why do high profile autopsies take weeks or months to complete? what info delays an official report?
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I’ve wondered the same thing, and what I imagine is they want to make sure everything is correct and 100% before they make it public/ finalize it. Especially high profile, because imagine if a celebrities autopsy results leak, and later on they are changed/ there are things added to it. This is just what I think! I know nothing
It’s not that the Autopsy takes that long but there are toxicology and other investigative tools that they have to use in-order do make sure everything is in order. Also, they generally don’t release the information unless there’s a criminal investigation – they let the family do that how they wish.
The actual autopsy is done very soon after death in order to get the best understanding of the physiological condition of the person before and immediately after the time they died. Things like embalming can get in the way of that. The fast turn around also allows the body to be returned to the family as soon as possible to minimize further trauma on their part.
The part that takes weeks is the testing of blood and tissue samples. Comprehensive chemical analysis can create a better picture of why the physical findings of the autopsy were what they were and possibly what directly or indirectly caused the person to die. This analysis has to done under the management of specific authorities (like a medical examiner’s office) and the timeline is dependent on things like resources and their caseload. Sometimes tests have to be redone due to inconclusive results or lab error, which delays it further.
After the results from the testing come back, they have to be reviewed by all relevant parties (in America it tends to be the pathologists, the medical examiner, detectives) and discussed privately with the next of kin before any findings would be made public.
short answer: the chemical analysis’ used in the process take time to complete
long answer:
if they find anything suspicious, they have to send it to the lab in order to do tests or examine it more closely.
some tests have to be repeated many times to achieve a significant result/to make sure that the conclusion is correct.
labs that do such work have thousands of such test to run.
if the forensic suspect a toxic substance that was the cause of death, the coroner must draw samples and label them, later they must be sent to a lab expert who can attempt to identify any toxic substances.
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