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 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
Teen Killed in Mexico Died in Hit-And-Run
 Associated Press
| | Adam DePrisco’s mother, Carm, grieves while Adam’s brother Tony, 24, gets comforted by his cousin Luisa Pannozzi at their home in Woodbridge. (Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star) |
Toronto - The young Woodbridge, Ont., man killed one week ago in Mexico likely died in a hit-and-run accident, his uncle told a Toronto newspaper.
Ontario's chief coroner concluded his autopsy on Adam DePrisco, 19, Saturday evening, but said the family did not want the cause of death to be made public.
"They're thinking it's an accident... with a vehicle," Sandro Bellio told the Sun from the home north of Toronto where the family gathered to await the results.
However, Bellio said the family cannot accept the preliminary findings.
"I really want to wait for the final verdict before saying anything more," he said.
"But it just doesn't make sense from what I've seen and heard down there... I still think it's a coverup there."
DePrisco was found unconscious on Jan. 7 outside an Acapulco nightclub.
Mexican officials had suggested he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident but his family had previously insisted DePrisco was savagely beaten outside the club.
DePrisco's body arrived at the coroner's office early Saturday and Dr. Barry McLellan performed the second autopsy over several hours. The first autopsy had been performed in Mexico.
McLellan said he would respect the family's wishes and not release his autopsy findings.
"I am aware that there is a significant amount of public interest in the result of the autopsy, but I also know that the public will respect the privacy that the family is requesting at this time, as the family is in the process of coping with a very tragic death."
DePrisco's best friend and travel mate, Marco Calabro, said his friend's injuries to his face and head were so severe that he was almost unrecognizable.
Calabro said the hit-and-run explanation was implausible because his friend had no apparent injuries below his head.
However, sources reported the Mexican autopsy on DePrisco found injuries all over his body, including on his arm and knee, abdominal injuries and severe trauma to his head and neck from an unknown cause.
A forensic expert in Acapulco who has seen the autopsy report there is cited in a CTV News report as saying DePrisco's injuries are not consistent with being hit by a car.
A spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Ottawa said Friday the embassy has had contact with Mexican authorities since DePrisco's death.
"We have been informed by our authorities that they are making every possible effort to resolve this matter," said Mauricio Geurrero.
DePrisco's death comes nearly a year after Dominic and Nancy Ianiero of Woodbridge - the same suburb north of Toronto where the DePrisco family lives - were found slain in their hotel room at a resort near Cancun.
Critics have accused Mexican authorities - who quickly identified a pair of resort guests from Thunder Bay, Ont., as prime suspects - of botching the investigation and trying to cover up the truth.
The Ianiero case remains unsolved.
Twenty-eight Canadians have been killed in Mexico since 1994, a year before the peso devaluation that sparked a sharp rise in street crime. Thirteen of those deaths were in the last five years.
"Robbery and theft - the principal crimes faced by foreign visitors - are a bigger problem in large cities," according to the Canadian government's official travel advisory on Mexico.
DePrisco Family Upset with Peter MacKay
CTV.ca News
The family of Adam DePrisco, killed leaving a nightclub while on vacation in Mexico, says Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is not doing enough to help them.
"I haven't heard a word from Peter, nor at this time do I wish to hear from him," DePrisco's uncle, Sandro Bellio, told Canada AM on Monday. "You've got nine days after the fact and no investigation on the Mexico side."
"Peter MacKay's talking about that he's contacted me or the family and he's going to have a meeting with the Mexicans... what for? There's no investigation. There's no paperwork. There's nothing."
In an interview with CTV's Question Period on Sunday, MacKay said he will be speaking with his Mexican counterpart on Monday about the case. "We'll continue to be in contact with the family and provide whatever assistance we can," he said.
Officially, Mexican authorities say DePrisco was killed after being struck in a hit-and-run.
However, family members believe the Mexican authorities have covered up what really happened. They think DePrisco died after locals beat him outside a popular Acapulco nightclub on Jan. 7. The bar, the Paladium, works on an "all-you-can-drink" basis for a flat fee.
The club is adjacent to a busy boulevard.
On Sunday, the teen's mother said her son's killing leaves her with contempt for her country and her government.
"I hate being a Canadian because I haven't seen nobody, nobody from the government doing anything at all," Carmen DePrisco told reporters. "They don't care."
Relatives were initially unwilling to share information about the report from the Ontario coroner's exam, but spoke with the media from their Woodbridge, Ont. home.
The family said the autopsy conducted Saturday in Toronto indicates a vehicle hit DePrisco's body, as Mexican police have claimed. However, they say the results don't add up and they will continue to look for answers.
"I don't dispute his findings whatsoever," said Bellio. "But what we really need to know is, when I left Adamo's body, there were no secondary injuries whatsoever to his body -- only trauma to the head."
Stephanie Pannuzzi, the dead teen's aunt, says she spoke to a neurologist in Mexico who examined the body.
"He confirmed to me that Adam was not hit by a vehicle," she told reporters. "I asked him, 'What do you think caused my nephew's death?' and he described something of steel, metal or rock is what killed my nephew -- it was not a hit-and-run accident."
Mexican autopsy
While Bellio said he didn't see secondary injuries, a Mexican autopsy report obtained by CTV News does show other injuries to Adam's body were documented in Acapulco. The areas injured include DePrisco's arm, knee and abdomen.
But a forensic expert there told CTV News he is sharply critical of the Mexican autopsy report.
"There are a lot of mistakes," said Dr. Alejandro Escobar, a former coroner in Acapulco. He said the Mexican autopsy is unprofessional and doesn't provide enough detail to prove anything.
"The big mistake here was that they didn't describe deeply all the injuries on the surface of the body," he said.
For example, the report mentions a knee fracture but does not identify which bone, and the document describes hemorrhages but doesn't say how large or deep they were, said CTV's Tom Walters.
"His initial reviewing of the report left him feeling that there just wasn't the pattern of evidence he would expect to see in a car accident, but he says there's no evidence to support another conclusion either."
Authorities should release DePrisco's body to his family early next week. Relatives plan to have an open casket and a public funeral.
His death comes nearly a year after the murders of Dominic and Nancy Ianiero in Cancun. The couple was also from Woodbridge, just north of Toronto. The Ianiero case remains unsolved.
Since 1994, 28 Canadians have been killed in Mexico. About half those deaths have occurred in the past five years.
With files from CTV's Tom Walters and The Canadian Press |
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