What happened to Rosanne Boyland

There are many people we owe a huge thank you to for their hard work, support, and donations.   The list includes all of you, GiveSendGo, our attorneys from Kalbian Hagerty, the forensic pathologist and others at Park Dietz and Associates, the DCFEMS workers, several reporters and video experts, and all our family and friends.

—  While we want to leave this up for a while, we do NOT need any more money at this point.

Due to your help and donations, we believe that we finally have many of the questions surrounding Rosanne’s death answered.  Our attorneys hired Park Dietz and Associates, world-renowned forensic investigators, to review the autopsy results.  

After reviewing hours of video, as well as the full autopsy report, the forensic pathologist believes that Rosanne died soon after the police sprayed multiple gases and used flash-bang grenades inside the tunnel and pushed the crowd on top of her.  

The new report states “…the cause of death of Ms. Boyland would best be classified as compressional (mechanical) asphyxia.  Compressional asphyxia refers to a situation in which pressure exerted on the chest or back of an individual impedes normal breathing and often leaves no diagnostic physical findings.  The video tapes of the scene of the incident leading to her death and the descriptions of witnesses support this conclusion.”

While we tried to tell the DCME that Rosanne took her Adderall 7-9 HOURS before she died, they ignored us. On January 7, 2021 we were told to expect that the final COD would be an overdose of illegal drugs.  The report from Park Dietz and Associates also addresses that statement:  “There was no evidence of illicit drug use.  The finding of amphetamine in her postmortem blood and gastric contents is consistent with her prescribed use of Adderall.”

The pathologist continued “It remains my opinion that amphetamine toxicity was not the proximate cause of Ms. Boyland‘s death… .  The circumstances surrounding Ms. Boyland‘s death are not consistent with a drug overdose as the proximate cause and cannot be ignored.  A photograph taken of her prior to the incident on the Capitol steps shows her to be walking and smiling and does not suggest that she was impaired due to substance abuse.”

Both the DCME and the Park Dietz and Associates forensic pathologist agreed that the beating by a Metro PD officer did not play a part in Rosanne’s death.  After watching multiple body-worn camera videos, we believe Rosanne had already passed by then.

As a family we are horrified by the actions of the police after Rosanne went down.  They refused to help when people were crying out that she was dying; they sprayed teargas at anyone who tried to help her.

If Officer Morris had started CPR when she bent down near Rosanne, instead of picking up the big walking stick and hitting her, perhaps our daughter would be alive today.

Thanking all of you for your efforts,

Bret and Cheryl Boyland

We wish to thank all of you for your prayers and donations.  We were finally given access to the full autopsy report, and are in the process of contracting with an independent company for a second opinion.

Getting access to body-worn camera and CCTV footage has continued to be a struggle.  We’ve especially requested information about what happened to Rosanne once the police took her inside the Capitol.  Six weeks ago we were told that the lawyers for both DC Metro and Capitol police agreed to provide us with all of the relevant videos — after redaction, of course.  So far, we\'ve received nothing.