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Avonte Oquendo's Cause of Death Undetermined, Medical Examiner Says

By  Janon Fisher and Danielle Tcholakian | February 26, 2014 6:37pm | Updated on February 26, 2014 7:23pm

 The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the cause of Avonte Oquendo's death cannot be determined.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the cause of Avonte Oquendo's death cannot be determined.
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NYPD and DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

MANHATTAN — The city Medical Examiner cannot determine what killed Avonte Oquendo, the autistic Queens teen who sparked a citywide manhunt after he fled out of a city school, a spokeswoman said.

Avonte, 14, who could not speak, was last seen alive running out of the Riverview School in October 2013. Family, volunteers and schoolmates papered the city with missing person flyers.

His partially decomposed remains were found washed up on a College Point beach in January.

Avonte's family filed a $25 million notice of claim form with the city's comptroller's office.

"While the report excludes gross evidence of trauma it leaves open questions of what may have happened to Avonte that are not discernable from the body," David Perecman, the family's lawyer, said.

An ME official said that tests and autopsy methods have been exhausted for finding out what happened to the teen.

Perecman said that more information would be available when the police release their investigative file.

"Avonte's mom has mixed feelings," the lawyer said. "Unfortunately, [it's] not the complete closure  that the parents would have liked."

 

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