David Carradine death "not suicide"
Story by Jack Foley
ACTOR David Carradine did not commit suicide, according to the doctor who oversaw a private autopsy on the Kill Bill star.
Carradine was found naked in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body in Bangkok on June 4, 2009, prompting rumours that he had taken his own life.
But forensic pathologist Dr Michael Baden concluded that the star died from asphyxiation, adding that the way the body was bound had enabled him to rule out suicide.
“He didn’t die of natural causes, and he didn’t die of suicidal causes. That leaves some kind of accidental death,” he said in a statement.
Dr Baden had been hired by Carradine’s family to conduct a second autopsy, following the one performed by the authorities in Thailand.
He said that the authorities were now working to establish why Carradine had developed an inability to breathe and refused to rule out the possibility that the Kung Fu star had died of accidental autoerotic asphyxiation.
In order to ascertain this, the medical examiner required further information from Thai police in order to rule out the possibility that Carradine was killed by someone else.
Dr Baden has also requested security data from the Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel where the actor died, to ensure that no one was in the room with him at the time of his death.
A representative for Carradine’s brothers said the family had no further comment at this stage.
Read our obituary of David Carradine