A friend's death was classified as cocaine poisoning (i.e., overdose), due to 3.0 mg/L of benzoylecgonine in her blood, collected from the aorta post-mortem. The autopsy report said she had received a blow to the abdomen prior to death, causing a ruptured spleen and the loss of an estimated 500 cc of blood into her abdomen. The ME ruled cause of death as cocaine poisoning and the police did not question the person found with her about the blow to the abdomen. Given the level of cocaine her system, measured by the benzoylecgonine and 0.74 ecgonine methyl ester, was the blow to the abdomen and blood loss likely to be a contributing factor in her death? She had multiple bruises over her body as well. I know this is rather detailed, but the question has been nagging at me for a while.

Sentra

I don't mean to pry, but does this have something to do with a case?

xibalba

A closed case, as far as everyone is concerned. No charges, no investigation, no interest from the authorities. They said "cocaine overdose", case closed, did not address the bruising or ruptured spleen.

Sentra

I am assuming this is about a friend of yours or someone closer, and I honestly wish they could have done more. Was the person they found with her, someone who 'found' her or were they considered a suspect?

I am curious as to how you got the details of the autopsy report.

xibalba

The ME's office gave me a copy of the autopsy report and coroner's report because I was her fiancee. She died at the home of an acquaintance she knew vaguely who passed himself of as her boyfriend, at least at the time. He had made sexual advances to her in the past and she had turned him down pretty bluntly. They accepted his story without any investigation at all, which they pretty much admit. He claims he doesn't know anything about what happened to her, even though he admits she was with him for about 36 hours before her death. I try not to think about what happened in those hours. An independent medical examiner, a friend of her family, said she had beaten and probably raped, based on the pattern of bruises. The official story is she overdosed on cocaine, end of story.

He got 3 years probation for possession of drugs.