By Seamus McGraw
(Continued)
Test Results Will End the Controversy. Perhaps.
Authorities familiar with the case doubt that. They contend that while it may be a striking coincidence that the woman died two days before she was to have testified against her husband, nothing they have uncovered thus far suggests that she was a victim of anything other than her emotional upheaval.
But just to make sure, Coroner Hess is withholding a final determination on the manner of death — be it suicide or homicide - until he gets the results of his toxicology test.
The way Hess explains it, there is no doubt about the cause of death. It was, he said, clearly ligature strangulation. That was so clear, he said, that an autopsy wasn't required. "We already know the things that a basic autopsy would tell us."
But what still needs to be determined to positively rule the death a suicide is some evidence to suggest that Kristin Bean went willingly to her death. "You have to understand how I look at things," Hess said. "If I were going to hang somebody ...they're going to fight me like crazy unless... I knocked them out with a good punch or a hit over the head, or...I drugged them so that they wouldn't fight me."
Hess said he has already ruled out the former. "We really did check the body... extremely well to make sure there were no other lumps, bruises, or anything like that. We... know she wasn't knocked out because there was no indication of that kind of trauma."
That leaves drugs as the last item on the checklist, he said, and he is awaiting the results of a battery of toxicological tests before making a final determination. "We're going to wait until this one more piece of the puzzle comes back before we can say yes or no definitively," he said.
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