Daniel Smith - New Drug Link in Ana Nicole Smith's son's death
by Joal Ryan
Sep 27, 2006, 4:55 PM PT
A new suspect has been named in the Daniel Smith case: methadone.
A second round of toxicology tests reveal Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died of a toxic combo of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro.
This, according to the former E! star's privately retained pathologist, who divulged the results Wednesday.
The news marked the first time methadone was linked to Smith's Sept. 10 death.
Speaking by phone from Pittsburgh, forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht said methadone and the two antidepressants combined to fatally speed up the younger Smith's heart.
"It's not possible to say [it was] one [drug] over the other. There's no way," Wecht said. "It's a cumulative effect."
Wecht rejected the notion that the younger Smith's death was a suicide: "Absolutely not."
"Classically, you take one drug to overdose," Wecht said. "You don't need three drugs."
Rather, Wecht said, Daniel Smith's death was "a tragic, accidental drug-related death."
An earlier toxicology study turned up Lexapro and the sleeping medication Ambien, and ruled out illegal drugs.
According to Wecht, the latest pass likewise came up negative for illegal drugs and alcohol. In a twist, however, the new lab work came back negative for Ambien--and came back positive for methadone.
Wecht said he didn't know if Daniel Smith was being prescribed methadone. After speaking with Smith's family, he said, "They're puzzled, too."
Methadone is a drug most commonly associated with helping wean addicts off heroin. But in recent years, it has also been prescribed as a painkiller.
According to Smith's camp, the younger Smith was treated for back pain, as well as depression, in the weeks leading up to his death.
Vina Spiehler, a California-based expert and Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology, said accidental methadone-related overdoses have risen with the drug's use as a painkiller.
"Just as you can overdose on heroin, you can overdose on methadone," Spiehler said Wednesday. "It's not more dangerous than it used to be. It's just that people who are using it aren't [used to it]."
Death by a methadone overdose comes much like death from a heroin overdose, according to Spiehler: "You breathe less, and [eventually] you don't breathe enough to sustain life."
Howard K. Stern, Anna Nicole Smith's attorney and newly proclaimed father of her newborn daughter, told CNN's Larry King on Tuesday that the younger Smith spoke of being tired the night before his death.
"At one point, Daniel said to me, 'How come I'm so tired?' " Stern said. "And in hindsight, I wish that I had seen that as some sort of a signal and seen that something wasn't right."
The Smith camp, as well as authorities, have been seeking answers in Daniel Smith's death for more than two weeks now. Early reports out of the Bahamas, where the 20-year-old died, pegged the death as "not natural" and even "suspicious," although it was later explained officials merely meant the cause of death was not apparent.
As conflicting reports mounted, Wecht, who has written books examining the evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey murder and President Kennedy assassination, and, until a recent indictment, served as the coroner of Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, was hired by Anna Nicole Smith to perform a second autopsy.
Best known as a low-key background player on his flamboyant mother's reality show, Daniel Smith died during a hospital visit with Anna Nicole Smith and his new sibling, then just a few days old.
"I've seen the pictures of him holding the baby--smiling, loving," Wecht said Wednesday. "This is not a suicide scenario."
|
