“But in your hypothetical it’s a case of the same person saying three different things. In the actual case before us it’s a matter of three different persons at differing times who had differing levels of information saying different things.”
No it isn’t three different people. First, the USCG Commander, was reporting a cause of death, severe internal injuries, which could be visible on the outside of the body. The Commander or someone in search and rescue came to that determination. Why? They just made it up? They were flustered? Search and rescue don’t get flustered, particularly USCG.
The second cause of death, drowning was made by the medical examiner, after the autopsy was completed and recorded by the Maui Detective, who is also a Deputy Coroner, and whose job it is to record in a report the results of the autopsy. And so she did.
The third cause of death, cardiac arrhythmia, was, again we have to assume, made by the M.E., because her name is on the autopsy report.
OK, correction, make that two different persons with one who changed her mind.
But the question remains. No one among these persons or any other related to this crash/death has suggested in the least that Fuddy's death was the result of criminal activity; so why does it matter if the "true" cause of her was drowning versus arrhythmia versus internal trauma? A plane crash suffered by time in water in 5 foot waves could plausibly result in any of these options. Unless you're an immediate family member someday having to answer a medical form question ("Has anyone in your family suffered from heart condition or disease?"), the distinction seems utterly irrelevant.
The article doesn't tackle this question. Perhaps you can try.
Thanks for clearly showing the sequence of autopsy result events you outlined,
Thinking about the four possibilities in butterdezillion post #193, and whether that rule she mentions applied.
Could there have been confusion about jurisdiction; one person being specific and another not?
IIRC, county areas extend for some amount of miles out into the nearby water.
I remember maps of Los Angeles showing the border of L.A. county with Orange county, extending out into the water.