
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

EXPERT: KORESH WOUND NOT TYPICAL FOR SUICIDE

A forensic expert who conducted an independent autopsy on the body of David Koresh said Monday that the cult leader's gunshot wound to the head was "not typical" of suicide.

Cyril H. Wecht of Pittsburgh, a controversial pathologist who has consulted on many famous deaths, also said in a telephone interview that the bullet wound in the back of the head of cult lieutenant Steve Schneider "tells me he did not shoot himself."

But Wecht would not speculate further on how Koresh and Schneider might have died.

He said he has "not ruled out" the possibility that they were shot by outside snipers.

Identification of Koresh was based on dental records, Wecht said, and a gunshot wound in "the anterior left hip area" that he suffered Feb. 28 in the initial shootout.

If that hip wound had been two inches to the right, Wecht said, "77 lives might have been saved.

by CNB