29 May AG: Couple found dead in hotel following 15-hour standoff died of drugs, other factors | Crime
MANCHESTER — The Attorney General’s office says autopsies performed on a married couple found dead inside a Queen City hotel following a 15-hour standoff with police in March show they died of a mixture of powerful drugs, among other factors.
CHRISTIAN ST. CYR
BRANDIE TARANTINO
ST. CYR
Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald, State Police Col. Christopher Wagner and Manchester Police Chief Carlo Capano issued a statement Tuesday saying the autopsies were completed on Christian St. Cyr, 26, and Brandie Tarantino St. Cyr, 21, who were found dead inside the Quality Inn in Manchester on March 28, following a standoff with federal and local law enforcement.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie Duval determined Christian St. Cyr’s cause of death was the “combined effects of environmental hypothermia, blunt penetrating injuries, and acute intoxication by fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine,” according to the statement. The manner of his death was listed as undetermined.
“Blunt penetrating injuries” refers to “an injury caused by a blunt object that breaks the skin and is not a gunshot wound,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati.
Duval said Brandie Tarantino St. Cyr’s autopsy determined that the cause of her death was the “combined effects of environmental hypothermia and acute intoxication by fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.” The manner of her death is also listed as undetermined.
“It is not possible to assign a single manner of death for each decedent as they resulted from a combination of incidental, self-imposed, and inflicted conditions,” the AG’s office said in a statement.
According to the AG’s office, special agent Jean Drouin of the Drug Enforcement Administration and detective Cliff Ellston of the Manchester Police Department both discharged their weapons during the standoff on March 27 at the inn with Stephen Marshall, 51, who authorities said was killed by gunfire. Marshall died of “multiple gunshot wounds to the trunk and extremities.”
Marshall, who had a long criminal record, died after he burst through a broken first-floor window in the hotel and started firing, police have said. Ellston and Drouin returned fire.
STEPHEN MARSHALL
The shooting started a lengthy standoff at the hotel, located just off South Willow Street.
The hotel was evacuated, one of the city’s main commercial thoroughfares was shut down and the 15-hour standoff ensued.
Police made contact with two additional people inside the hotel, as SWAT officers came under sporadic gunfire from inside the hotel over a nine-hour span.
Eventually a SWAT team breached the hotel room, and officers found Christian St. Cyr and Brandie Tarantino St. Cyr dead inside the room.
According to a statement from the Attorney General’s office, Drouin has been a member of the DEA for approximately 22 years and is assigned to the Manchester District Office. Ellston has been a member of the Manchester Police Department for approximately 11 years and is assigned to the DEA’s Drug Task Force.
Ellston was awarded an Honorable Service Medal by the Manchester Police Department in January 2017 for arresting an armed robbery suspect on the city’s West Side.
The circumstances surrounding the standoff remain under active investigation.
A report regarding whether the use of force was justified is expected to be released once the investigation is completed.
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