Why is the cause of death still deferred for Celeste Rivas Hernandez?

It’s been weeks since the world first learned the name Celeste Rivas Hernandez—a teen missing from Lake Elsinore, California—found in the trunk of a Tesla tied to rising R&B singer D4vd.

No one’s been charged in the case. No suspect has been named. Yet the details of the presumed homicide are gruesome. Hernandez was likely dead for several weeks, according to new reporting in People, and her body was found badly decomposed.

She was just 15 years old.

What we know

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has completed the autopsy into Hernandez and her body was released to the family. But the exact cause of death is still listed as “deferred” as of Sept. 29. The office told KTLA, “A deputy medical examiner completed an examination but requested additional testing and/or studies in order to make a determination.”

What testing are they doing? Officials won’t say

“Due to the ongoing death investigation, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner cannot disclose what testing and/or studies were requested,” the Medical Examiner’s Office added. “Deferred cases can take a few months before a cause of death is determined.”

What an expert says

KTLA asked Vidal Herrera of 1-800-Autopsy for his insight. He is a former coroner investigator with the L.A. County Medical Examiner who worked on notable cases including the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez. He started a private autopsy company 40 years ago.

Herrera told KTLA when testing is deferred, in general, the testing can be important to establishing the basics.

First, a Medical Examiner will look for obvious signs of trauma: fractures, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, ligature marks.

It’s part of a preliminary process experts call NASH: Does the death appear Natural, Accidental, was it Suicide or a likely Homicide?

Secondly, the Medical Examiner may want to know about toxicology—were there any drugs in the person, or medication they were taking or even poison that may show up?

Herrera said in general they also likely want the tissue histology, which is looking closely at slide samples from each organ of the body.

Even if the cause of death seems obvious, the Medical Examiner might defer a case to wait for these important tests to come back, and as Herrera points out, there’s a backlog of cases across the country.

Then, the other examinations begin, and that can take an even longer while. Here in L.A. County, for example, more than 200 people die each day

Of those, between 60 and 80 end up with the coroner, Herrera said, creating a mountain of work.