QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Trussell’s parents say that because the stomach contents were never tested, it’s impossible to confirm all the pills were Adderall, despite that being the central piece of evidence in the suicide ruling. “There is no way that could be Adderall,” Joe Trussell said. “Nobody in the world has that much Adderall. It’s strictly regulated.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The family said Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson told them in March that he didn’t believe a crime was committed. They believe the sheriff’s office ruled out other possibilities prematurely. “I get it – that it would be really weird, and it would be rare, for somebody to force her to ingest something,” (Vanessa) Diaz said. “But what if somebody was covering up something else that they did, and they [the sheriff’s office] just stopped looking after they saw that in her stomach.”
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STORY: "Megan Trussell’s death was ruled a suicide by Boulder County. Her family fought to have key evidence tested, by Reporter Brooke Stephenson, published bye The Boulder Reporting Lab, on July 6, 2025. (Brooke Stephenson is a reporter for Boulder Reporting Lab, where she covers local government, housing, transportation, policing and more. Previously, she worked at ProPublica, and her reporting has been published by Carolina Public Press and Trail Runner Magazine. Most recently, she was the audience and engagement editor at Cardinal News, a nonprofit covering Southwest and Southside Virginia.)
SUB-HEADING: "The official ruling relies heavily on the large volume of pill material found in the CU student’s stomach, which was not tested at the time but will be now."
GIST: "On May 27, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office announced that Megan Trussell, an 18-year-old CU Boulder student who went missing in February, had died by suicide “as a result of the toxic effects of amphetamine” — a key ingredient in Adderall — with hypothermia as a contributing factor.
Trussell’s parents, Joe Trussell and Vanessa Diaz, have questioned that conclusion. They say the coroner’s office and sheriff’s department failed to provide sufficient evidence to support a suicide determination and did not fully investigate other possibilities. Trussell had no recorded history of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts, the family said.
“They did the bare minimum to prove that it was a suicide and nothing more,” Joe Trussell told Boulder Reporting Lab.
The suicide determination was based on Trussell’s presumed emotional state when she left her dorm and two pieces of physical evidence: the high level of amphetamine in Trussell’s blood, and the “abundant” volume of pill material found in her stomach, which was not tested. The coroner’s office has since agreed to conduct that test at the urging of her parents.
Forensic pathologists typically determine the manner of death as one of five options: natural, accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined. Trussell’s parents believe it should have been ruled accidental, undetermined or even possibly homicide.
Disputed autopsy details
According to Boulder County Deputy Coroner Kolleen Hancock, the office followed the National Association of Medical Examiners’ manner of death classification guide, distinguishing suicide from accidental death based on whether the act appeared intended to cause harm or death.
Hancock said the office “considered multiple factors, including the law enforcement investigation, toxicology testing and examination of the body.”
Trussell was last seen after leaving her CU Boulder dorm room the night of Feb. 9 following a fight with her boyfriend and roommate. She was found dead nearly a week later near Mile Marker 40 of Boulder Canyon. Her purse, found separately, contained an empty pill bottle from her Adderall prescription — 25 mg, according to Diaz. Another pill bottle with Trussell’s name on it was found near a backpack in the culvert where her body was located. Diaz said the bottle in Trussell’s purse was a slow-release prescription, while the one near her body was immediate-release.
CU police found four additional empty bottles in her room. Her parents said those bottles weren’t evidence of stockpiling pills, but rather signs of their daughter being a “sloppy kid” who didn’t throw empty bottles out.
Meredith Frank, the forensic pathologist on the case, told the family that the sheer quantity of pills in Trussell’s stomach led her to conclude it was suicide, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by Boulder Reporting Lab.
“The only fatal condition is that her entire upper esophagus and stomach was filled with pill material. It’s the most I’ve ever seen in my 14 years of experience,” Frank told the family in the June 4 meeting. “I have never seen this distention of the lumen and the esophagus by pill material.”
Trussell’s parents say that because the stomach contents were never tested, it’s impossible to confirm all the pills were Adderall, despite that being the central piece of evidence in the suicide ruling.
