The LA County Coroner's office confirmed to The Burbank Leader Monday that FBI agent Stephen Ivens died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but wife Thea Ivens is taking issue with the date of death on Iven's death certificate.
Sounding off on her search site LetsBringSteveHome.com, Ivens' family said that the current date of death, July 30, "doesn't make sense at all."
In an email to The Huffington Post, Thea Ivens confirmed that she had sent a request to Detective Coroner Courtney Morrow Aug. 3, but that she would follow up after her husband's burial this Saturday.
"I feel strongly about this issue because July 30, 2012 as a date of death of my husband doesn't sound right to me," explained Ivens, "even if it's the date that he's been recovered."
Assistant chief Ed Winters confirmed to HuffPost that July 30 reflects the date Ivens' body was found, not an approximate time he died. For that, explained Winters, he had to wait for a final doctor's report to estimate the time of death. Still, he conceded, the doctor's report wouldn't be able to give a specific date of death -- just an approximation.
At this time, Winters said he hasn't heard about a formal request from the family to change Ivens' date of death.
Ivens' body was found about 300 feet behind St. Francis Xavier School in Burbank, near the home he shared with his family, reports The Burbank Leader.
In a cruel twist of fate, Thea Ivens happened to have been attending mass at St. Francis Xavier the morning after her husband's body had been discovered. In a blog post that day, she wrote, "I was in the church that morning and I was looking at the helicopters wondering why there was such a commotion in the hills. I was there that morning and I DIDN’T KNOW!"
In a later entry, Thea reflected on the experience of finding her husband's body, writing that "closure" is a relief, but the loss is still painful. "I know I’d said I wanted to know and find him in whatever state he was in but in any recovery of the missing, we always want the missing person to be alive," wrote Thea. "That’s the ultimate truth."
Ivens had been missing for 80 days before his body was discovered.
Ivens' family is laying him to rest Saturday with a funeral service at the same church near where he was discovered.
This story was updated to include Thea Ivens' email to The Huffington Post.