Michelle Trachtenberg’s cause of death may remain a mystery.
One day after the Gossip Girl alum, 39, was found “unconscious and unresponsive” and pronounced dead in her Manhattan apartment, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to NBC News that her cause of death had been ruled as “undetermined.”
And authorities may never determine how she died, because Michelle’s family objected to an autopsy being performed, according to the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office, per People.
In New York, families may decline an autopsy—a surgical procedure that involves dissection—due to religious beliefs of the deceased or if the next of kin is not interested in knowing the cause of death, according to the state’s laws.
An autopsy can be required if the medical examiner deems it necessary, or in cases with “compelling public necessity,” such as being part of a criminal investigation of a homicide or being a threat to public health, per New York laws.
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