Coroner’s Report Sheds Little Light on Warmbier’s Death

A coroner’s report gives a cause of death for a young Ohioan detained for more than a year by North Korea, but couldn’t determine what led to the fatal injury.

Otto Warmbier’s parents told a Fox News show on Tuesday that North Korea tortured the 22-year-old University of Virginia student. President Donald Trump tweeted after their TV appearance: “Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea.”

A Hamilton County coroner’s report dated Sept. 11 shows cause of death as brain damage from oxygen deprivation through “an unknown insult more than a year prior to death.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer first reported the finding.

North Korea has denied mistreating Warmbier, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He died in Cincinnati in June, days after his release.