Autopsy: Slain Saginaw girl had been immersed in water
Alanna Gallagher, the 6-year-old girl who was killed in July after disappearing while playing in her Saginaw neighborhood, had been immersed in water before her body was found, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Star-Telegram.
Whether the body was immersed before or after the girl?s death ? and whether it was an attempt to wash away evidence ? remains unclear.
?I don?t know that we?ll ever have definitive answers to the questions you pose,? Saginaw Police Chief Roger Macon said Wednesday. ?All of the theories you list are consistent with avenues we investigated over the summer.?
The autopsy report, completed in late October, says that the girl?s body, hair and clothing were wet when she was found and that the surfaces of her hands and feet indicated that she?d been immersed for a prolonged period.
She died, however, from asphyxia caused by four plastic Wal-Mart sacks placed over her head, then secured with red tape wrapped around her neck and head.
Although the autopsy notes that a blood screen tested positive for an amphetamine, a source familiar with the case described it as a trace amount possibly related to a medication that Alanna had taken.
Tyler Holder, a neighbor linked to the crime through DNA on the girl?s body and on a belt found with her body, remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Wednesday, charged with capital murder. He turned 18 this month.
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