Autopsy results could take 6-8 weeks in Chinese ISU student death

IOWA CITY - It could be weeks, if not months, before authorities know the official cause of death of an Iowa State University student found dead in the trunk of a car in Iowa City last week.

Mike Hensch, administrator for the Johnson County Medical Examiner - which is handling the autopsy for 20-year-old Tong Shao - said while preliminary results in an autopsy can be available after a day or two, the full report usually takes much longer.

'A routine case takes six to eight weeks,” Hensch said. 'It may take longer.”

That said, while factors of Shao's death - unknown time of death and decomposition, for example - might seem like additional challenges, Hensch said those are issues that medical examiners in Johnson County handle regularly. He doesn't foresee any complications arising in the investigation.

'I wouldn't call it ‘routine,'” Hensch said. 'We don't treat any suspicious death as routine ... There's nothing that's insurmountable. Certainly, some things are challenging, but they're all doable.”

Shao's body was found in the trunk of a Toyota Camry parked at the Dolphin Lake Point Enclave in southern Iowa City on Friday. A junior at Iowa State from China, Ames police said Shao was reported missing on Sept. 17, but her friends last heard from her on Sept. 8 when she texted them that she was in Iowa City visiting a friend. She was thought to be heading to Minnesota after her Iowa City visit, which is why her friends did not report her missing for another nine days.

While investigating her disappearance, Iowa City police focused on finding the beige Toyota Camry with Kentucky plates associated with the missing student. The car was found at Dolphin Lake Point, where a friend of Shao's - 23-year-old University of Iowa student Xiangnan Li - resided. Li, who is also from China, has been named a person of interest in the case and is believed to have returned to China.

Police on Monday categorized Shao's death as suspicious, pending the outcome of the autopsy. Investigators have said they believe her body was in the trunk of the car for an extended period of time. At this time, police do not know when - or where - Shao died.

The medical examiner's office should be able to assist with the 'when” question, Hensch said.

'It's not like TV where (the medical examiners) can sit here and say it happened on this time and this date,” he said. 'Some additional testing is being done to narrow that time frame. Those results will take, if everything works well, five to six weeks.”

Hensch said the most reliable source in determining the time of death - whether it be a natural or accidental death, suicide or homicide - is an eye witness. If authorities know when a person was last seen alive and when they were discovered to be deceased, then investigators have 'the bracket” to work with, Hensch said. Investigators will then look for additional evidence within that bracket - receipts, telephone calls, banking activity - to further narrow down the time of death.

'We do that all the time,” he said. 'This is something we do in virtually every case if someone is found dead. This is something we and the police department have a lot of experience on.”

Even handling the death of someone from another country is something the Johnson County Medical Examiner's Office has experience with, thanks to the county's large international and transient population. Just last week, the medical examiner's office had to track down the relatives of an immigrant who died and whose family was scattered across the globe, including some in refugee camps, Hensch said.

'We're pretty up on our game on these,” he said.

As for the police department, investigators are continuing to work the case and gather information on Shao's death.

'We're continuing to investigate leads, including physical evidence, to determine what led to Ms. Shoa's death,” said Iowa City Police Sgt. Scott Gaarde.