Skip to content

Several factors led to Moonias’ death says pathologist

A forensic pathologist testified that blunt impact trauma to the head and neck, mechanical airway obstruction, and ethanol and cocaine toxicity resulted in the death of 18-year-old Brayden Moonias in 2017.
Thunder Bay courthouse evening

THUNDER BAY - The forensic pathologist who performed the post-mortem examination on 18-year-old Brayden Moonias testified that there were several factors that likely led to his death.

On Tuesday, Kona Williams, a forensic pathologist at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, testified on behalf of the Crown in the second-degree murder trial for Patrick O’Keese for his alleged role in the 2017 death of Moonias, whose body was found the morning of Aug. 6 on a beach in the Marina Park area.

According to Williams’ testimony, Moonias’ death was multifactorial and included blunt impact trauma to the head and neck, mechanical airway obstruction, and acute ethanol and cocaine toxicity.

The trauma to the head and neck included contusions, abrasions, and lacerations on the face and in and around the mouth, as well as a fracture just below the left eye, which Williams said could have been the result of something striking his body or his body striking an object, for example during a fall.

“The overall constellation of injuries seem to be predominantly around the face,” Williams said. “If you think of someone falling multiple times, there seems to be an awful lot of injuries around the face and neck that are not keeping with repeated falls. In my opinion, some of these injuries, though I can’t be specific to which ones, were likely inflicted.”

Bruising was also found around Moonias’ neck and the hyoid bone, which is found at the base of the tongue, was also fractured.

“It did make me wonder if there was an element of neck compression in this,” Williams said. “But there were no classical ligature mark findings.”

There were also bruising found on the body, though nothing that would have resulted in death. There was also no obvious signs of trauma to the brain itself.

During the post-mortem examination, Williams said she found debris, including rocks and pebbles, some the size of a coin, in Moonias’ airways, lungs, and stomach.

Given the amount of debris found in his body, Williams said she believed Moonias may have had his face pushed into the sand or the materials were forcefully placed there.

“I think it would be hard to breath in that amount all the way down throughout the airway and also into the lungs,” she said. “I think it would be quite difficult unless there was some force keeping him down or it was forced into his mouth.”

Defense counsel Kevin Matthews asked Williams under cross examination if the injuries observed on Moonias could have been the result of falling.

Williams agreed that she could not exclude the possibility of a fall and that it was not possible to tell the number of times he was struck or struck something.

“The injuries you are seeing and documenting, they are all blunt force, but it’s really impossible to tell what type of force, what caused those injuries, correct?” Matthews asked.

“That is correct,” Williams said.

Matthews also asked if the trauma to the head and neck, on its own, would have been considered fatal.

Williams said the injuries to the neck would have required treatment and while she said the injuries to the face and head were concerning, in of themselves, she did not believe them to be lethal.

Matthews also questioned Williams about the debris found in Moonias’ airways and lungs and if it was possible that they could have been inhaled during heavy breathing, perhaps while unconscious or just prior to death.

“I’m just having a hard time imagining all that debris all the way down into the lower airways as being more of a passive thing with just some breathing,” Williams said.

“It doesn’t seem like a likely scenario. I think this would happen if this was forced. A handful of rocks and debris into someone’s mouth and then choking on it. That would be the more likely scenario than being face down in the sand and breathing it in.”

Williams was also asked about alcohol concussion syndrome, where someone who is intoxicated can be more susceptible to head trauma resulting in death, but she said there still isn’t a clear mechanism for the causes related to that syndrome.

Throughout Matthew’s cross-examination, he questioned Williams if each of the factors, taken on their own, could have resulted in Moonias’ death. While they likely wouldn’t have, she said taken together, the coroner reached the conclusion that the death was not accidental and the result of homicide.

“An accidental cause of death in the context of blunt impact head trauma, the pattern of the injury, with the airway obstruction of that amount, the injuries, the ethanol, the cocaine, in of themselves, the different components, you could say this one was an accident, but taken into context, I believe the coroner labelled this as a homicide because you can’t ignore those other findings,” she said.

Based on the findings of the post-mortem examination, Williams also said she was not able to determine a precise time of death, though she did say the injuries sustained by Moonias likely occurred shortly before his death.



Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
Read more


push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks