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Not enough info to confirm Serena Perry’s cause of death: pathologist

Above Watch: The Serena Perry inquest continued Tuesday with testimony from medical experts who were tasked to determine a cause of the 22-year-old’s death. Andrew Cromwell reports.

SAINT JOHN, N.B. – A pathologist who reviewed Serena Perry’s case has told a coroner’s inquest in Saint John, N.B., that there isn’t enough information to confirm a cause of death.

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Dr. Michael Pollanen, the chief forensic pathologist for the province of Ontario, was asked by Saint John Police to review Perry’s case.

He says after examining the evidence and autopsy report, neck compression is a leading consideration.

But Pollanen testified via video conference Tuesday that neck compression could occur by hanging, self-strangulation, or someone else strangling the victim.

He said there’s not enough evidence to point to any of those options.

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Perry was a psychiatric patient at Saint John’s Regional Hospital who was found unresponsive in the hospital’s amphitheatre on February 14th, 2012.

Nurses have testified that she had a hospital house coat wrapped loosely around her neck when she was found.

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