AMERICANALMANAC (Alan Benson) - Autopsy shows Los Alamos lab worker was shot in the head, but cause of death remains 'undetermined'
A newly released autopsy reveals that Melissa Casias, a 53-year-old Los Alamos National Laboratory worker who vanished from her Taos, New Mexico, home in June 2025, was shot through the base of the skull, yet state investigators still classify her death as "undetermined." The report from New Mexico's Office of the Medical Investigator found that […] The post Autopsy shows Los Alamos lab worker was shot in the head, but cause of death remains 'undetermined' appeared first on American Almanac .
A newly released autopsy reveals that Melissa Casias, a 53-year-old Los Alamos National Laboratory worker who vanished from her Taos, New Mexico, home in June 2025, was shot through the base of the skull, yet state investigators still classify her death as "undetermined." The report from New Mexico's Office of the Medical Investigator found that a bullet entered the right side of Casias's cranial base near the foramen magnum, the opening where the spinal cord meets the brain, damaged the topmost vertebra in her neck, and exited through her left temple. The wound occurred "perimortem," meaning at or around the time of death. But advanced decomposition of her remains, which sat in the wilderness for roughly eleven months, prevented…Open