By The Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Two years ago, the body of Dr. Sam Sheppard was exhumed in the long battle to determine who killed his wife in 1954, a crime that stunned the nation and helped inspire "The Fugitive" television series and movie.
Now authorities have arrived for her remains.
Prosecutors trying to show that Sheppard was the killer planned to exhume his wife's body today to examine her and get a "clean DNA profile." They also plan to exhume the fetus she was carrying when she died.
The exhumations are being done as part of the state's effort to defend itself against a lawsuit by the couple's son, Sam Reese Sheppard.
Sheppard contends his father was wrongfully imprisoned for his mother's death. The doctor was imprisoned for 10 years before being acquitted at a retrial. He died in 1970.
The younger Sheppard is suing the state to have his father declared innocent, a stronger legal statement than the "not guilty" verdict at his second criminal trial. Sheppard could collect an estimated $2 million if he wins.
Sheppard, 52, has criticized the exhumation as a stalling tactic by prosecutors to delay the trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 31, but decided against mounting a legal challenge to the procedure.
He had his father's body exhumed in 1997 to collect DNA samples.
Mrs. Sheppard was beaten to death in her second-floor bedroom at the family's home on Lake Erie. Her husband, who had been napping on the first floor, maintained that a bushy-haired intruder killed his wife and then knocked him unconscious when he heard her screams and ran to help.
The younger Sheppard and his lawyers contend DNA and other evidence point to a family window-washer, Richard Eberling, as the killer. Eberling died last year in prison, where he was serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder.
Prosecutors contend DNA samples used by Sheppard's investigators are contaminated. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason has said the exhumation is ``to get a clean DNA profile of Marilyn Sheppard.''
Another reason for the examination is to check the accuracy of testimony that helped acquit Sheppard at his second trial.
Mrs. Sheppard's wounds will be examined to try and determine whether the killer was right-handed or left-handed, Mason said.
Dr. Sheppard was right-handed but forensic scientist Paul Leland Kirk, a defense witness at the second trial, said blood spatter evidence indicated the killer was left-handed.
A forensic dentist also will examine Mrs. Sheppard's teeth, two of which were broken during the attack. Kirk concluded that Mrs. Sheppard bit her attacker -- who then pulled the teeth out when he jerked his hand away.
Sheppard had no bite wounds after the murder.
The fetus, which was removed from Mrs. Sheppard's body and is in a family crypt in suburban Cleveland, will be tested to confirm that the doctor is the father.
Authorities discovered early in their investigation of the Sheppard case that the doctor had extramarital affairs, which he at first denied and later admitted. There were unconfirmed rumors that Mrs. Sheppard also had affairs and was impregnated by another man.