Chester deaths are still a mystery

Just two days passed between the time when friends and loved ones last heard from four people who suspiciously died in a Chester apartment and when their bodies were found Saturday night.

But it will be a few more days - possibly even weeks - before authorities know what killed the three adults and toddler boy, all of whom, police said, had no apparent injuries.

As police, family and the media awaited forensic results yesterday, Dr. Frederic N. Hellman, Delaware County medical examiner, said he was awaiting the findings of outside laboratories.

"Everything is pending right now - pending a variety of further studies, toxicology is one - and pending further investigations," Hellman said last night.

Toxicology reports alone sometimes can take up to six weeks, Hellman said.

"It all depends on the outside laboratories. I am trying to expedite things, but I really don't know," he said. "It's an open-ended question."

The bodies of Lindsay Cassidy, 23; her 3-year-old son, Kolby O'Brien; Cassidy's friend, Michelle Fynes, 22, and Fynes' boyfriend, John Michael Bryant, 28, were found lifeless in Cassidy's apartment on Keystone Road near Ninth Street about 8 p.m. Saturday, Chester Police Capt. Joseph Massi said.

Their deaths have been labeled "suspicious" by Chester police. One law-enforcement source said police are considering the possibility that this is a murder-suicide.

After receiving a well-being request about 7:30 p.m. from Cassidy's mother, who hadn't heard from her daughter since Thursday, police said they broke down the locked door of her apartment, an apartment Cassidy had moved into less than a month ago.

Cassidy's was the sole name on the lease but Fynes and Bryant, who were dating, had been living in the two-bedroom apartment for the past few weeks with Cassidy and her son, Massi said.

The four bodies were found in the living room and in bedrooms of the apartment, but Massi declined to say who was found where.

There were no visible signs of forced entry, no apparent signs of trauma and nothing to signal that the apartment had been burglarized, Massi said.

The medical examiner declined to comment on any signs of strangulation, suffocation or other trauma until, he said, he has "everything back."

Carbon monoxide was ruled out as a factor by the Fire Department because the apartment was warmed by electric heat, Massi said.

Multiple bags of evidence were taken from the scene, but Massi said he could not disclose, at this point in the investigation, if illicit drugs had been in the apartment.

Police continued to conduct interviews and more detailed searches of the apartment yesterday.

"Now, we're just waiting on the medical examiner, interviewing friends and family and trying to retrace their last 48 hours or so," Massi said. *

Staff writer William Bender contributed to this report.