Witness Testimony

Laura Jeffery testified that during the second lockdown she observed a sharp rise in suicides and drug overdoses, including a nine-week period in which middle-aged women with families died by suicide at a rate she described as unprecedented in her 27-year career. She also reported a noticeable shift in the timing and pattern of sudden deaths, with middle-aged individuals dying unexpectedly at home in the early evening rather than during typical overnight hours. She stated that these cases were often not subject to autopsy despite being unusual deaths.
Beginning in spring 2021, she testified that she observed consistent changes in postmortem blood characteristics during embalming. She described darker, thicker, more viscous blood with microclots and later the appearance of long, white fibrous masses within the arterial system. These structures, which she said resembled casts of arteries, had not been seen in her prior decades of practice. She reported that the material appeared to plug arteries and required modified embalming techniques to remove. She stated that other embalmers privately reported similar findings but were reluctant to speak publicly.
Jeffery also testified that she observed a decrease in autopsies during a period when she believed unusual deaths warranted greater investigation. She described a two-year period beginning in early 2021 during which she no longer received the number of fetal or infant cases typical in her prior experience, while colleagues in smaller communities reportedly saw increases. She concluded that professionals should have more freedom to investigate and speak openly about anomalies in death patterns, and expressed concern that potential warning signs were not adequately examined.