To those who thought that the US doctor, Dr Adelstein, called by the Todd's family to testify was just a vet....please read on.
The Sunday Times, 26 May 2013, page 6
Family tragedy, courtroom drama
The American medical examiner who testified last week in the Shane Todd inquiry said he did it as a courtesy to a University of Missouri colleague married to the sister of the dead man's father, Mr Rick Todd.
"The physician asked me if I would consider reviewing the case," Dr Edward Adelstein, 76, told The Sunday Times. "I said, sure."
He maintains that Dr Todd was murdered, and initially said he was strangled with a wire or cord. But testifying via video-link on Tuesday, he changed his mind and said Dr Todd was killed possibly by "more than one assassin". He arrived at his conclusions from reading the state's autopsy report and looking at "five to six" photographs of the body.
In a phone interview from Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday, he said he had not met the Todd family, and added: "I certainly didn't do this for money."
Dr Adelstein earned a masters degree in comparative pathology, and graduated as both a doctor and veterinarian from the University of Missouri. He is not a forensic pathologist, but has served as a pathologist at the Harry S. Truman Memorial VA (Veterans Administration) Hospital in Columbia. He is also a medical examiner for two Missouri counties which handle about 600 cases a year.
He said he investigates unusual or suspicious deaths or injuries, and testifies in court in 12 to 15 cases a year. He said he has seen more than 100 suicides, and "40 or 50 murders". At the time of his report on Dr Todd, he had handled 25 hangings.
He said he decided against travelling to Singapore to testify because his journalist son was against it. He said his son had feared for his own life while covering Japan's Yakuza gangsters as a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun. When he told his son and others that Singapore officials wanted him to go there to testify, he said, they told him: "We won't let you go."