Gabby Petito autopsy: Extra analysis may be needed to determine cause of death, says expert
Missing Long Island woman, Gabby Petito's case, which is nowhere close to solved has netizens on the edge, digging, spying and unfurling missing links to help bring the 22-year-old vlogger back home. Courtesy to the heights of involvement in the case, the internet was enraged when a body 'consistent with the description' of the missing Van-Life woman was found in the Wyoming park on September 19. However, it is not confirmed yet if the body was Petito's and to determine a positive identification, an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, September 21.
Now, a forensic expert has mapped 'several difficulties' that might occur during the autopsy of the body, believed to be Petito's. According to an expert, the autopsy is unlikely to provide quick and easy answers in determining the time and cause of death. The Teton County coroner, Dr Brent Blue earlier said that no preliminary findings or positive identification have yet been made on the remains.
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Forensic pathologist Dr Priya Banerjee explained on Tuesday, September 21 the possible challenges in determining the time and cause of death during an autopsy. During an appearance on 'Fox & Friends First, Dr Banerjee talked about the case and said, "I would still approach this case like any other suspicious death, take fingernails, hair, any sort of sexual assault kit. You just never know what can be found with further testing. Then even with decomposition, sometimes the bugs found on the body and other tissue changes can even tell you help you along the lines for dating — bugs, soil elements that can actually, if a forensic entomologist gets involved, they can work backwards to try to deduce a better timeline for when she was killed."
Expressing 'concern' over the amount of time that has passed, the forensic pathologist note that "everything’s going to not look like it’s supposed to be." "That [decomposition] can change not only the color of tissues, but it could potentially even hide surface defects. Once we get inside, hopefully they can see, you know, remnants of blood discoloration, whatever else, bone trauma should be readily identified. The first thing to consider is that if we think about when she was last communicated with in late August, that leads quite a bit of time for her to be deceased and for the body to decompose. So that’s going to make things a little bit more challenging, " she said. The doctor further noted to determine the cause of death, pathologists will have to "really dive in" and do "extra analysis, if you will, not only toxicology, potentially needing a forensic anthropologist, if bone traumas there, depending on the condition of the body."