Radar Online
A renowned forensic expert is calling for Bob Saget's body to be exhumed after he and several pathologists raised questions about his “accidental” death and an autopsy showing massive skull fractures, Radar has learned.
The 65-year-old Full House and Fuller House star, who was COVID-19 positive, died from a freak head injury inside his Orlando, Florida, Ritz-Carlton hotel room on January 9.
But now health experts who reviewed an autopsy report released by the Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Stephany are crying foul – with one telling another media outlet the injury appears consistent with the actor being hit with a baseball bat or falling from a height of up to 30 feet.
Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht tells Radar that if Saget's family agrees, he thinks a second autopsy should be conducted along with a full-on investigation into the actor's movements and activities hours before he died.
“All of these injuries fractures and areas of hemorrhage could not have been sustained by one fall,” he said. “I am just very surprised that the medical examiner attributed it to one fall. There is no way this could have occurred with one fall.”
He added, “The first autopsy is not a bad autopsy – I'm not being critical – but what I am being critical of is attributing everything to one fall. I would like to see that medical examiner and the consultant he dealt with explain how you get all those injuries from one fall. No way!”
“The fracture of the skull does require significant force – things that we would see in a significant fall or of a violent nature– a motor vehicle accident where the head Is moved backward and forward.”
Dr. Stephany concluded Saget died after falling backward striking his head then somehow crawling into his bed where his body was found. He concluded there was no suspected foul play.
“It is most probable that the decedent suffered an unwitnessed fall backwards and struck the posterior aspect of his head,” explained the medical examiner, who discovered various abrasions to Saget's scalp and fractures to the base of his skull.
Dr. Gavin Britz, the head of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, told the New York Times, the injury is “significant trauma” and the fractures were in thick parts of the skull.
“This is something I find with someone with a baseball bat to the head, or who has fallen from 20 or 30 feet,” he said.
Joining the chorus is neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, who said on an episode of New Day: “I think what it reveals more than anything else is this was not a simple bump on the head.”
“The fracture in the front of his eye sockets and contusions these are things that cannot be attributed to injuries away from the point of impact.”
The beloved comic was in the area performing a stand-up tour the night before and investigators found no drugs or alcohol in his system.
Dr. Wecht told Radar investigators should retrace Saget's steps before he checked into the hotel, talk to witnesses who may have seen his face at check-in, examine hotel card key usage to see if anyone entered his room or even if he was seen with someone else.
“I could not rule out something more sinister here and call it a mere accident without knowing all of the details.”
