The rumour mill is swarming with theories on the recent death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son, Daniel, who was found dead sitting in a chair next to his mother’s hospital bed, here in The Bahamas.
The buxom celebrity was still recuperating in Doctor’s Hospital, after giving birth to a baby girl only three days before.
Doctor’s Hospital is a private hospital located in Nassau and operated by a group who has recently struggled to pull the company from the clutches of financial despair, and who could ill afford a scandal that might show them to be irresponsible in any way.
There was confusion surrounding the death from the start, with one report saying the boy was found sitting upright in a chair, another saying he was found laying on his back in a hospital bed, and yet another saying he was vomiting before he died.
Originally, a local reporter from the Nassau Guardian wrote a story saying there was chaos and confusion in Anna Nicole’s room before her son died. ﾠThe report said, “Daniel was reportedly vomiting uncontrollably before he collapsed and died.”
It also reported that, “vomit and blood were splattered everywhere” and alleged that the medical team was unable to find the proper oxygen supply needed to resuscitate Daniel in time.
The Guardian report went on to say that, “according to sources close to the case, preliminary investigations revealed that various medications along with drugs were found in Daniel’s system.
“All we know right now is that he was on anti-depressants,” the source said. “Some things indicate that he probably overdosed on those drugs.”
The Plot Thickens
By the next day, the story was derided, despite the reporter herself having enough confidence in her story to retell it on Larry King Live the night before.
Also, the next day, hospital administrators strongly denied the report and threatened to sue the newspaper unless they printed a retraction. The paper did so, on page ten of their next day’s edition.
Meanwhile, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism went into damage control, sending signals to government observers that there may be more to the unfortunate incident than was being revealed.
Her Majesty’s Coroner, Linda P. Virgill, immediately deemed the death “suspicious”, which here in the Bahamas does not necessarily mean foul play was involved. Virgill clarified the term “suspicious” in a press conference the next day, saying the term simply conveyed that it was “unnatural” for a man of 20 to die so suddenly.
Rather than putting suspicions to rest, Virgill added to the mystery of it all by saying that at least one other person was in the hospital room when Daniel Wayne Smith died, yet she refused to elaborate.
“I can confirm that there was definitely a third person in the room at the time of death and I do know who that person is,” Virgill said. “But I am unwilling to reveal that information at this time for various reasons.”
Virgill said authorities believe they knew what killed Smith, but were awaiting a toxicology report to confirm the findings. The report was to be completed within days. Now, almost two weeks later, the toxicology report has still not been completed, leaving many to wonder if there isn’t tampering going on.
To make things more obscure, Virgill scheduled a Coroner’s inquest for the week of Oct. 23, saying it “is the right course of action.” She reminded reporters that if jurors at the inquest decide a crime had taken place, the case would be sent to the attorney general’s office and possible criminal charges could be filed.
Now, that left a lot of people thinking perhaps there was foul play. Those more familiar with events in the Bahamas started also thinking along the lines of illegal drugs being involved.
Quick to dismiss that line of thinking was Reginald Ferguson, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Ferguson’s comments satisfied the international media, but did little to assuage the suspicions of Bahamians, who have little confidence in their national police force.
The force is notoriously riddled with corruption. An alarmingly high percentage of crimes are perpetrated by former, off-duty and even on-duty officers. The Bahamas police have also been condemned by Amnesty International for numerous extra-judicial killings. Bahamians privately state that complaints of abusive officers routinely fall on deaf ears. To my knowledge, no Bahamian police officer has ever been sent to jail in the past five years, despite hundreds of valid complaints “investigated” during that time. There are even a few senior police officers, I have been told, that can not travel to the United States because of outstanding warrants or extradition requests.
Police believe Smith went directly to Doctors Hospital after flying into the Bahamas from Miami.
Ferguson told the Associated Press that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room or near the room. He didn’t say if there was any drug evidence in the car that transported Daniel from the airport to the hospital, nor were the other persons in the room at the time of Daniel’s death checked for drugs.
Meanwhile, Anna Nicole hired Bahamian attorney Michael Scott to represent her. ﾠIt is not known if Mr. Scott was involved in Ms. Smith’s recent purchase of a multi-million dollar home in an exclusive area of New Providence Island. Still, Mr. Scott’s 18 year-old daughter was made Anna Nicole’s personal assistant for the time she would be in Nassau.
Scott vehemently criticized the Nassau Guardian report that claimed Daniel was using anti-depressants, calling it “irresponsible speculation” and “highly prejudicial.”
Since Scott’s outburst, it has been confirmed by two separate pathologists that young Daniel was, indeed, on anti-depressants. It is widely believed he may have had other drugs in his system as well.
