Manner of death

The bank had 35 of Mike’s guns, which included the Browning lever-action rifle that, according to Mike, was used by Tanner when he accidentally shot Jill. Dr. Earl Byrne, the Teller County coroner, ordered lab tests on Mike’s body and found out that Mike’s death was caused by an overdose of methadone. While he believed that Mike’s overdose was accidental, he couldn’t be sure. On his death certificate, Dr. Byrne marked the manner of death as “undetermined.”

The crucial pieces of information

Finally, on December 16, 2008, Deputy Leach had been given permission by court to exhume Jill’s body for an autopsy, which was going to be performed by Dr. Mike Dobersen of Arapahoe County. Although it was too late to perform an autopsy on Jill’s body, Dr. Dobersen was able to retrieve 13 fragments of the bullet that killed her and determine its path. In a couple of hours, the autopsy was concluded and Jill was laid to rest a second time later that afternoon.