His Daughter’s Convinced Someone Accidentally Killed Him And That He Didn’t Fall Down The Stairs While Having A Seizure
Shawn O’Brien of Cranston, Rhode Island, is remembered as a funny, quick-witted, and caring gentleman. According to his daughter, Natalia St. Louis, he was a “pull out your chair, hold the door, always pick up the tab kind of guy.”
However, in July 2006, Shawn died after supposedly having a seizure and falling, and his daughter was not satisfied with the theory surrounding his death.
At the time, Shawn lived in a duplex-style apartment owned by a man named Armand, who resided in the ground-level unit.
The two seemingly had some issues since, on June 8, 2006, authorities received word of a disturbance between Shawn and Armand.
Once the police arrived on the scene, Shawn also reportedly stated that he wanted to make a police report to assist him in the eviction process. Then, a month and a half later, he died.
It all began on July 21, 2006, which started out as a typical workday for Shawn. Following his shift, his girlfriend, Amy, and one of their daughters came over. They’d initially intended to visit a local festival that evening.
But Shawn’s daughter got a headache, so the plans shifted. Instead, Shawn asked Amy for a ride to Billy’s Frosted Mug, a bar, because he supposedly didn’t want to be at home alone with Armand and Armand’s girlfriend, Lynn.
Things were tense in his home at this point, and Lynn had reportedly made threats against Shawn in the past.
Amy agreed, and Shawn reached out to his sister to see whether she was in town and able to hang out, too. She wasn’t available, so Shawn got a ride and went to the bar by himself at about 6:10 p.m.
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The next day, July 22, 2006, Shawn was supposed to begin work between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. He never arrived. Hours later, at 5:30 p.m., Shawn’s sister, Karen, stopped by his apartment to talk with him and found him unresponsive on the floor.
His landlord, Armand, reportedly ran out of the house as Karen was arriving, screaming, “Come in quick. Shawn’s been in a seizure for over an hour.” She quickly called the police while Shawn lay flat on his stomach with his feet facing the door and his head in a small pool of blood.
As police officers arrived on the scene, Shawn was already being transported into an ambulance to be brought to the hospital.
He reportedly had a history of seizures, which police learned after talking to Cranston Fire officials, and had bitten the inside of his mouth. The police didn’t notice any signs of a struggle, either.
Shawn ultimately died three days after he was admitted to Rhode Island Hospital. He reportedly suffered brain swelling from blunt force trauma to the head and had multiple cuts, abrasions, and bruises on his head. He was taken off life support on July 25, 2006.
Initially, Shawn’s cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head by a Rhode Island Medical Examiner.
According to the report, his skull was fractured, he’d sustained multiple other head injuries, and cocaine was found in his system. These circumstances led the medical examiner to classify Shawn’s death as “undetermined.”
“So, he cannot with 100% certainty rule out that it was an accident because there are no witnesses to corroborate what exactly happened in his final moments,” detailed independent forensic pathologist Dr. Timothy Gallagher.
Natalia doesn’t agree with one theory about her father’s death and has her own beliefs.
“There was a theory that [Shawn] had a seizure and fell down the stairs and that the injuries to his head are a result of that, but if you look at where he was found in relation to the stairs, it doesn’t really add up,” she said.
“So my theory is that there was some type of altercation either Friday night or Saturday morning on the weekend he was found. He was struck with something, what I don’t know… a bat or a heavy object like that,” she continued.
“He was struck, and then [the person/people left]. I always wondered if whoever it was didn’t mean to kill him, but it was just part of an argument. So that is my theory.”
Natalia is disconcerted by how the police handled the initial investigation of Shawn’s death as well. Primarily, it took five days after Shawn was discovered unresponsive in his apartment for investigators to seal off the residence as a crime scene.
When Shawn’s girlfriend, Amy, and sister, Karen, went to his apartment to retrieve his belongings, they reportedly found bloodstains on the doors, walls, floors, blankets, and dining room chairs.
Natalia claimed that investigators had acknowledged the error, saying, “Yeah, we should have sealed it; we didn’t realize it was a crime scene.” Still, to her, it feels like a “no-brainer” that the untested evidence from the scene should be analyzed.
“You look at all of these cold cases from 30, 40, 50 years ago, and they get solved with DNA. Just send it away; it is not that big of a deal,” Natalia stated.
Additionally, investigators interviewed Armand and Lynn together, which Natalia thinks is a mistake, as they were both officially named people of interest a year after Shawn’s death.
Over 18 years have now passed, though, and Natalia admitted that she isn’t sure if anyone will ever be charged in relation to her father’s death. Nonetheless, she shared some actions the police could still take.
Natalia specifically wants Shawn’s death to be classified as a homicide. Plus, she wants all the DNA from the crime scene to be retested and for the Rhode Island State Police to get involved in the reinvestigation of his death.
A Facebook group, “Justice For Shawn O’Brien,” has been created to continue raising awareness about his case, and Natalia refuses to give up the fight for answers.
“There is a reason I am who I am. I am aggressive, hungry, and relentless. I am my father’s daughter. So, to the men expecting me to back down, you will need to stand taller to look me in the eye to tell me to move on,” she said.
Anyone with information regarding Shawn’s case is urged to contact the Cranston Police Department at (401) 942-2211.
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