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Washington Post Investigations

Investigations Unit at the Washington Post. Curating investigative journalism from across the globe.

05/29/2024

For decades, Catholic priests, brothers and sisters r***d or molested Native American children who were taken from their homes by the U.S. government and forced to live at remote boarding schools, a Post investigation found.

Taken from their families and sent to remote boarding schools, Native American children often faced sexual abuse by priests, brothers or sisters who ran the facilities.

12/15/2023

Interviews with former Smithsonian employees show they faced resistance from Natural History Museum anthropologists when seeking to repatriate human remains. Our latest via Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy

Interviews with former Smithsonian employees show they faced resistance from Natural History Museum anthropologists when seeking to repatriate human remains.

12/14/2023

A 59-year-old Black woman died of epilepsy in October 1903 at the Washington Asylum Hospital, an institution that housed the District’s indigent.

Almost five months later, tuberculosis killed a 21-month-old Black toddler at Children’s Hospital in D.C.

The next month, an 11-year-old White boy died of a lung condition at Children’s.

Then one of the Smithsonian Institution’s top anthropologists, Ales Hrdlicka, took their brains for his “racial brain collection.”

The Smithsonian museum’s collection of human remains contains dozens of brains from vulnerable Washington, D.C., residents, many taken without consent.

12/14/2023

Our FOIA director, Nate Jones, helped The Post request the disciplinary record of a D.C. police officer accused of misconduct. Here’s what we found out.

D.C. police declined to release the disciplinary file of retired officer Brett Parson, and The Post sued. FOIA Director Nate Jones explains what we found out.

11/14/2023

Inconsistent laws and limited accountability make it difficult for expectant parents to evaluate a home birth midwife’s record and make an informed decision about one of the most critical events of their lives.

Infants are twice as likely to die after planned home births compared with hospital deliveries, a Post investigation found. Inconsistent laws and limited accountability make it difficult to evaluate a home birth midwife’s record.

10/23/2023

A question has haunted a Caribbean nation for 40 years: What happened to the body of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop? My colleagues spent two years investigating this mystery, and found an incredible story. Listen to our new investigative podcast here:

Listeners journey back to 1983, when Grenada’s revolutionary leader was executed in a coup, and why the location of his remains is a mystery. Now, 40 years later, there’s new information about the role of the U.S. in that timeline.

10/05/2023

Go inside our reporting with a new column from The Post’s FOIA director Nate Jones. Come for the journalism, stay for the meme…

There are countless secrets hidden in government documents. As The Post's FOIA director, I help reporters figure out how to find them. Here's how I do it.

09/08/2023

Ninety years after a physician took a young Alaska woman’s brain for a “racial brain collection” at the Smithsonian Institution, a museum official delivered her brain to her family for burial near the rest of her remains in Seattle.

The family of the woman, Mary Sara, had no idea her brain had been taken until informed by reporters.

08/30/2023

A nonprofit group has identified 115 more Indian boarding schools than has been previously reported, offering new insight into the role of religious institutions in the long-standing federal policy to eradicate Native Americans’ culture through their children.

A nonprofit Native American group has found details about 115 more Indian boarding schools in the United States.

08/17/2023

The story began in a St. Louis cemetery, where at least six Filipinos are buried. They had come from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World’s Fair, living in model villages for onlookers to gawk at their customs. They never returned home.

From the Philippine Exhibition at the 1904 World’s Fair to a collection of human remains at the Smithsonian, here’s how ‘The Collection’ project developed.

08/16/2023

Maura came from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World’s Fair. After her death, a Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain. This is her story.

Maura, a Filipino woman, died after coming to the U.S. to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. A Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain.

08/15/2023

The Smithsonian’s vast collection of human remains was mainly gathered by one man. Some called him “the bone doctor.”

Ales Hrdlicka was the head curator of physical anthropology for the Smithsonian. Aided by a global network, he collected human brains to support racist beliefs

08/14/2023

On the day Mary Sara died of tuberculosis in a Seattle sanitarium, the doctor caring for the 18-year-old offered her brain to one of the most revered museums in the world.

The Smithsonian’s human brains collection was led by Ales Hrdlicka, a museum curator in the 1900s who believed that White people were superior.

08/14/2023

The Smithsonian amassed a collection of human remains and brains for decades

The Smithsonian’s human brains collection was led by Ales Hrdlicka, a museum curator in the 1900s who believed that White people were superior.

06/20/2023

Here's the latest fallout from our investigation into retired military working for foreign governments:

The bill, which includes stiffer penalties for lawbreakers, comes in response to The Post’s investigation on the issue.

04/10/2023

Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/virus-research-risk-outbreak/

The covid-19 epidemic has challenged conventional thinking about biosafety, leading a growing number of scientists to reconsider the danger of prospecting for unknown viruses and other research with pathogens.

02/21/2023

The number of fatal police shootings across the country rose again last year, with officers killing 1,096 people, including a 2-year-old girl caught in a standoff.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/02/21/fatal-police-shootings-increase-2022/

The number rose again last year, with police killing 1,096 people, including a 2-year-old, the youngest to die since The Post began tracking fatal shootings.

