The agonizing wait for answers in the death of 19-year-old Adam De Prisco will continue for a few more weeks for his grieving family.
De Prisco's uncle, Sandro Bellio, confirmed Sunday that the Ontario Coroner's preliminary findings suggest the teen was killed by a car. The family insists he was beaten to death outside the Acapulco nightclub he attended a week ago.
Mexican authorities say De Prisco was the victim of a hit-and-run, a theory the results of the first autopsy performed in Mexico suggest as well.
At a press conference held outside their Woodbridge home Sunday, family members said the coroner's investigation is ongoing and although preliminary results suggested De Prisco may have been hit by a car, further testing will be done to determine if he was beaten as well.
Bellio said he doesn't dispute the Canadian coroner's findings, but is waiting for the results of further tests.
But De Prisco's aunt, Stephanie Pannozzi, travelled to Mexico and said a neurologist there told her that her nephew was beaten to death.
"He confirmed to me that Adam was not hit by a vehicle. I asked him: 'the injuries that Adam sustained, what do you think caused my nephew's death?' He specifically said to me, he described something of steel, metal or rock were what killed my nephew. This was not a hit-and-run accident," she said.
De Prisco's relatives say there were witnesses who said they saw the teen being beaten by a doorman and taxi driver. While De Prisco lay dying in hospital his hotel room was also robbed.
There are reports that the teen was attacked after dancing with a woman inside the club, some suggesting it was part of a set-up.
Bellio also claims that a water truck arrived at the scene shortly after his nephew was removed and washed evidence and blood off the street. He also says Adam's body appeared to have more injuries when it arrived in Canada than it did when he saw his nephew's remains in Mexico.
"I have no investigation on the Mexico side. I have time that's against us as well. I have the embalming is also against us," Bellio said Sunday.
"There's a lot of things against us. And, you know, this could be another case out there where we can keep fighting, spend monies, you know, and get nowhere even in a year from now."
The family also expressed their outrage at the Canadian government's lack of response to this case. Relatives claim the government has done very little to help them. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said he'd be speaking to his Mexican counterpart on Monday.
"I hate being a Canadian, because I haven't seen nobody from the government doing anything at all," Carm De Prisco, Adam's mother, angrily insisted Sunday.
"They don't care ... no mercy, no nothing."
De Prisco's death came nearly a year after two other Woodbridge residents, Domenic and Nancy Ianiero, were found murdered in their room at a resort in the Mayan Riviera. Mexican authorities quickly pointed the finger at two Thunder Bay women and the case remains unsolved. Critics have accused Mexican police of botching the investigation and of a cover up.
Twenty-eight Canadians have been killed in Mexico since 1994, shortly after the peso devaluation that led to a rise in street crime.
Bellio didn't call for a Canadian boycott of Mexico but advised people to use their best judgment.
"Let the people decide for themselves - is it safe to go there? Obviously not," he said.
High profile lawyer Eddie Greenspan is representing the Ianiero family and he has reportedly expressed an interest in speaking with the De Prisco family about the case.
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