An independent autopsy ordered by Quawan Charles’ family confirmed a preliminary autopsy report that his cause of death was drowning.
Quawan, 15, disappeared from his father’s home in Baldwin, Louisiana on October 30. His bloated body was found 4 days later in a sugar cane field.
The initial autopsy conducted by the coroner’s office in Iberia Parish, LA. found water in the boy’s lungs and determined the cause of death was drowning.
American forensics, the agency that performed the second autopsy, also say that the initial autopsy was thorough, according to TMZ. The second autopsy mentions no sign of trauma or natural disease, and that the body was “undergoing decompositional changes upon arrival.”
But Quawan’s family and friends refused to accept the findings of the preliminary autopsy report.
They believed he was murdered, citing a grisly photo circulating online that showed facial mutilation similar to the damage caused by small animals or marine life nibbling on his face after death.
The family’s attorney tells TMZ he’s troubled by the Sheriff’s Office’s slow response in finding Quawan — noting it took them a total of 4 days just to ping his phone on Nov. 2, which led them to his body the next day.
A final report is pending toxicology results.
