Fuhrman: Schiavo's Collapse Still a Mystery

While Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin suggested yesterday that his autopsy of Terri Schiavo had cleared up most of the questions raised by critics of the court-ordered decision to starve her to death, renowned homicide detective Mark Fuhrman insists that key aspects of the case remain in doubt.

Fuhrman, whose book on the Schiavo case, "Silent Witness," is due out on June 28, told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity yesterday that the most glaring mystery about the case remains unsolved: What was the cause of Schiavo's initial collapse on the night of Feb. 25, 1990? "With what we saw in the autopsy and Dr. Throgmartin's [comments], we still don't know [why she collapsed]," said the former LAPD detective, whose book "Murder in Greenwich" was credited with solving the mysterious killing of Connecticut teen Martha Moxley more than two decades after it happened.

In fact, said Fuhrman, Schiavo's autopsy proved only that her injuries remain "unexplained," especially in light of Throgmartin's conclusion that she did not have a heart attack.

"We [still] do not know why she collapsed, why she was in a coma, why her brain was deprived of oxygen," Fuhrman said.

That last question is key, he told Hannity. "If she didn't have a heart attack, and if her heart had no damage, then her heart wasn't the reason that she was deprived of oxygen. Something else occurred that deprived her of oxygen."

While Throgmartin said his autopsy showed that there was "no evidence" of strangulation, that claim may not be as conclusive as it sounds, the renowned detective said, explaining, "There are many ways that there would not be evidence [of strangulation], especially after 15 years."

"There are other ways of depriving someone of oxygen that are very soft. The most common is someone in their sleep with a pillow over their face," the former LAPD detective said. He noted also that a police choke hold could deprive someone of oxygen while leaving no evidence of strangulation.

Fuhrman declined to go into detail about other aspects of his Schiavo investigation, but he told Hannity that there are serious problems with the timeline on the night of Terri's collapse.

"The timeline will kill you every time," he said.