The Death of Christian Andreacchio: Forensic Disputes and Court Rulings

The death of Christian Andreacchio remains one of Mississippi’s most publicly disputed death investigations. The 21-year-old was found on February 26, 2014, with a single gunshot wound to the head in the bathroom of his Meridian apartment while his girlfriend and a friend were present. The Meridian Police Department ruled the death a suicide within roughly 45 minutes. In the decade since, independent forensic experts, a veteran Meridian detective who later reviewed the file, and a subsequent police chief have all said the evidence points to homicide, yet no one has been charged, a grand jury declined to indict, and the Mississippi Supreme Court has twice ruled the state cannot be forced to reopen the case.¹

What Happened on February 26, 2014

Andreacchio was found leaning facedown over a blood-filled bathtub in his upstairs apartment. The fatal wound was on the right side of his head, from a .45-caliber Kimber semiautomatic pistol. Two people were in the apartment: his live-in girlfriend, Whitley Goodman, and his friend Dylan Swearingen.¹

Swearingen told police Andreacchio had been acting “erratically,” had threatened to shoot himself, and that Swearingen had at one point taken the gun away. Goodman told investigators she had been asleep when the shot was fired. She later told CBS’s “48 Hours” she was “so confused” when she began being blamed, but declined to participate in formal interviews about the specifics of the death.²

Why the Initial Investigation Is Contested

The family says officers spent about 45 minutes at the scene before ruling out foul play and classifying the death a suicide.³

According to Mississippi Today, then-Chief James Lee personally appeared at the crime scene and ordered investigators to stop investigating and call the death a suicide. His successor, Chief Benny Dubose, later called that decision the “first problem” with the case, said the scene should have been treated as a potential homicide until proven otherwise, described the original investigation as “piss poor,” and said investigators were prevented from properly interviewing witnesses. Lee told Mississippi Today he could not recall the case. He was later fired as chief over unrelated sexual harassment allegations and a “loss of confidence” from the mayor, and took a position as an assistant police chief in Durant.⁴

Crime scene photos were reportedly taken on cell phones and described as “terrible.” Neither Goodman nor Swearingen was photographed at the scene by police. And while the police department classified the death a suicide, the Lauderdale County coroner’s office ruled the manner of death “undetermined.”⁴

The Forensic Evidence in Dispute

Independent experts hired by the family, and a Meridian detective who later reviewed the case, pointed to several pieces of physical evidence they said were inconsistent with self-inflicted death.

The.45-caliber handgun was found between Andreacchio’s left thigh and the bathtub. He was right-handed, and the entrance wound was on the right side of his head. Forensic pathologist Dr. Jonathan Arden, hired by the family, called this “the wrong place on the wrong side” for a self-inflicted wound.¹
No fingerprints were found on the weapon. Chief Dubose said fingerprints should have been present and concluded the gun had been wiped clean.¹
Experts noted a lack of expected blood spatter and described the bathroom as “surprisingly clean,” suggesting the scene had been cleaned or tampered with.¹
Crime scene photos showed the bullet struck a wall near the sink, but the bullet itself was found in the bathtub. Dr. Arden concluded the discrepancy indicated the body had been moved and the scene staged.¹
Gunshot residue testing performed the day of the death found residue on both hands of both Goodman and Swearingen. Residue was found only on Andreacchio’s palm. Goodman told police the positive result was because she had been target shooting the previous night.⁴⁵
Dr. Arden noted photographs showed well-formed rigor mortis, suggesting the body had been in position undisturbed for several hours before the 911 call.¹
The gun was found uncocked with a live round still in the chamber, which investigators noted as unusual for a discharged semiautomatic.⁴

Dr. Arden concluded the death was a homicide. Captain Jay Arrington, a 30-year veteran Meridian police detective who reviewed the case file in 2017, reached the same conclusion. He told CBS he had “no doubt” the body was moved after death.¹

The Credit Union Visit and the Six-Hour Gap

Surveillance footage showed Swearingen at Andreacchio’s credit union around 12:30 p.m. on February 26, attempting to withdraw money from Andreacchio’s account. He could not complete the transaction because he did not have the PIN.⁴ Swearingen told police that Andreacchio had told him he wanted him to have the money while they were driving from Louisiana to Meridian.⁵ The 911 call did not come until roughly six hours after Swearingen and Andreacchio arrived at the apartment.

