Tuesday, 11 December 2007

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Pathologist: drug cocktail killed Anna Nicole's son

Expert reveals the cause of Daniel's death

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel died as a result of a lethal combination of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro, pathologist Dr. Govinda Raju said Monday.

According to Raju, who performed the official autopsy on Smith, this particular drug cocktail is capable of becoming fatal in about five hours. Raju confirmed the findings of a doctor who privately examined the cadaver of the reality star's son in the Bahamas on Sept. 10, 2006, the very day Daniel died.

"Once you boil it all down, these were medicines treating either pain or depression," said Wayne Munroe, the lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith's attorney and companion Howard K. Stern, who was also in the hospital room when Daniel died.

Police believe Daniel Smith arrived in the Bahamas the night before his death and went directly to the hospital, where his mother had given birth two days earlier. He spent the night in a room with his mother (who was to die in February, Stern and newborn half-sister, Dannielynn, before he lost consciousness.

Testimony is scheduled to resume on the fourth day of the inquest into Smith's death on Tuesday.

Caris Davis