Fresh mysteries in deaths of Anna Nicole and Daniel Smith spark public anger
By Jeffrey Jolson
‘(Perper himself would of course never say KE did anything wrong).’
Perper is starting to remind me of Sargent Shultz of Hogan’s Heroe’s
I KNOW NOTHIN
Anna Nicole: New Mysteries and Renewed Outrage
Fresh mysteries in deaths of Anna Nicole and Daniel Smith spark public anger
By Jeffrey Jolson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/5/07 – Anger and a renewed sense of injustice in the Anna Nicole Smith saga echoed on blogs and TV yesterday after a new disclosure that Howard K. Stern’s name was on eight of the 11 prescriptions that contributed to her death while a number of mysteries surrounding his actions on the night of her son’s death were highlighted from anticipated testimony from the inquest into his death.
Meanwhile, those waiting for the true father of Anna Nicole’s baby Dannielynn will have to wait until Tuesday when the paternity suit reconvenes as the doctor who conducted the DNA test in Ohio is to be flown in. It is considered a good sign for Larry Birkhead. “Why would the doctor make this trip to the Bahamas to simply say (Birkhead) is not the father?” asked Dr. Michael Hunter on CNN, and explained that if Birkhead was the father, testimony about the DNA procedures and findings would be essential.
Yet there were plenty of other bombshells bursting in the Anna Nicole case. And not all about Stern. Broward County, FL medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper, who still makes some observers shriek by insisting there was “no foul play,” revealed there were 11 prescriptions in the hotel room when she died and not only were eight in Stern’s name, but all 11 were from the same psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. Furthermore, some 600 pills were missing from the bottles, though they were dated less than five weeks earlier.
He did not seem to think the fact that many of the prescriptions, including the ultimately fatal choral hydrate, were in Stern’s name was of any consequence because of her um, acting career. “I was really not shocked because my understanding is that actresses do not want to appear that they have any disease. They have to be perfect, so I can understand this kind of subterfuge,” he told Showbiz.
Like many doctors he was protective of the profession and reluctant to even point a finger at Eroshevich. “A medical examiner does not get into quality of care. Before I criticize another physician I need to know on what basis she made her decision. Sometimes a physician prescribes a number of medications. Whether that was correct prescription in this case is another question.”
Medical boards are likely to have a different attitude and it might even be a good time for Dr. Eroshevich, as the saying goes, to “lawyer up.” Not that this case needs any more, though we understand Debra Opri is available. Birkhead let her go and she sent the photographer a $620,000 bill that included money for her personal publicist, a $2,500 dinner and 18 limo trips.
Another mystery about the medication is the 600 missing pills, which Perper also did not think indicated foul play because – get this – there was no confession. “We didn’t see those hundreds of pills in her body. Sometimes when there a lot of pills at the scene of a death, people take away pills. We can’t make a determination unless someone confesses or there is other evidence pointing to that.”
And yet none of this evidence, or court testimony that Stern was feeding her drugs from a duffel bag full of pills, seemed to motivate the Seminole police chief Charlie Tiger who said “This is an accidental overdose with no criminal elements present.”
In light of his failure to reveal this when he reported his finding on March 25, another inconsistency is seen in new light. Perper also in his very first press conference after her death that there was no needle marks. He said later that there was a large abscess on her buttocks from a dirty needle injection – hard to miss even if a small puncture could have been overlooked earlier. Furthermore, she reportedly had developed scar tissue from injecting herself so many times in her thighs.
Records show Smith had three prescriptions for muscle relaxants in her hotel room: two for carisoprodol, prescribed Jan. 2 and Jan. 26, and one for methocarbamol, under the brand name Robaxin, prescribed Jan. 2. Some 415 of the carisoprodol pills were missing from their containers as well as 33 of the Robaxin pills, according to the documents.
Also missing were 79 tablets of the anti-seizure medications Topomax and Klonopin; and at least two dozen diuretics, antibiotics, antivirals and potassium supplements.
Other whole bottles of medication may have been removed as well. The newly disclosed documents did not mention methadone or the anti-anxiety pill Ativan, both of which were found in Smith’s system. Also missing from the report was disclosure on who prescribed human growth hormone Smith was said to have been taking around the time of her death.
Further mysteries can be found in the cause of death inquest in son Daniel’s death, 45 minutes away from Florida in the Bahamas. That case is stalled too, as Stern’s lawyers try to debate the Coroner’s Law in the Bahamian Constitution that allows seven jurors to be appointed in an inquest without being examined for bias by Stern. Virgie’s attorney John O’Quinn said “Stern has figured out that he wins with delay. He wins if no decision is made.”
That’s not the mystery, though it is confounding the courts there should be discussing this in April when he died last September. What’s more baffling is Stern’s actions before the 20-year-old was found dead in his mother’s hospital room. Among the witnesses and reports to be examined in court is a report from one of the nurses at the nursing station that after Stern picked up Daniel at the airport at 10:30 at night, that he went out for food for everybody to a local mini-mart and came back without any food.
He went out a second time in the middle of the night, between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, and then came back just hours before Daniel died. “This is very strange,” said Tom Stern of In Touch Weekly. “The biggest mystery of all, are these alleged bruises on Daniel`s body. The initial police reports said there were no bruises on Daniel`s body. Now we are hearing that there may actually have been bruises under the arm. There may have been bruises on the hips and in the pelvis area, and that one doctor may testify in the inquest that these were not administered during the efforts to resuscitate him.”
Some will say the biggest mystery is why we still care. Yet with new plot twists like this each day, it can be as hard put down as a whodunit book.
YEs indeed.