Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The foren­sic au­top­sy on the body of 41-year-old Iyana Cas­tana­da had to be de­layed once again—this time be­cause the pathol­o­gist sched­uled to per­form it missed his flight to To­ba­go.

Of­fi­cials con­firmed the pro­ce­dure was sched­uled for yes­ter­day morn­ing, but arrange­ments are be­ing made to resched­ule. It means Cas­tana­da’s body will re­main at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary, where it has been since April 11, when Cas­tana­da col­lapsed and died at Top Hill, Ma­son Hall.

Doc­tors con­duct­ed a clin­i­cal au­top­sy short­ly af­ter her death and raised con­cerns of pos­si­ble foul play. The case was re­ferred to the po­lice and clas­si­fied as a foren­sic mat­ter. But with no res­i­dent foren­sic pathol­o­gist in To­ba­go, the wait for an au­top­sy has now stretched to 32 days, de­lay­ing the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion and leav­ing her fam­i­ly in lim­bo.

Pre­vi­ous re­ports said a 36-year-old male friend told them Cas­tana­da com­plained of bel­ly pain af­ter drink­ing moringa tea and col­lapsed soon af­ter. How­ev­er, a woman close to Cas­tana­da claimed she had been cook­ing all day and then bathed in an out­door pool while lim­ing, with­out cool­ing down first. She al­leged­ly be­gan to shiv­er and was giv­en tea to help.

Po­lice say her death re­mains un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.