Malaya Heun was 15 months old when she died on Jan. 22.
DHHS statement
The N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is overseeing the autopsy and toxicological reports in the Malay Heun case. The office is part of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Kevin Howell, spokesperson for DHHS, provided this statement on Friday:
"A lot of information goes into a cause and manner of death determination, and the actual performance of the autopsy is just one portion of a much larger process.
All of the physical evidence must be considered by the pathologist during the case review. This may include information from law enforcement and other sources, photographs of the decedent, x-rays, toxicological test results, histology slides, etc.
To give you additional background, the turnaround time for postmortem forensic toxicology tests can vary from a week to six months. This also depends on many factors: the number of parameters to be tested, the information received from law enforcement, the type and potency of any substance(s) suspected to be in the decedent’s body and the subsequent quality assurance review required.
Since these are forensic toxicology tests, three levels of review are conducted. Additionally, the histology slides can take weeks to prepare, and the pathologist must then review and interpret the slides for multiple organs/sites and add this information to the report.
As you can see, there are many factors that may affect the turnaround time of a medico-legal medical examiner case. However, DHHS’ Office of Chief Medical Examiner understands the importance of the timeliness and accuracy of their work to the families who are anxiously awaiting answers.
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- The father and grandmother of a 15-month-old Kannapolis girl who died in January after suffering physical and sexual abuse say they’re frustrated three months have gone by without an arrest in the case.
