AN American homicide detective yesterday counteracted suggestions by a South African forensic pathologist that the hanging death of a 25-year-old female guest at the Atlantis resort last year was likely a homicide staged to look like a suicide.

John Buhrmaster, a 42-year veteran Miami police detective retained by Atlantis to investigate Carla Van Eeden’s death, said based on his findings, nothing in the young woman’s room at the Royal Towers or any of the surveillance videos he scoured suggested any foul play in her death.

Conversely, Mr Buhrmaster suggested that based on the crime scene photographs he saw, Ms Van Eeden may have tried to strangle herself, and at some point decided to back out of it, but failed to appreciate just how quickly she would have slipped into unconsciousness.

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