EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The tragic death of Brendan Santo, an 18-year- old Grand Valley State University student, who was found in Michigan State University’s Red Cedar River in January 2022, is under renewed scrutiny.

According to the State News, despite the ruling of “accidental drowning,” there is a new perspective coming from Oakland County’s Chief Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic who was contacted for a report by Local 4 Detroit which raises doubts, as Santo’s autopsy revealed no water in his lungs.

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Santo’s death, which was labeled as drowning, also lists a contributory condition of acute ethanol intoxication. However, Dragovic argues that the absence of water in Santo’s lungs is a significant red flag, suggesting that drowning should not be the default assumption. Dragovic also highlighted that decomposition could obscure crucial evidence, such as potential injuries or signs of foul play.

He told Local 4 Detroit, “Not everybody that is submerged and found submerged resulted there from drowning. A person may be dead before being placed in the body of water. Generally, the careful evaluation of all the possible and available materials there lead you to a conclusion. If it is not possible to conclude, then the case is best left undetermined, not closed, because there is a good suspicion that someone might have generated some less-visible or less-apparent injury in a decomposed situation, decomposed remains being found and foul play cannot be safely excluded. That’s where the due diligence comes into the picture.”

Missing evidence and unanswered questions.

Santo went missing from MSU’s campus on Friday, October 29, 2021 in the early morning hours after visiting with friends for a weekend that included the MSU/U of M rivalry football game. His body was discovered 84 days later in the river after extensive searches involving police, private investigators, and the FBI. The autopsy noted advanced decomposition but did not identify any pre-mortem injuries, leaving the true cause of death murky according to some.

Local 4 Detroit’s investigation into Santo’s death brought the autopsy findings to light, questioning why the cause of death was not left open. Dragovic explained that drowning is often a diagnosis of exclusion, requiring careful evaluation of all available evidence. He thinks the missing water in the lungs challenges the drowning conclusion and suggests the need for further investigation. “Proclaiming that it is solved is not fair by any measure,” Dragovic asserted.

MSU and prosecutor’s stance.

In response to these new claims, MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant reaffirmed that the investigation, involving multiple law enforcement agencies, found no evidence of criminal activity. The findings were submitted to the Ingham County prosecutor in 2022, who concluded there was no foul play and Guerrant said in a statement that no “new evidence” has surfaced since then.

Dragovic’s comments have reignited public interest and scrutiny as the Santo family continues to seek closure in what remains a deeply tragic and perplexing case. The lack of clear evidence regarding how Santo ended up in the river raises more questions than answers, leaving many to wonder if justice has truly been served.