Contradictions in the ever-changing story, Coroner Virgill’s cryptic comments, the delayed – now cancelled inquest… all seem to indicate a typical cover-up of sorts by the Bahamas government, in an effort to protect somebody.
But who?
Then, came a bombshell. The Tribune newspaper, the most credible source of information in The Bahamas, weighed in with new and detailed information Bahamians could trust. Managed by a foreigner with a disdain for Bahamian corruption, the well-respected paper reported that “20 year-old Daniel Wayne Smith, had been dead ‘for some time’ before hospital officials were called in to perform advanced life saving procedures.”
The Tribune reported that officials were still not prepared to speak about exactly what happened in the hospital room that night. But they also reported that a patient in the room next door to Anna Nicole heard Ms. Smith shouting, “You caused this,” to someone else in the room at the time.
Also, according to the Tribune, Magistrate Virgill was now denying a report in the Associated Press stating that a third person had been in the room at the time of Daniel’s death.
“No, that is incorrect. Yes, a question was asked of me whether or not a third person was in the room. I said that I could not confirm that. What I could say is, that based on the police report there may have been other persons or person in the room.”
Ms Virgill also said, according to the Tribune, that she had spoken with Anna Nicole but would not share that discussion with the press, as Ms. Smith will be called as a witness in the (now cancelled) inquest.
The Tribune reported on another cryptic statement from Virgill, “What I am saying is, on examination of the body there are no visible signs of injuries to the body. No physical injuries. And that is why you need an inquest, because even though you have the medical cause of death, we need legally to have the legal cause of death. So when I use the word ‘no external injury’, we are talking about physical injuries,” she said.
Now, to laymen, it sounds like she was couching her words by over-clarifying that there was “no external injury”, as if there may have been an “internal injury” that was not being disclosed.
The next day, the whole story changed as the Bahamas Police took the lead in communications with the press.
Despite Coroner Virgill’s confirmation only a day earlier that the cause of the mysterious death of 20-year-old Daniel Wayne Smith was known, police officials now said otherwise.
Once again, Assistant Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson, this time flanked by members of the investigating team, said Daniel’s cause of death was not known.
“We await the results of the toxicological and other analysis and the autopsy. A death certificate has not been issued,” said Mr. Ferguson, who kept a close lid on any other details surrounding the case.
Police also confirmed that the “mysterious” other person in the hospital room at the time of Daniel’s sudden death was Ms. Smith’s US attorney and family friend, Howard K. Stern.
It was Mr. Stern who reportedly picked Daniel up from the Lynden Pindling airport following a flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday and drove him straight to Doctors Hospital.
Ms. Smith’s Bahamian attorney, Michael Scott, said that, with one exception, Mr. Stern and Daniel spent the entire evening with Ms. Smith in her hospital room.
The one exception, he said, was when Mr. Stern left to get food.
He also said that, “the devastation and grief over Daniel’s death, coupled with sedation, has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event. It was necessary for Howard to tell Anna again that Daniel had passed away.”
Second Autopsy
On Friday, less than a week after Daniel’s demise, Coroner Virgill said she has authorized Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer to bring in a private pathologist to perform a second autopsy on her son.
“It is nothing unusual for families to want their own pathologist to confirm or look for something that may have been overlooked” in the autopsy by the coroner’s office, Virgill said.
Dr. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist and former coroner was hired by Anna Nicole Smith to perform the second autopsy on her son’s body. He is the one who signed Daniel’s death certificate.
Wecht is the disgraced former Allegheny County coroner who Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have accused of using his public office for private gain. He is charged with 84 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and theft of services. A perfect candidate if one were interested in covering up a mysterious death in The Bahamas.
Dr. Wecht was the first official involved in the death of Anna Nicole’s son who went on the record, stating that drugs may have killed Daniel Smith.
He also concurred with other medical experts who carried out the initial autopsy that foul play was not suspected.
“It could be a drug-related death of an accidental nature,” Dr. Wecht said. However, he disagreed with the Coroner of the Bahamas who claimed the cause of death had been established to a certainty.
Another official connected with the investigation said that the drugs in question “were prescription, not illegal.” The source added that Daniel had “a combination” of anti-depressants and other prescriptions in his system, although it is believed that Daniel had only one legal prescription in his name at the time of his death.
Coroner’s Inquest Cancelled
Coroner Linda Virgill’s insistence on getting to the bottom of the “suspicious” Daniel Smith death may have prompted the Bahamas government to disband the Coroner’s Court completely.
Nine days after scheduling an inquest into Daniel’s “suspicious” death, the Bahamas government abruptly, and without explanation, reversed the policy governing the efficient investigation of sudden and unexplained deaths in The Bahamas.
