Hanging case in Muscatine County proceeds slowly

Investigators reviewing the death of a nine-year-old Muscatine girl are proceeding very carefully. Assistant Muscatine County attorney Alan Ostergren says first autopsy reports indicated Heather Littrel died from a cutoff of blood flow to the brain.The state medical examiner’s office preliminary finding is that the case was a hanging, but they don’t know whether it was a suicide, accident or “something else.” Ostergren says they want to explore all the possibilities.They’re continuing the investigation, interviewing several people and will send the state crime lab some items of evidence taken from the home. Heather’s body was found inside the family’s farm home in rural Muscatine, but Ostergren won’t say which room she was in or give details about the state of the child’s body when officers responded to a 9-1-1 call Sunday.He says they’re trying to be very, very careful, explaining that in a child-death investigation they must cover all the bases.