Death of 11-Year-Old Hannah Nazareth Still a Mystery

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The cause of 11-year-old Hannah Nazareth's death may never be known.

 

District Attorney David Capeless' office said on Monday that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was unable to determine a cause of death because of the condition of her body.

 

The bodies of Hannah and her father, Anthony Nazareth, 52, were found inside their third-floor apartment at 72 Plunkett St. on Aug. 3. 

 

The autopsy showed that Anthony Nazareth died of a heroin overdose just days before his body was discovered. The results showed Hannah died "as much as a month before her father." 

 

"Followup conversations with the Chief Medical Examiner's Office indicated that the lack of definitive results was due in great part to the decomposition of Hannah's body. Additionally, in the case of Hannah, no significant external trauma was noted and the results of toxicology testing was unremarkable," reads a report for Capeless' office. 

 

Anthony Nazareth is also said to have provided false and misleading information about his daughter's whereabouts to different agencies during the month of July. However, none of those agencies followed up to determine if the 11-year-old was safe and healthy.

 

"Hannah Nazareth was failed by a number of people. While there is no indication that different action may have saved her, her dignity in death was not honored and questions will always remain about how, and why, she died," Capeless said in a statement.

 

The investigation did lead to the arrest of 52-year-old Michael Blowe for allegedly stealing from the apartment the day before police discovered the body. 

 

Blowe was arrested over the weekend and had not-guilty pleas entered on his behalf in Central Berkshire District Court on single counts of breaking and entering in the daytime, and larceny from a building. Judge Thomas Estes ordered that he be held at the Berkshire County House of Correction on $1,000 bail. 

 

Blowe is accused of stealing a television, DVD player, clothing, food and a ballet belonging to Anthony Nazareth on Aug. 2, 2015.