Manner Of Death Undetermined For 2 Quality Inn Standoff Suspects

MANCHESTER, NH — The autopsies that were conducted on the man and woman found dead after a 15-hour standoff with police at a Manchester hotel resulted in their manner of death being left undetermined, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office. Christian St. Cyr, 26, and Brandie Tarantino St. Cyr, 21, were found dead at the Manchester Quality Inn on March 28 after a shootout with police. A third suspect, Stephen Marshall, 51, was fatally shot in the standoff.

The New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner's Office have found that the cause of St. Cyr's death was a combination of environmental hypothermia, blunt penetrating injuries and acute intoxication by fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine, the AG's office said Tuesday. The office also determined that Tarantino St. Cyr died of a combination of environmental hypothermia and the same mixture of drugs. The AG's office did not mention any blunt trauma or injuries on Tarantino St. Cyr.

The manner of their death is left undetermined.

"It is not possible to assign a single manner of death for each decedent as they resulted from a combination of incidental, self-imposed, and inflicted conditions," according to the AG's office statement released Tuesday.

The police standoff on March 27 began when Manchester police and Drug Enforcement Administration went to the Quality Inn to serve an arrest warrant for Marshall and one other guest at the hotel, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said shortly after the incident. According to MacDonald, Marshall was seen leaving a hotel room from a broken window and then engaged police and a DEA agent while carrying a silver, semi-automatic hand gun.

Officials say that Manchester and Nashua SWAT teams then tried to negotiate with the remaining two suspects at the hotel — identified with St. Cyr and Tarantino St. Cyr. For 12 hours during the negotiations, authorities were met with gunshots, according to police officials. When Nashua police were able to get into the room on the morning of March 28, both St. Cyr and Tarantino St. Cyr were found dead.

The AG's investigation behind the circumstances leading up to the deaths of Marshall, St. Cyr and Tarantino St. Cyr remains ongoing. After the investigation is complete, the AG's office will release a report regarding their deaths and whether the use of force by police was justified.