It was sad when Daniel Smith, the 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith, died – and the birth of her new daughter just made it sadder. But it's been a week since Daniel Smith died, and now things are getting a little, well, weird.
At first it was suspected that Daniel Smith had probably suffered a heart attack, then a coroner ruled that out and labelled the death "suspicious," and now a second autopsy – ordered by Anna Nicole Smith herself and conducted by a man who helped figure out what killed Elvis – hasn't got any closer to finding out why Daniel Smith died.
There was a time when Anna Nicole Smith was like a gift from the heavens, because everything she did was ridiculous. It helped that she looked like a cartoon of a woman that Glyn from Big Brother would find attractive, but the way Anna Nicole Smith married a billionaire who was 63 years older than her – and then fought his family in the US Supreme Court for his cash – and the subsequent, and blisteringly stupid, reality programme The Anna Nicole Smith Show just went to show that Anna Nicole Smith was like an unintentional comedy Midas.
Even Anna Nicole Smith's pregnancy was surrounded with ridiculousness; she refused to comment on the pregnancy rumours for months, preferring to float around on a lilo in a swimming pool confirming her pregnancy in a video on her website. But then as soon as the baby was born, Hilariously Misguided Anna Nicole Smith turned into Tragically Grieving Mother Anna Nicole Smith. And, as most of us know, there aren't that many decent jokes about tragically grieving mothers – Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel died three days after the birth of her daughter. At the time, a statement on Anna Nicole Smith's website read:
"We have yet to learn the cause of death but do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor."
But that statement was undermined by a coroner's report which – although not naming a cause of death directly – seemed to rule out a natural death, instead hinting at drugs being a possible answer. Now Anna Nicole Smith seems to have hired a private coroner to give Daniel a second autopsy, by forensic pathologist to the stars Cyril Wecht – who was a consultant in the investigation of Elvis Presley's death. Only, Cyril Wecht didn't really learn anything new in the second autopsy either, although he has ruled out foul play:
"I don't find anything that would cause me to believe there is something in terms of some traumatic injury that was inflicted, or somebody having done something to him in some cryptic manner that could not be observed."
However, Cyril Wecht also ruled out heart disease, stroke and "congenital anomaly" as the reason that Daniel Smith died. In all, the results of toxicology tests mean that it could take weeks to discover why Daniel Smith died.
Read more:
2nd Autopsy On Smith's Son Inconclusive – ABC
[story by Stuart Heritage]