March 01, 2007
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, the Broward County medical examiner assigned to the ANNA NICOLE SMITH case, tells ET it will be nine or 10 days before he's able to put all the clues together to determine what exactly killed Anna.
Anna's death certificate was released late Wednesday afternoon, but with one piece of vital information missing.
"The death certificate says cause of death pending, manner of death pending," Dr. Perper says. "There are still tests underway until the final determination is made."
Dr. Perper recently interviewed both MOE, Anna's friend and bodyguard, and his wife, TAZ, who were with Anna in her final minutes. The medical examiner says their information is another clue in solving the puzzle.
Another clue might come from FRANK RODRIGUEZ. Rodriguez says Anna secretly confided in him that she had the autoimmune disease lupus.
"The coroner is going make sure that he does not overlook it," he says, adding that it feels good to know he might be able to help in the investigation into the cause of her death.
While Dr. Perper said he would not speculate as to lupus or any other rumored cause of death, such as pneumonia or a possible drug overdose, he did say Anna's body is ready to be released for burial immediately. His former colleague, forensic pathologist DR. CYRIL WECHT -- who was hired by Anna to perform her son DANIEL's autopsy -- has his own theory as to what killed the former Guess model.
"I believe very firmly that methadone was not involved in the death of Anna Nicole Smith," Dr. Wecht tells ET. "It is possible that there may have been other drugs involved, any combination she was taking, she was ill."
Wecht says he has not seen any toxicology reports concerning Anna but questions that, even if she had lupus, he doesn't believe it would have been a factor in her untimely death.
Yeah, see - ET gets one more sentence of Wecht's video footage than The Insider gets because its audience is smaller, lol.
I wonder if Dr. Pepper interviewed Bridgett?
And, if the flowers aren't plastic, the funeral won't be tacky enough.