AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A 15-year-old girl police believe was lured to her death by a man using a phony Facebook profile died from asphyxiation, the state's chief medical examiner said.
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The official cause of Nichole Cable's death was given Thursday as "asphyxia due to compression of the neck." Authorities declined to elaborate.
The medical examiner, Dr. Margaret Greenwald, released the autopsy results after consulting with the state police crime lab, which has been reviewing evidence.
A 20-year-old man, Kyle Dube, faces charges of murder and kidnapping in Nichole's death, which police say occurred on May 12.
Nichole was reported missing from her Glenburn home on May 13 by her mother, who said she had left the night before to meet a friend at the end of the driveway but hadn't returned. Her body was found in woods in nearby Old Town days later.
Dube told his brother that he used Facebook to trick Nichole into leaving her house while he waited in the woods wearing a ski mask, state police said.
He told others he intended to abduct Nichole with the goal of returning later without the disguise to find her and to be hailed a hero, police said. Instead, he said, he put her in the back of a pickup and later discovered she was dead, police said.
Dozens of law enforcement officers, using aircraft and dogs, and hundreds of civilian volunteers spent days searching for the teen, whose friends described her as someone who was happy all the time and knew how to see the bright side of things.
Dube, of Orono, remained jailed Thursday. His lawyer, Stephen Smith, was out of town and was unavailable for comment, his office said.
