The wife of a California public defender whose death at a Mexico resort was ruled an accident has launched a bid to prove he was murdered.
“He was my rock in this world,” Kimberly Williams told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Thursday. “We bought our dream home, planned to have children together. Without him, I feel like I have nothing.”
Elliot Blair, 33, is alleged to have fallen off a balcony and died on 14 January at Las Rocas Resort and Spa on Rosarito Beach south of Tijuana on the western coast of the Baja California peninsula.
Ms Williams, who was sleeping at the time, told ABC that she remembers the hotel manager and a security guard being in her room.
The manager reportedly asked her: “Excuse me, miss, excuse me, excuse me, is this your boyfriend down here?”
“I turned to the side, I didn’t see him there, so I ran out the front door and they’re pointing over the side of our front door area to the ground. Well, that was my Elliot down there,” she recalled to ABC.
The State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California referred to an autopsy in a statement, saying that the death of Mr Blair “was the result of an unfortunate accident due to the fall of the deceased from a third floor”.
Mexican authorities said there were no indications that a struggle had taken place inside the hotel room, and according to a toxicology report, there was a “considerable” amount of alcohol in Mr Blair’s body, the State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California added.
In a forensic medical necropsy certificate, the cause of death was recorded as severe head trauma.
But Ms Williams and her lawyer argue that the injuries indicate that Mr Blair was attacked. Lawyer Case Barnett told ABC that “it’s the physical evidence we’ve been able to obtain, the autopsy”.
“The autopsy confirms that he, Elliot Blair, was murdered that night,” the attorney said.
Mr Barnett argues that it seems that Mr Blair was attacked by more than one man, yet a motive remains unclear.
Ms Williams said that Mr Blair wasn’t drunk enough that he would have fallen off a balcony, adding that he might have had five or six drinks during a period of six hours that evening.
A biomechanics, body performance, and injury expert, Dr Rami Hashish, has been brought on to advise on the case. He told ABC that he doesn’t “really think that there’s much evidence” to “point to the fact that it was an accident”.
“I think it’s relatively clear the injury pattern just simply don’t add up with one another,” he added. “There’s bruising marks on the body.”
He added that there are “indications” on the front of the body that it was “dragged” and that there are “fractures to the back of the skull”.
“Nothing really points to the fact that it was necessarily an accident,” he said.
The family lawyer said the body was embalmed before they could conduct their own toxicology report.
“In my nine years of being with him and knowing him, I can tell you, I’ve never seen him sloppy. I’ve never seen him not be able to stand. I’ve not seen him not be able to walk and care for himself,” Ms Williams said.
Ms Williams and Mr Blair dined at a local restaurant on the night of his death. On the way back to the resort, they were stopped by police, who claimed they had rolled through a stop sign and told them to pay them in cash.
She said they went to bed around midnight after spending some time at the bar in the lobby. She added that the next thing she recalls is the manager and the guard in her room telling her that Mr Blair was on the ground.
ABC obtained 911 calls, revealing that at 12.50am, the resort made a call reporting “a person who apparently suffered a fall”. Paramedics were at the resort about 20 minutes later noting that Mr Blair had no vital signs.
Ms Williams said the authorities put forward a number of possible series of events, including both accident and suicide.
She said they went through “everything under the sun except for what I think happened: Someone did this to him”.
“I just know it’s not an accident. I know he didn’t fall. I just know that,” she added. “I want to do everything we can to figure out what happened in that 45-minute, hour time span. Because that’s what Elliot deserves. And that’s the hardest part for me, is not knowing.”
She said police asked if they had been fighting.
“We’re here on our anniversary. What are you talking about?” she told officers. “No, we’re not fighting.”
Mr Barnet said they have “hit a wall with the investigation”.
“Kim’s family need answers to bring closure to this so they can really start moving on from it,” he added.
Ms Williams told ABC News that she doesn’t want Elliot “to be forgotten” and wants “the world to know who my Elliot is.”
“I want people to know he’s not some drunk that stumbled off the front ledge of our hotel room,” she said. “I want the world to remember the person he was, his smile, his heart. That’s one of the only things keeping me going right now ... the idea of doing this for him, for honouring his name.”
