Coroner Details Woman's Autopsy As Murder Defendant Husband Cries In Court
Meghann Cuniff
43,258 views
Brian Casto, a deputy coroner and forensic pathologist at the Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton, Ohio, testified in Caleb Flynn's trial today about the autopsy of Ashley Flynn. He said she died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
Casto has worked at the Montgomery County Coroner's Office since 2002, holds medical licenses in Ohio and Indiana and has conducted approximately 7,000 autopsies.
He was recognized by the court as an expert in forensic pathology.
Flynn's autopsy occurred on Feb. 17, 2026, at approximately 7:10 a.m., about 29 hours after Caleb Flynn called 911 and said an intruder shot her.
She had two closely spaced entrance wounds to the back of the right side of her head that shared exit damage in the left frontal skull, as well as a re-entry wound at the left elbow.
Toxicology texts detected Prozac and an elevated melatonin level consistent with consuming melatonin. No other injuries or natural disease were identified.
Casto said the wound paths suggested a close-range injury, but his written report classified the specific range of fire as indeterminate because there was no soot, stippling, thermal injury, or other range indicator.
He did not determine a time of death because the body had been removed from the scene and refrigerated before the autopsy. The cause of death was stated to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as multiple gunshot wounds of the head.
09:54 "So she has an extensive amount of skull fracture related to these gunshot wounds. One of the areas that is fractured is the bony plate directly above the left eye, and that when that bone is fractured, it will leak blood down into the thin skin of the eyelid, and it will redo the appearance of a black eye, even though you may have never had any trauma to that."
12:00 "So you think that her arm was underneath her head at the time of being shot?"
"Correct."
12:14 "we're able to see a pair of entrance gunshot wounds."
12:50 "It just indicates that these entrance wounds are very close together. They also share parallel paths, so they are not only starting in a very close proximity to one another, but then their paths go through the brain, basically parallel to one another, and then they exit in the same area of the left frontal scalp. It would just imply that there's probably this is a close close range Injury, just based on that perspective."
13:39 "These wounds were hardly visible with the hair. mrs. Flynn has a very thick head of dark hair obscuring the wounds. It's standard procedure, shaved wounds like this."
16:08 "So the purpose of this photo specifically is to show external beveling of one of the exit wounds."
19:22 "So this is the bullet recovered. This is the only, even though she has two gunshot wounds. This is the only bullet that was in the retained in the body, and this is the one recovered from the left elbow. It's got a full metal jacket. It's deformed as you would expect after going through the skull."
23:44 "So, at the time of autopsy, we would also collect body fluids for potential toxicology testing. Ultimately, I would generate a written report, and since it's a homicide, they'll go through a QC process just to make sure there's no errors of significance, and then it would be signed."
"What's the QC process?"
"Just quality control. Basically, another pathologist in the in our group is going to look at all the things that I looked at, the photographs and the report, and determine if I made any significant errors."
25:07 "And what did you know in your report regarding the toxicology results?"
"So there's two items present. One is a antidepressant Prozac that many people are familiar with, and then the other melatonin was actually detected, and it is at a significantly elevated level. And what I mean by that is your body does produce melatonin, and so you know we we expect to detect some just based on our normal production, but value in Ashley's blood is, I think, very convincing related to consuming in an exogenous form a melatonin tablet or a liquid or something like that."
29:07 "Dr. Casto, based on your autopsy findings, were you able to determine the cause of death?"
"Yes."
"What is your cause of death determination?"
"Multiple gunshot wounds of the head."
30:14 cross-exam
30:31 "As you are here today in open court, and you testified before the court today, it is your opinion that the overlapping entrance wounds indicate that these wounds were caused from a quote close range. Is that correct?"
"He was asking what that would imply to wounds sharing similar paths and entrance and exit defects, and so I was just making the comment that in an indoor scene with shared entrance wounds, shared exit wounds, and parallel paths, that that would imply a very close range."
32:29 "And we do not have a specific distance that you would be able to tell us about today for your examination."
"That's right. Yeah, we do not."