12/20/2022

Neggy Shelton had been struggling to finish her 2½-hour workouts, subsisting on performance-enhancing drugs and an 890-calorie meal plan detailed by her coach, James Ayotte. “I’m very low energy and sometimes I have dizziness,” she messaged.

“No problem Do ur best,” Ayotte responded. “Just dont cheat on diet!”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/12/20/neggy-shelton-james-ayotte-bodybuilding/

A female bodybuilder has a brain injury and is on a ventilator after following a conditioning plan devised by one of the industry’s most controversial coaches.

12/12/2022

Our reporters traced the synthetic-drug crisis from the back alleys of Tijuana, Mexico, to official Washington and from warehouses in northern Mexico to neighborhoods in Utah, Colorado and San Diego. This is the story of how fentanyl became the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49.

Part 1: How presidents from both parties failed to take effective action in the face of one of the most urgent threats to the nation’s security.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/dea-fentanyl-failure/

Fentanyl presented the biggest challenge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 50-year history. It faltered, according to former agents and DEA officials.

12/06/2022

In the California town of Vallejo, population 120,000, police have fatally shot six people in the past seven years. FBI records do not include any of them.

One of the people shot was Willie McCoy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/fatal-police-shootings-unreported/

Fatal police shootings by officers in at least 2,250 departments are missing from federal records since 2015, according to The Washington Post database.

12/06/2022

“He wasn’t just a nothing. He was a person, and they killed him,” said Michelle White.

Her brother, Glen Allen White, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in Pope County, Ark., in 2020. But his death is missing from the FBI's official count of police shootings. Here's why.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/fatal-police-shootings-unreported/

Fatal police shootings by officers in at least 2,250 departments are missing from federal records since 2015, according to The Washington Post database.

12/05/2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/air-force-azerbaijani-consulting/

During the height of the war in Afghanistan, U.S. military leaders flocked to the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan to embrace its president, Ilham Aliyev, despite a report from the U.S. Embassy comparing the mustachioed strongman to mafia bosses in “The Godfather.”

Two U.S. Air Force generals — Duncan McNabb and William Fraser III — later tried to cash in on their Azerbaijan connections. One of them stood to earn $5,000 a day.

Read our latest from Craig Whitlock and Nate Jones.

The two generals oversaw key U.S. supply routes through Azerbaijan and later negotiated deals there to earn as much as $5,000 a day in retirement.

10/26/2022

"In dozens of interviews with some of the most knowledgeable people in the sport, my Washington Post colleagues and I have uncovered disturbing charges about the top bodybuilding federations in the world — and the exploitation of athletes."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/bodybuilding-then-and-now/

Immersed in the world of bodybuilding at a young age, Post reporter Desmond Butler investigates how the sport in America has changed.

10/25/2022

Officials of bodybuilding’s two premier federations have been sexually exploiting female athletes for decades — pressuring them to pose for n**e photographs, posting those photos to soft-core po*******hy sites, and, at times, manipulating contest results in favor of cooperative competitors, a Washington Post investigation has found.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/women-bodybuilding-ifbb-pro-porn/

Leaders of U.S. bodybuilding’s two premier federations oversaw decades of sexual exploitation of female athletes, The Post found.

10/23/2022

American officers have parlayed their military experience into financial gains from foreign governments since the Revolution. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/foreign-jobs-us-officers/

The “Father of the American Navy” commanded a Russian warship but said he had not forsaken the United States.

10/21/2022

More from Foreign Servants: An Army general oversaw defense policy toward Qatar as he negotiated work as a military consultant for the country.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/us-veterans-jobs-qatar-kuwait/

Documents show that several U.S. military officers sought employment with the government of Qatar after working closely with the country while on active duty.

10/21/2022

For every five people shot and killed by police, four others were shot and survived.

This is the unseen reality of police use of deadly force.

Our latest investigation from Brian Howey, Wesley Lowery, and Steven Rich.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/police-shootings-non-fatal/

An investigation into non-fatal police shootings found that for every five people shot and killed by police in these departments, four others were shot and survived. Those who survive can face serious injuries, emotional trauma and legal fallout.

10/20/2022

Two retired U.S. admirals and three former U.S. Navy civilian leaders are playing critical but secretive roles as paid advisers to the government of Australia during its negotiations to acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain. From our latest investigation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/australia-nuclear-submarines-us-admirals/

A Washington Post investigation found that the former U.S. Navy officials benefited financially from a tangle of overlapping interests.

10/19/2022

The hottest overseas job market for retired U.S. service members is a tiny Persian Gulf nation that outsources much of its military to foreign advisers and mercenaries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/uae-military-us-veterans/?itid=hp_most-read_p004_f004_2

Over the past seven years, 280 U.S. military retirees have sought federal approval to work for the United Arab Emirates — more than for any other country.

10/19/2022

UAE relied on expertise of retired U.S. troops to beef up its military
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/uae-military-us-veterans/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001

Over the past seven years, 280 U.S. military retirees have sought federal approval to work for the United Arab Emirates — more than for any other country.

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