“There is no way that could be Adderall,” Joe Trussell said. “Nobody in the world has that much Adderall. It’s strictly regulated.”
Toxicology reports showed 1,900 ng/mL of amphetamine in Trussell’s blood, a toxic level according to the autopsy. In fatal amphetamine-related cases, blood concentrations have been reported to begin at approximately 500 ng/mL, according to Hancock, the deputy coroner. Other than a low level of phenylpropanolamine, which appears in a few over-the-counter drugs, an initial toxicology test for over a dozen substances did not reveal anything.
Henrik Druid, a forensic pathologist and professor of forensic medicine in Stockholm, told Boulder Reporting Lab the concentration of amphetamine in the blood was “certainly high, but not necessarily toxic.” He added: “Many chronic amphetamine addicts will achieve this blood level shortly after administration (whether it is by injection, snorting or oral intake).” Trussell had been prescribed Adderall since 2019, according to her parents. Druid has performed more than 6,500 autopsies and has conducted postmortem studies on hypothermia.
Following pressure from the family, the coroner’s office agreed in early June to test the stomach contents. The results are expected sometime between now and August.
County Coroner Jeff Martin told the family on June 4 that the office is open to reconsidering a ruling if new evidence emerges.
“In the medicolegal industry, our cases are never considered what you would call ‘closed,’” he said. “Any information that comes forward at any point in time, we are always welcome to receive that information and amend the death certificate appropriately.”
But in that same meeting, Frank, the pathologist on the case, told the family that even if the stomach contents showed a different substance, it wouldn’t change her conclusion. “She could have a completely other intoxicating substance that’s not in the blood but that wouldn’t change how I’ve interpreted the case,” she said.
Trussell’s parents are also questioning “blunt force injuries” noted in the autopsy, including chipped teeth, facial bruising and bruises on her arms and legs. Frank said they were consistent with a fall.
The family said Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson told them in March that he didn’t believe a crime was committed. They believe the sheriff’s office ruled out other possibilities prematurely.
“I get it – that it would be really weird, and it would be rare, for somebody to force her to ingest something,” Diaz said. “But what if somebody was covering up something else that they did, and they [the sheriff’s office] just stopped looking after they saw that in her stomach.”
The sheriff’s office defended its handling of the case, saying Johnson met with the family after investigators had reviewed all available evidence and the coroner had completed the autopsy.
“At the time he met with the family on March 10, the Coroner’s Office had completed their autopsy examination and found no evidence that Megan had been physically harmed by another person,” a spokesperson for the office told Boulder Reporting Lab, adding that Sheriff Johnson believes that his detectives and deputies conducted a thorough investigation based on all available evidence, including security footage, cell phone records, key card access logs and witness statements.
The timing of the autopsy report’s release — which is separate from the examination — was a point of frustration for Trussell’s parents, who began asking for it weekly in April and eventually received it on May 23.
What the outside experts said
Boulder Reporting Lab contacted the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to identify forensic pathologists who could offer an outside perspective. The academy shared the case details with its members, and those who responded were primarily semi-retired professionals willing to speak without financial compensation. We ultimately spoke with three forensic specialists for their opinion of the Boulder County autopsy. Two would go on the record.
Ronald Wright, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in Broward County, Florida, said he agreed with the autopsy findings and suicide determination. Druid, the Swedish forensic pathologist, said he believed hypothermia was more likely the primary cause of death but thought suicide was a reasonable ruling based on the overall evidence.
“The large number of pills found in the esophagus and stomach supports suicide as the manner of death (and the high amphetamine concentration too),” he wrote.
Some forensic experts say suicide determinations are relatively uncommon in the absence of a known history of suicidal ideation or a suicide note, and that undetermined might be a more conservative ruling in such cases.
In the meantime, as they await the results of testing to determine exactly what pill material was in Trussell’s stomach contents, her parents are continuing to press the sheriff’s office to further investigate details of the case — including Trussell’s missing shoe, a tarp found near her body (according to some reports) and an unhoused person who had possession of her phone."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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