Report slams police for not finding dead vet on VA campus

BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Federal investigators say confusion over proper procedures at a Massachusetts Veterans Affairs hospital allowed a dead veteran to go unnoticed in a stairwell for more than a month after he was reported missing. A report issued Thursday by the VA’s inspector general found that the agency’s police failed to search the stairwell because they thought it was controlled by an organization that operated residential housing there. Police also failed to follow proper search procedures and didn’t respond quickly to questions from local police. The veteran, 62-year-old Tim White, was found just 20 yards from his room.