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Coroner Details Woman's Autopsy As Murder Defendant Husband Cries In Court
Meghann Cuniff
43,258 views
Brian Casto, a deputy coroner and forensic pathologist at the Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton, Ohio, testified in Caleb Flynn's trial today about the autopsy of Ashley Flynn. He said she died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
Casto has worked at the Montgomery County Coroner's Office since 2002, holds medical licenses in Ohio and Indiana and has conducted approximately 7,000 autopsies.
He was recognized by the court as an expert in forensic pathology.
Flynn's autopsy occurred on Feb. 17, 2026, at approximately 7:10 a.m., about 29 hours after Caleb Flynn called 911 and said an intruder shot her.
She had two closely spaced entrance wounds to the back of the right side of her head that shared exit damage in the left frontal skull, as well as a re-entry wound at the left elbow.
Toxicology texts detected Prozac and an elevated melatonin level consistent with consuming melatonin. No other injuries or natural disease were identified.
Casto said the wound paths suggested a close-range injury, but his written report classified the specific range of fire as indeterminate because there was no soot, stippling, thermal injury, or other range indicator.
He did not determine a time of death because the body had been removed from the scene and refrigerated before the autopsy. The cause of death was stated to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as multiple gunshot wounds of the head.
09:54 "So she has an extensive amount of skull fracture related to these gunshot wounds. One of the areas that is fractured is the bony plate directly above the left eye, and that when that bone is fractured, it will leak blood down into the thin skin of the eyelid, and it will redo the appearance of a black eye, even though you may have never had any trauma to that."
12:00 "So you think that her arm was underneath her head at the time of being shot?"
"Correct."
12:14 "we're able to see a pair of entrance gunshot wounds."
12:50 "It just indicates that these entrance wounds are very close together. They also share parallel paths, so they are not only starting in a very close proximity to one another, but then their paths go through the brain, basically parallel to one another, and then they exit in the same area of the left frontal scalp. It would just imply that there's probably this is a close close range Injury, just based on that perspective."
13:39 "These wounds were hardly visible with the hair. mrs. Flynn has a very thick head of dark hair obscuring the wounds. It's standard procedure, shaved wounds like this."
16:08 "So the purpose of this photo specifically is to show external beveling of one of the exit wounds."
19:22 "So this is the bullet recovered. This is the only, even though she has two gunshot wounds. This is the only bullet that was in the retained in the body, and this is the one recovered from the left elbow. It's got a full metal jacket. It's deformed as you would expect after going through the skull."
23:44 "So, at the time of autopsy, we would also collect body fluids for potential toxicology testing. Ultimately, I would generate a written report, and since it's a homicide, they'll go through a QC process just to make sure there's no errors of significance, and then it would be signed."
"What's the QC process?"
"Just quality control. Basically, another pathologist in the in our group is going to look at all the things that I looked at, the photographs and the report, and determine if I made any significant errors."
25:07 "And what did you know in your report regarding the toxicology results?"
"So there's two items present. One is a antidepressant Prozac that many people are familiar with, and then the other melatonin was actually detected, and it is at a significantly elevated level. And what I mean by that is your body does produce melatonin, and so you know we we expect to detect some just based on our normal production, but value in Ashley's blood is, I think, very convincing related to consuming in an exogenous form a melatonin tablet or a liquid or something like that."
29:07 "Dr. Casto, based on your autopsy findings, were you able to determine the cause of death?"
"Yes."
"What is your cause of death determination?"
"Multiple gunshot wounds of the head."
30:14 cross-exam
30:31 "As you are here today in open court, and you testified before the court today, it is your opinion that the overlapping entrance wounds indicate that these wounds were caused from a quote close range. Is that correct?"
"He was asking what that would imply to wounds sharing similar paths and entrance and exit defects, and so I was just making the comment that in an indoor scene with shared entrance wounds, shared exit wounds, and parallel paths, that that would imply a very close range."
32:29 "And we do not have a specific distance that you would be able to tell us about today for your examination."
"That's right. Yeah, we do not."