, having no idea when it will happen — but knowing it will happen. Some moments it hurts, some moments you just feel numb.”

 

Timeline of an Agonizing Wait

According to Malloy, there had been “radio silence” following the court order to exhume her mother's body last fall. 

Then, Malloy found out her mother’s body had been exhumed from what was intended to be her final resting place in an East Providence cemetery on February 1 of this year. 

And frustratingly for Malloy, she was not notified ahead of time — and discovered that neighbors, curious as to what was taking place, were there — and she was not. 

“When I first got the email she was exhumed on February 1, it sort of knocked the wind out of me. I had no idea that would be the day. That night, I learned that someone who lived next door to the cemetery made a Facebook post about what they’d seen and heard, that one of the officers on scene described it as a ‘30-year-old murder,’” said Malloy. 

“I hadn’t had a chance to notify everyone in my family before getting messages that someone we’d never met knew and posted details before us. I was also advised her case was classified as a ‘suspicious death’ by East Providence Police Department and had an ‘undetermined’ cause and manner by the Medical Examiner's Office, so it was frustrating to see a total stranger type the word 'murder,' the thing I’d been working to prove for years, without hearing it from investigators myself,” said Malloy.  

“I didn’t think I could handle being there that day, but it broke my heart a little bit that no one from my family was able to be with my mom when she was brought back above ground for the first time in 30 years,” said Malloy.

And since then, Malloy has been waiting -- and being given conflicting information from the Attorney General and Medical Examiner's offices. 

“I was initially told by the Attorney General’s Office to expect results in four to five weeks. I remember how deflated I felt by week six. By week 12, a contact advised the Medical Examiner’s Office was ‘averaging over 100 days’ for results, so I went with that new number,” said Malloy on Tuesday. “By day 120, I tried to focus on just being patient. By day 156, I was advised detectives didn’t know what the holdup was about. Today is day 161. Still no answers.”

Malloy has been regularly posting the timeframe of the wait to social media, to let followers of the case know where things stand. 

While focused on her getting answers about her mother’s death, she works closely with other families around the country to shine the light on other unsolved cases that need it.

“Every day, it hits me that my mom’s remains were removed from her resting place and have been sitting on a cold metal slab in the morgue for over 161 days,” said Malloy. “That’s my reality. I’m grateful for everyone’s work on her case, but I’d be lying if I said the wait isn’t tough at times.”