XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.law-enforcement, alt.true-crime   
   XPost: misc.legal   
   From: vox@popu.li   
      
   crosem@earthlink.net wrote:   
   > SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son   
   > died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressant   
   > drugs, a U.S.-based pathologist who conducted a private autopsy said   
   > Wednesday.   
   > Toxicology tests showed Daniel Smith had methadone, Zoloft and   
   > Lexapro in his system when he died September 10 in a hospital room in   
   > the Bahamas where his former Playboy Playmate mother was recuperating   
   > from giving birth to a daughter, according to Cyril Wecht.   
   >   
   > "The fact that we have these drugs and the levels of the drugs   
   > overwhelmingly and most logically point to this being a tragic,   
   > accidental, drug-related death," Wecht said from his home in the   
   > Pittsburgh area.   
   > Wecht said Smith apparently died from a "classical" combination of   
   > the drugs which had a lethal "cumulative effect on the central   
   > nervous system."   
   > "Coroners working around the country, we see this in people taking   
   > two or three drugs or more," he said.   
   >   
   > Smith had been reported to be suffering from depression in the weeks   
   > before he went to the Bahamas to visit his reality TV star mom and   
   > his newborn half-sister. Zoloft and Lexapro are antidepressants   
   > commonly prescribed for patients with anxiety and panic disorders.   
   >   
   > Methadone, a pain-reliever, is also commonly used by people   
   > recovering from drug addictions.   
   >   
   > "It is used for people who have been on heroin or morphine," Wecht   
   > said. "I have made those inquiries. I can only say to you no one has   
   > suggested anything having to do with drug addiction in this boy."   
   >   
   > Wecht said he would share his results Thursday with the pathologist   
   > who conducted the official autopsy in the Bahamas, but did not know   
   > whether they would issue a joint report on the death.   
   >   
   > In Nassau, Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said he has not yet received   
   > official toxicology results, which will determine whether or not a   
   > jury inquest into the death is necessary.   
   >   
   > Smith's body remained at a Bahamas funeral home hired by the family   
   > Wednesday.   
   >   
   > Howard K. Stern, a lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith who was in the   
   > hospital room when Daniel died, told CNN's "Larry King Live" on   
   > Tuesday that he is the father of the 3-week-old baby girl, Dannie   
   > Lynn Hope.   
   > But photographer Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Anna Nicole   
   > Smith, told Us Weekly magazine that he's the father and is seeking a   
   > DNA test to prove it.   
   >   
   > Stern said he plans to marry Smith "at some point."   
   >   
   > "Right now we have to somehow get through what we're going through,"   
   > said Stern, adding: "And I'll tell you, our baby is the one ray of   
   > hope."   
   > Daniel Smith, who appeared several times on the E! reality series   
   > "The Anna Nicole Show," was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith,   
   > who married in 1985 and divorced two years later.   
   >   
   > Anna Nicole married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994,   
   > when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year and she has   
   > since been involved in legal disputes over the estate.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)