The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the body of the “Granby girl” said Thursday that if she did not die of suffocation due to duct tape on her mouth and nose, it is probably the one on her. torso that killed her by preventing her from breathing. The presence or absence of tape on her respiratory openings is therefore the “cornerstone” of the determination of the cause of death, launched the lawyer for the accused, who questions it.
Pathologist Caroline Tanguay, called to the bar by the Crown, undergoes her cross-examination Thursday morning at the hands of the lawyer for the girl’s stepmother, accused of her confinement and second degree murder.
Tuesday, Dr. Tanguay declared – while being questioned by the Crown – that the autopsy as such of the body of the 7-year-old child did not allow to pinpoint the cause of death, and that she therefore had to analyze the circumstances of the death in order to draw a conclusion.
Informed that one had put adhesive tape on the mouth and the nose of the child, she delivered her report with this mention: death by external suffocation.
But if this information which was transmitted to her is erroneous, the pathologist would have rather concluded with a death by “mechanical” suffocation, that is to say that the sticky paper which surrounded her thoracic cage prevented her from making the movement. back and forth needed to breathe. In short, death by suffocation all the same, but a different cause to explain the lack of air.
It was the accused’s son and the girl’s 5-year-old brother who told the police that there was tape on the girl’s face.
But Me Pénélope Provencher, also a lawyer for the accused, had made a precise cross-examination of her son last week, questioning whether he had indeed seen adhesive tape on the nose and mouth of the girl.
Since Tuesday afternoon, Me Biron has been attacking the conclusions of the forensic pathologist’s report, in order to make her say that her conclusion on the child’s cause of death depends on information given to her by third parties: if these were not correct, she could have drawn different conclusions.
As for the Crown, it puts forward this theory: the girl was found unconscious on the floor of her room in the family residence in Granby on April 29, 2019. She had been completely wrapped in adhesive tape, ran out of air, and died the next day in hospital.
The 38-year-old accused, whose identity cannot be revealed by order of the Court, has been on trial since October 19.
The final Crown witness will be heard on Thursday afternoon.