By David Lohr

(Continued)

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Yesterday, I spoke with Dr. Cynthia Gardner, the pathologist who performed Woodring's autopsy:

"The cause of death in this case ended up being unable to be determined," Dr. Gardner said.  "He had moderate decomposition and severe coronary artery disease.  Full toxicology tests were conducted and all that was found was trace amounts of Valium."

According to Dr. Gardner, Woodring's coronary artery disease was so severe that it alone could have been the cause of death, but she felt she could not list that as the official cause.

John "Woody" Woodring

"In light of the circumstances, the suicide, and the case background, I signed it undetermined.  There was no trauma whatsoever to the body.  What could have happened is he could have ingested something that did not get picked up in any of our screens, but we did very broad screening, so it would have been something very unusual.  The reason everything took so long was because we kept going back to the toxicology tests, because that is where we thought the answer was going to be.  We pretty much exhausted everything we could do."

So, in death, Woodring again leaves us with more questions than answers.  Interestingly enough, the NCSBI has yet to close the case, and it still refuses to divulge any of the details surrounding Woody's death or the suicide note he left behind.

"The bureau has been investigating the death of Mr. Woodring and the death of his wife," Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the bureau said in a telephone interview with Crime Library yesterday afternoon.  "This is an ongoing investigation and our practice is we do not comment on details for ongoing investigations."

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Contact  David Lohr at           crimewriter74@hughes.net

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