Summary of tweets for Friday, April 28th - Day 13
State witness:
Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye /
Part 1
Nate Eaton
@NateNewsNow
·
4m
Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye is called to the stand. Lindsey Blake will be questioning Dye.
Dye has been an EMT for five years and an advanced EMT for 20 years.
Dye was elected in 2018. She took office in January 2019. She did a weeklong coroner school in Las Vegas and a training in Boise.
She had never been a coroner before. Her duties include responding to all unattended deaths, she makes sure the bodies get to the correct facilities, she conducts investigations and she certifies the cause of death.
Just before 6 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2019, Dye was called to an unattended death. She called Willmore to respond because Willmore lived closer than Dye. "The reporting party was very distressed and upset so I had the deputy coroner go so she could meet me on scene."
Dye arrived after Willmore. Dye says Chad was "clearly distraught, upset, crying that his wife was deceased." She says she didn't observe anything that caused concerns. Before going back to see Tammy's body, Dye spoke with Willmore and Greenhalgh in the kitchen of the home.
Chad and Garth told Dye that they moved Tammy's body back on the bed. Chad said when Tammy fell out of bed, he felt her and she was cold. He yelled for Garth and he came in to help his bad move the body back on the bed.
Chad says Tammy had a coughing fit the night before and threw up in the toilet. He said both he and Garth saw Tammy throw up in the toilet. Tammy went back to sleep after the episode, Chad said. Blake now shows a photo of the bedroom with Tammy in the bed.
Dye says there was a blood-tinged sputum coming from Tammy's mouth. Before this call, Dye had responded to 20 deaths. None of them had been death by asphyxiation.
As an EMT, Dye had seen the sputum before. She noticed a kitchen hand towel that Chad had used to wife her face with the towel. Dye also used the towel to wipe away the sputum but it kept coming out of Tammy's mouth.
Dye says there was lividity on Tammy's back - where the blood pools at the lowest point of the body due to loss of circulation. Blake is showing Dye the photos of Tammy after she died. On one photo, you can see some bruising on the upper right arm.
Dye asked Chad for more information about Tammy's health. "He said that she had been feeling really off lately - like she wasn't in her body," Dye says.
Chad said Tammy had been having some fainting episodes including one at the temple where she passed out on the floor. Chad said Tammy had very low blood pressure and wouldn't go to the doctors. He said she tried to treat everything naturally.
When Dye noticed the sputum, Chad said that Tammy had leg convulsions and said she had seizures. He did not volunteer this information until Dye asked further questions.
Dye says Chad told her that Tammy slept on the edge of the bed with her leg out of the covers because she was having hot flashes.
Dye says because the lividity was on her backside, she died while on her back. Chad said Tammy had been feeling "off" and fell outside.
She went to the doctor and had a sprain on her wrist but Chad said she was prescribed Tramadol. Chad said she had taken all the medicine and there was no bill pottle in the house.
We now see a photo of Tammy's body on the bed. The mattress is a little off of the box spring. Blake asks Dye if she moved the mattress. Dye says she did not and the photo is an accurate description of how the bed looks. Dye did not notice any head bruises.
Dye says she consulted with the detectives and the morgue about whether to do an autopsy. She says there was nothing suspicious about the scene but Dye did ask Chad how Tammy could fall out of bed if she was deceased.
He said he must have pulled the top sheet when he rolled over in his sleep releasing her because she liked to sleep on the edge of the bed.
Dye estimated the time of death for Tammy was between 12:30-2 a.m. based on the rigor mortis and lividity in her back.
After consulting with detectives, Dye decided not to have an autopsy done. Chad did not want an autopsy done. Dye completed a death certificate for Tammy Daybell. She said that Tammy died of natural causes.
Dye said that was based on information Chad and one of his daughters gave her.
Dye eventually attended an autopsy performed by a medical examiner in Utah. Boyce says we
will take a second break for the day.
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