The Reopened Case and the Warrants That Were Never Served

After Lee was fired, Chief Dubose reopened the case. The investigation was later handed to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and then to the Mississippi Attorney General’s office after District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell recused himself.⁴

In January 2017, Captain Arrington completed a detailed investigative report concluding the death was a homicide. He authored arrest warrants for Goodman and Swearingen on charges of manslaughter by culpable negligence. The warrants were never served. The city prosecutor did not believe there was sufficient evidence to secure a conviction at a preliminary hearing, and authorities would not agree to downgrade the charges.⁴⁶

The 2017 Grand Jury

In October 2017, the Attorney General’s office presented the case to a Lauderdale County grand jury. The grand jury returned a “no true bill,” declining to indict either Goodman or Swearingen. The panel found insufficient evidence to proceed.⁷

What came out afterward made the outcome more contentious. A grand juror confirmed that Captain Arrington’s investigative report, which classified the death as a homicide, was never presented to the panel. Arrington himself was not permitted to testify. He told CBS: “In all my years, that’s the only one I’ve ever had done that way.”⁶ District Attorney Kassie Coleman then said she was willing to convene a new grand jury and was trying to find another prosecutor to handle the case.¹ As of August 2019, Coleman said no new evidence had been presented to her office, and neither Arrington nor Chief Dubose said they had new evidence to offer.⁸ No second grand jury was convened.

Goodman’s and Swearingen’s Positions

Neither Goodman nor Swearingen has been arrested or charged. Goodman has publicly denied involvement. In social media statements, she said she had “never even been named a suspect,” that the warrants Arrington drafted were “simply written up to shut Rae up,” and that “if anything was up with the ballistics or the body positioning, I would be in jail.”⁵

In May 2020, Goodman and Jett Miller filed a $47 million defamation lawsuit in Lauderdale County Circuit Court against the Andreacchio family, the producers of the “Culpable” and “Without Warning” podcasts, and a private investigator. The suit alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, claiming the defendants had falsely accused the plaintiffs of killing Christian or participating in his death. It stands by the official suicide ruling, asserting that “Christian had been suicidal and made threats to commit suicide prior to his doing so.”⁹

The Wrongful Death Suit

In 2017, the Andreacchio estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Goodman and Swearingen in Lauderdale County Circuit Court. The suit alleged that after Andreacchio was shot in their presence, the defendants failed to notify emergency responders or provide first aid, and instead traveled to a bank and attempted to withdraw money from his account.¹⁰ A final resolution to that lawsuit is not established in the public record. Nor is one for Goodman’s defamation suit.

The Mississippi Supreme Court Rulings

The family also tried to force the state’s hand in court. In March 2021, Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Charles Wright ordered Attorney General Lynn Fitch to investigate and report on the case by September 2021. In October 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously reversed that order, ruling that the judge had “acted outside its authority” and “improperly usurped the executive power of the Attorney General.” Decisions to investigate, present a case to a grand jury, or decline prosecution, the court said, rest within the “sole and sound discretion” of the Attorney General.¹¹

The estate then petitioned the circuit court to appoint a district attorney pro tempore to conduct a fresh investigation and pursue charges. The court denied the petition, and on March 21, 2024, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. It ruled the estate lacked standing, that the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights did not apply because there was no ongoing investigation or prosecution, and that Mississippi law provides no basis for a private citizen to “direct the State’s prosecutorial powers.”¹²¹³

Where the Case Stands

As of the March 2024 ruling, the family has exhausted its known avenues to force a new criminal investigation through the courts. The Meridian Police Department conducted two investigations, the Attorney General’s office presented the case to a grand jury that declined to indict, and Mississippi’s highest court has twice ruled that neither judges nor private citizens can compel the state to reopen it. District Attorney Kassie Coleman’s conditional offer to reconvene a grand jury remains open, but only on new evidence, and none has been publicly identified. Christian Andreacchio’s death is still officially classified as a suicide by the Meridian Police Department and as “undetermined” by the Lauderdale County coroner. No one has been charged.

1
CBS News. Christian Andreacchio Death Clues
2
CBS News. Christian Andreacchio Death Developments
3
People. Christian Andreacchio Death Self-Inflicted or Was He Killed
4
Mississippi Today. Death in Meridian: A Mystery Three Years Later
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True Crime News. Crime Watch Daily Investigates Mysterious Death of Christian Andreacchio
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CBS News. Christian Andreacchio Death Clues Family
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The Meridian Star. Lauderdale County Grand Jury Returns No Indictments in Andreacchio Case
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The Meridian Star. District Attorney Kassie Coleman Offers to Reopen Christian Andreacchio Case Only if New Evidence Presented
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WTOK. $47 Million Lawsuit Filed Against Christian Andreacchio Family, Media Outlets
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Mississippi Today. Family Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Unsolved Meridian Case
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Clarion Ledger. Mississippi Attorney General, No Orders to Take Cases Ruling
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Justia. In Re: Death Investigation of Christian Andreacchio
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WTOK. MS Supreme Court Releases Ruling Involving Andreacchio Family, Estate