Expert says there’s no way Tracy Cusick accidentally drowned in toilet

OTTAWA — Tracy Cusick could have held her mouth and nose beneath the water in a toilet bowl, an expert witness testified Thursday, but she’d have had to do so voluntarily and while alert.

Dr. Wilson “Toby” Hayes is an expert in biomechanics. He rendered a computer model based on Tracy’s height and weight with her face submerged in a toilet of the same model from her Ottawa home in 2006. Hayes found Tracy could have submerged on her own, but “it’s a relatively difficult geometry to place your head and neck in.”

And Hayes emphasized she’d have to be conscious to stay in that position.

“Can that position be maintained if a person is unconscious?” asked George Mueller, first assistant La Salle County state’s attorney.

“No,” Hayes answered. He added later, “The simple answer is you would fall back and out of the toilet.”

That could be bad news for Tracy’s husband, Kenneth Cusick, who’s on trial this week for murder. Prosecutors allege he held Tracy’s head underwater and Hayes agreed that external pressure is the only plausible explanation for how she stayed under and died.

The defense contends Tracy didn’t drown at all, but rather died from a drug overdose. Though a toxicology report hasn’t been produced yet for the jury, Kenneth Cusick’s lawyer asked Hayes if he had seen it (he had) and whether the possibility of an overdose would change his opinion.

“It would not come close to changing my opinion,” Hayes shot back.

Prosecutors may have strongly-held opinion in their favor but the timeline of the case might prove to be more of a problem.

Hayes was retained in early 2017, a little over 11 years after Tracy’s death and months before Kenneth was charged with first-degree murder. (Base sentencing range: 20-60 years in prison). And why the case took so long getting to trial was underscored in Thursday’s testimony.

Ottawa police said they asked to have a word with Kenneth in March 2006, about nine weeks after his wife’s death. He accompanied the officers into an interview room with the video recorder rolling. In the recording played Thursday, Sgt. Patrick Hardy didn’t mince words.

“The rumors are you killed her,” Hardy said on screen, “and stuff like that.”

On the video screen, Cusick nodded (“Mm-hmm”) and appeared unsurprised to learn he was the subject of such rumors.

“No, I didn’t (kill her),” he replied. “It’s the truth, I swear to it.”

Hardy might or might not have been convinced by the denial — reports swirled of marital problems between Kenneth and Tracy — but Kenneth Cusick was not placed in custody at the end of that interview.

From the outset of Tracy’s death on Jan. 17, 2006, there were pieces of evidence that raised eyebrows among the detectives, but also some that tempered any immediate conclusions of foul play.

Cusick, while cooperative in his first two interviews, seemed to some witnesses detached or unemotional after his wife’s death. He acknowledged his marriage wasn’t the best. The police and coroner’s office were summoned to the funeral home handling Tracy’s arrangements; there, the funeral director pointed out marks on Tracy’s neck and ankles.

On the other hand, the first autopsy (cause of death: drowning) yielded evidence of alcohol and methadone consumption. Hardy acknowledged from the stand Thursday that his search of the Cusick home had also yielded bottles of vodka and assorted pill bottles bearing Tracy’s name. And there was no apparent financial motive; Cusick had not taken out a life insurance policy on his wife.

For now, prosecutors appear to be banking on the improbability that Tracy’s death was an accident. After Hayes, a consulting engineer and with expertise in toilets took the stand and agreed there was no possibility Tracy drowned by accident.

“An adult cannot accidentally drown in a toilet,” said Julius Ballanco. “The opening in the bowl is narrower than the shoulders of an adult woman.”

And Ballanco said he scoured accident data from manufacturers and government regulators. Small children have drowned in toilets, he allowed, but no adults.

The trial resumes Friday morning, when the defense will have an opportunity to cross-examine Ballanco. The state was tentatively scheduled to rest Monday.

Tom Collins can be reached at (815) 220-6930 or TCollins@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_Court.