An 11 News Defenders investigation into the undercounting of homicides in Houston has sparked a battle between Houston Police and the Harris County Medical Examiner.

It is a battle over who knows more about the cause of death.

As KHOU continues to expose new homicides the city never reported,  

the Houston Police Department is pointing the finger at the Medical Examiner. 

One of the new cases occurred on May 20, 2006 when the residents at the Woodvine Apartments discovered something disturbing left out with the trash.

It was a newborn infant, found crying, and abandoned next to a dumpster. The baby was left there, and eventually died.

That’s why the Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. But HPD's determination?

Instead of homicide, they call it simply a  “dead child.”

And, as a result?

HPD never had to report the death on Houston's yearly murder count.

11 News: (The forensic pathologists at the Medical Examiner’s office) call it a homicide.

Houston Assistant Chief Michael Dirden:  “Yes, that is accurate. That’s what they call it.” 

But Dirden said maybe whoever the parents perhaps they left their baby by the trash with good intentions.

“Leaving a baby by a dumpster may have been with the intent that someone finds him and takes him to the hospital,” said Dirden.

11 News: But the law says if you want to abandon your baby you take it to a fire station.

Dirden: “The law says you can take it to a fire station to avoid criminal prosecution for certain offenses. The law does not say, in my opinion, that when that happens the Houston Police Department has to code it as a murder.”

And sometimes, the police just take their time, leaving determinations of murder in limbo for months or more than a year.

For instance,  the medical examiner ruled Charles Arterburn's death a homicide too.

The cause of death: “blunt head trauma." That ruling came 18 months ago.

But HPD stuck to calling it simply an "investigation.” That was, until we came along. That’s when they changed it to "murder.”

Dirden: “The investigators in that case did not have sufficient information to believe there was murder.”

11 News: So, it took us filing a public information request to figure that out?

Dirden:  “No, I think it took investigation.”

But when we asked Houston's mayor Bill White if it was as a result of our open records request?

“I think it was in response to one of your public information requests” Mayor White said. 

Another questionable case came in May of 2005. Construction crews found a decomposed body in a field.

The Medical Examiner’s cause of death: "Homicidal violence with fractures of the skull.”

But HPD thinks it knows better than the medical examiner on this one too.

“In this particular case, the Medical Examiner’s opinion and the opinion of the professionals investigating this case at the Houston Police Department are not the same,” said Dirden.

So who should you believe?

“Well, the coroner has more time and information than the police do,” said Dr. James Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University..

The Northeastern University professor is also an expert consultant about homicide statistics for the United States Department of Justice.

“The coroner has more insight, because of the autopsy and the length of time he has to investigate,” said Fox.

So what does the Medical Examiner say? A spokesperson told us previously they stand firmly behind their rulings. They say more than one doctor reviews each homicide ruling.

And what if the Medical Examiner really is right- while HPD waits to decide what it thinks about cases?

11 News: Could there be a murderer walking the streets right now?

Dirden:  “There could be many murderers walking the streets that neither the Houston Police Department, nor I know about until we conduct a thorough investigation.”

A number of cases KHOU brought to HPD’s attention have sat in the limbo for more than a year -- with no determination made by police, even though the Medical Examiner ruled the deaths homicides long ago.

The upshot? Police don’t have to count the murders until they formally recognize a crime took place. 

When cases like the abandoned baby still ruled a “dead child” are left in limbo, they can remain unreported and off the city’s murder books.