Reports vary on cause of diplomat's death
Officials try to return body to US for autopsy
US officials were attempting last night to transport the body of diplomat Keith Ryan from Islamabad to the United States for an autopsy, amid unconfirmed and contradictory news reports in Pakistan that he died in a murder, rather than a suicide.
"I'm a little bit confused and upset," said Bob Ryan, Keith Ryan's father and a sports columnist for the Globe. "I want to make sure the plane takes off with the body."
At least one news organization has reported that doctors at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences planned to perform their own autopsy. But Bob Ryan has been assured by US officials, including Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and a ranking official of the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that his son's body would be flown out of Pakistan before an autopsy could be performed.
Keith Ryan, a Hingham native who was an attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement based in Islamabad, had been living in Pakistan since December 2006. The US State Department has said previously that Keith Ryan apparently took his own life and was found Monday in his Islamabad residence. The US Embassy in Pakistan said there was no appearance of foul play.
State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said yesterday that the death was under investigation.
Dawn, the most widely circulated English-language newspaper in Pakistan, reported anonymous hospital and police sources saying yesterday that the embassy stopped Pakistani authorities from conducting a postmortem after the body was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. Doctors were allowed to carry out only an external examination of the body, the report said.
The News International, a major daily newspaper based in Karachi, quoted anonymous officials at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences yesterday who characterized the death as a murder. A story posted on the newspaper's website said Keith Ryan had an entry wound from a bullet in the back of his neck but no exit wound. The anonymous source also said there was "no visible blackening of the entry wound," indicating the fatal shot was fired from a distance of more than 4 feet.
While one news organization reported that no bullet was found, another reported that a bullet was lodged in Keith Ryan's skull.
Hassan Abbas, a former police official in Pakistan who is a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the newspapers questioning the cause of death all have credible reputations in Pakistan. Dawn is the oldest English-language paper in the country and is considered the most reliable, Abbas said. The News "is also a good one," he said, adding that he read it regularly when he was in law enforcement.
Bob Ryan, in a phone interview from his home last night, said Markey had interceded on his behalf and had received assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that his son's body would be flown out of Pakistan so US doctors could perform the autopsy.
Keith Ryan left a wife of 12 years and 8-year-old triplets.
"You never think in your life you'll be caught up in anything like this," Bob Ryan said. "It's just so frustrating." 