Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Af­ter more than a month of un­cer­tain­ty, a foren­sic au­top­sy per­formed yes­ter­day morn­ing has con­firmed that 41-year-old Iyana Cas­tana­da died of nat­ur­al caus­es.

The pro­ce­dure was car­ried out in To­ba­go 36 days af­ter her sud­den death at Top Hill, Ma­son Hall. Cas­tana­da, orig­i­nal­ly from Bo­lai Trace, Chase Vil­lage in Trinidad, col­lapsed and died on April 11 while lim­ing with friends.

Her body re­mained at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary be­cause To­ba­go has no res­i­dent foren­sic pathol­o­gist. The pro­ce­dure had to be resched­uled from Tues­day af­ter the as­signed pathol­o­gist missed his flight from Trinidad.

Po­lice shared the re­sults of yes­ter­day’s au­top­sy, which ruled out foul play.

Sus­pi­cions had been raised dur­ing the ini­tial clin­i­cal au­top­sy, prompt­ing doc­tors to re­fer the case to the po­lice for a foren­sic au­top­sy.

A male friend claimed Cas­tana­da com­plained of ab­dom­i­nal pains af­ter drink­ing moringa tea. How­ev­er, an­oth­er ac­count sug­gest­ed she had en­tered a cold out­door pool af­ter cook­ing all day and was lat­er giv­en tea when she be­gan shiv­er­ing.

Arrange­ments are now be­ing made to trans­fer the body to Trinidad for bur­ial.