The Washington Post
METRO In Brief
Tuesday, February 19, 2002; Page B03
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A U.S. senator is asking the National Park Service to allow the
exhumation of explorer Meriwether Lewis's remains to determine whether
he died by homicide or suicide.
Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) wants the mystery solved in time for
a bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition that will
kick off next year at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's mansion outside
Charlottesville.
Many of Lewis's relatives back the exhumation. Historical records are
unclear about how he died, though conventional histories labeled it a
suicide.
But some historians believe that Lewis might have been slain, probably
during a robbery.
The Park Service denied a request for the exhumation in July 1998.
Lewis is buried on Park Service land in Tennessee.
He died in October 1809 at age 35.