Accident or Murder: Search Continues into Son`s Death

A year and a half after her son`s death, an Arkansas mother hasn`t given up on the fight. Renata Balleza is trying to prove that the car wreck her son died in was no accident. This week, she may have gotten one step closer in her journey to justice. The coroner who pronounced Timothy Alan Stone dead at the scene of his car wreck is now asking the Arkansas Department of Health to change his death certificate. If granted, the cause would no longer be listed as accidental, but undetermined. The night of Sept. 23, 2003, a 17-year old Timothy Alan Stone took a drive down Highway 57 outside of Chidester. Soon the Sheriff`s department received a 911 call. "I`m on Highway 57 South, right past the 76 junction," said the anonymous caller. "There`s a car in the ditch on its side...I`m not from here, I`m just passing by." A State Police accident report says Tim`s car overturned three times when it left the road. A few feet away from where the car stopped laid Tim`s body. "Tim Stone was lying flat on his back, feet together one hand on his chest, like this, the other at his side," said Chief Deputy Coroner Richard Milner, who pronounced Tim dead at the scene. "That`s a little unusual in my opinion for someone who`s been ejected from a vehicle." After hiring her own investigators, Stone`s mother, Balleza, believes a different theory from what the reports show. "He`s saying they ran him off the road that night, drug him out of the car and beat him up," she said of her investigator. "I believe there was some foul play," said Milner. Balleza and the coroner say they don`t believe the car overturned three times. "There`s no marks on the top hood, the trunk. It was completely clean," she said. Milner says that accident could not have been what caused the injuries to Tim`s skull. "Mush. I`m not trying to be graphic, but I`ve never seen anything that bad," he said. "With that severe head trauma, I would`ve expected to have seen blood on the inside of the car." Now, that coroner is requesting to change the death certificate to an undetermined cause of death, hoping for an autopsy. "I`m sure no mother would ever want to see their child exhumed after being laid to rest. However, in Tim`s case, an autopsy may give us some answers to questions we have," she said. Balleza and one of her private investigators say next week they plan to request to exhume and autopsy Tim`s body. Meanwhile, the Ouachita County Prosecutor says he cannot comment on the case because State Police are still investigating. However, he says there is no timeline on when he`ll receive the case file to determine whether to prosecute.