The body of Orange County, California, lawyer Elliot Blair was embalmed in Mexico before his family could have his blood drawn for an independent toxicology test, an attorney said Thursday.
Case Barnett, representing Blair’s family, said their investigator was told by the mortuary in Baja California that the body was embalmed despite the family’s request to first have his blood drawn. The family wanted to independently refute that Blair was inebriated — as reported in the Mexican media — when he fell early Saturday from a third-floor, open-air hallway at the Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach.
Mexican authorities did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. However, the website of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico says embalming “must be done within 24 hours after death.”
