No signs of a struggle: forensic pathologist

A forensic pathologist has said there was no evidence for suffocation or strangling in the death of Nelson woman Tracey-Anne Harris.

Speaking from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dr Fintan Garavan gave evidence to the High Court at Nelson on day 12 of the murder trial.

The Crown alleges that Rose Morgan and Tyler Baillie murdered Harris in her Stoke home on February 7, 2016, administering a lethal cocktail of drugs before suffocating her with a pillow. Her body was found four days later.

Under examination from defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, Garavan said he agreed with the cause of death being multiple drug toxicity.

He had been instructed to review the forensic pathology relating to Harris’s death, and the autopsy. He said the combination of methamphetamine and methadone in Harris’s blood was the most likely cause of death. Valium was also a participant, given its ability to heighten the effects of methadone.

The level of methamphetamine, at 0.2mg per litre of blood, was at the lower end of the scale of toxicity, he said. While it could be a fatal dose for someone with low tolerance, for a regular user he would be looking for another potential cause of death.

Garavan said he would have ‘‘no hesitation’’ assigning methadone as a cause of death, with all other things factors being equal. The level found was 0.3mg per litre of blood.

He said that while it was possible to know from hair samples that Harris had taken methadone at least once every two months before her death, there was no way of telling how much or how often.

The position her body was found in, head down on her bed with arms stretched forward, was compatible with positional asphyxia, he said. There were no obvious signs of suffocation or strangulation, or injection points.

On Monday, statements taken by police from Morgan, in the week following the death of Harris, were read out.

Detective Kelvin Heiford, who spoke to Morgan on February 11 and again two days later, said Morgan told him she had known Harris for about twoand-a-half years, and ‘‘would consider Tracey Harris a good friend’’.

A series of texts from Morgan and Baillie were also under the spotlight.

At 12.13pm on February 7, Morgan messaged Baillie saying ‘‘B hm sn gunna go finish it off (sic)’’. Fourteen minutes later she text another number, saying ‘‘U at hm tell ty it jst bout finished will be well dne in an hour i love home kill (sic)’’.