Death of student covered with stab wounds ruled accidental
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
February 2, 2009
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SAN FRANCISCO — The 2007 death of a young man whose naked body was found covered in bruises and stab wounds was accidental, the San Francisco medical examiner ruled in a final report.
The case of John “Daniel” Schirra was closed last week after investigators ruled his death was caused by blunt-force trauma to the head with acute LSD intoxication. The analysis supports the theory that the 22-year-old fell and hit his head in the early morning of Sept. 3, 2007.
Schirra, a musician and college student, had taken LSD for the first time shortly before he died, according to homicide investigators. After getting into an emotional discussion with another person at a party about smoking cigarettes, Schirra left the residence, saying, “I’m going to do something about this.” Friends offered to call him a cab, but he refused.
A short time later, a bleeding, naked Schirra was knocking on doors on San Jose Avenue in the Ingleside neighborhood, begging for help. Police found his body face down near a home a couple hours later, with stab wounds to his neck and back.
The accidental-death ruling did not sit well with Schirra’s childhood friend, Tim Sanderson.
“I’m not satisfied it was an accident whatsoever,” Sanderson said. “I think there was a lot of bureaucracy and feet dragging on this case from the beginning.”
Sanderson said he was interviewed by detectives within 12 hours afte Schirra’s body was found. It seemed as if police were already convinced Schirra’s death was a suicide, he said.
“They were asking me if I had ever known him to be morose or suggest jokingly he would kill himself, and the answer to that is, ‘Absolutely not,’” Sanderson said.
The medical examiner’s report reveals a slew of injuries to Schirra’s body, including blunt-force injuries to the chest, abdomen, back, head and neck, a fractured eye socket, and multiple scrapes and cuts. He suffered one stab wound to the back of the neck and one to the side of the neck, the report said.
Police tested a knife found near Schirra’s body and found his DNA on the handle. The last person to see him alive was ruled out as a suspect through DNA tests, according to the report.
San Francisco police Sgt. Wilfred Williams declined to comment on the medical examiner’s findings.
