NASSAU, Bahamas – Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer has been authorized to bring in a private pathologist to perform a second autopsy on her son, the head coroner in the Bahamas said Friday.
The reality TV star and former Playboy playmate found her 20-year-old son Daniel Wayne Smith unresponsive Sept. 10 in her hospital room, three days after she gave birth to a daughter. She called for help but doctors were unable to revive him.
The Bahamas coroner’s office has termed Daniel Smith’s death to be “suspicious.” The term, however, meant the cause was not immediately apparent and did not necessarily imply foul play, head coroner Linda Virgill said Thursday.
The family’s pathologist will arrive from the United States on Saturday and will perform the autopsy on Sunday, Virgill said. She said Smith’s family requested it but did not specify which family member did so.
“It is nothing unusual for families to want their own pathologist to confirm or look for something that may have been overlooked” in the autopsy by the coroner’s office, Virgill said.
The results of the official autopsy, which was done Tuesday, have not been released. Virgill said a toxicology test would be completed next week.
A jury inquest, which could lead to the filing of criminal charges, is scheduled to begin Oct. 23. Witnesses including Smith, hospital staff and others who saw her son the night of his death were expected to be summoned.
Police who were called to the Nassau hospital did not find anything in Smith’s room to suggest a crime had been committed or evidence of drugs, authorities said.
Smith supports the decision to launch an inquest, said her Bahamian attorney, Michael Scott. “She fully wants this process to take place and she wishes the public to not jump to conclusions and to wait for the conclusion of the proceedings,” Scott said Thursday.
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