“This abrupt change of policy must be fully explained to Bahamians,” the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) party said in a press release.
“The system of having a specialized Coroner’s Court has worked well over the past 13 years,” FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham said.
“The need for an efficient system to investigate sudden or suspicious deaths is a matter of grave importance to bereaved family members of deceased persons and to the peace and good order of The Bahamas,” Mr. Ingraham stated, adding that, “when returned to office, by the will of The Bahamian people, I commit that the FNM government will amend the Coroners Act to constitute specialty Coroners’ Courts, so that all unexplained deaths will be promptly and efficiently investigated, as has been the case since 1993.”
According to a Supreme Court Memorandum signed by Bahamas Supreme Court Chief judge, Burton Hall, the practice of designating a particular magistrate’s court as the Coroner’s Court – which began in 1993 with the appointment of Winston Saunders as coroner – has been scrapped.
“In the extraordinary cases in which it is necessary to hold an inquest, the facilities now available to accommodate a jury will be accessible to any magistrate qua coroner,” Hall said in a memo, dated September 18.
The chief justice did not provide a reason for his decision.
The FNM in its statement also said it is dismayed that this sudden change in judicial policy was precipitated by the death of Daniel Smith.
Special Treatment
The FNM statement added, “The Free National Movement is also disturbed over the special treatment being dished out to Ms. Anna Nicole Smith by a government which hastily gave her permanent residency; and by a government whose Minister of Labour and Immigration, the Hon. Shane Gibson, has been known to personally visit Ms. Anna Nicole Smith at her dwelling home and, during her recent moment of deep personal loss and distress, at her hospital bed.”
Asked last night whether he visited Ms. Smith, Minister Gibson said, “I’ve met with lots of high profile individuals from before I was a member of the government and so meeting high profile individuals is nothing new to me.”
He refused to say whether he had visited Ms. Smith in hospital. “Is that important?” he asked. “What would be the significance of that?”
He said however that he does know Ms. Smith personally.
Minister Gibson was also asked by The Bahama Journal whether Ms. Smith got her permanent residency quickly.
“She got treatment that we tried to give to every economic permanent resident applicant,” he said, but refused to confirm how long it took Ms. Smith to get her permanent residency. He said he would have to get the specific time and did not know that at that time.
There are so many strange occurrences surrounding Daniel Smith’s death, it would be most irresponsible of The Bahamas government to not hold an inquest into his demise. As originally stated by (former) Coroner Virgill, it is “unnatural” for a man of 20 to die so suddenly.
Unsubstantiated rumours on the street are that Daniel allegedly died after ingesting illegal drugs that may have been supplied by someone close to the Bahamas government. Sources speculate that the illegal drugs may have mixed with Daniel’s prescription medication causing a fatal reaction.
The rumours are fueled by the fact that the results of the toxicology report have been delayed twice and will not be made public, the Coroner was dismissed, the coroner’s inquest was cancelled and a disreputable ‘freelance’ coroner may have been brought in from the US to perhaps create a more palatable story as to how Daniel died.
Whether it was an overdose of one prescription drug, a combination of prescription drugs, an interaction between legal and illegal drugs or some other reason, the cause of death must be made known to the public, who demand, and have a right to know.
With the reputation for cover-up and crime that plagues the Bahamas government, it is important that the international media scrutinize the actions and statements of Bahamian officials very carefully. After all, these are the exact same individuals who allowed Carlos Lehder, the notorious Columbian drug dealer, to own a Bahamas island for the sole and exclusive purpose of packaging and smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States, in the late 1980s.
Same party, same people. In fact, the current Governor General of The Bahamas, Arthur Hanna, was Deputy Prime Minister to the unfathomably corrupt Lynden Pindling, the Bahamas Prime Minister who was Mr. Lehder’s business associate.
So Much For Investigative Journalism
It is a bit strange that no one in the international media sees any connection between the cancellation of the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Daniel Smith, and the abrupt disbanding of the Coroner’s court.
It is a shame that these professional journalists from around the world do not see a red flag in the flip-flopping of statements from Bahamian officials and the ever-changing story of what happened in that hospital room the night Daniel died.
It is scary that the world’s press is so gullible, and so naive, that they do not question the unusual delay in the completion of the toxicology report, or the hiring of an allegedly untrustworthy pathologist to possibly fabricate a death certificate.
No wonder it took years to figure out the details behind the deaths of John Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and others. There are too many reporters willing to bury the facts at the request of celebrities in exchange for later press access. And in The Bahamas, there are too many government officials willing to cover-up scandals and break the law for a buck.
