NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — A 5-year-old girl whose body was found in a garbage can in Niagara Falls, N.Y., apparently was strangled.
Coroner Cindy-Lou Joyce says there was a "mechanical obstruction" of Isabella Tennant's airway and a compression of her neck.
Joyce won't say what was used to stop the girl from breathing but says it wasn't considered a "total strangulation."
She says there were other injuries but no sign of sexual abuse.
Police say 16-year-old John Freeman killed Isabella with his bare hands Sunday night while she was staying with her great-grandmother. They say Freeman enlisted 18-year-old Tyler Best to help dispose of the body in a garbage can a few blocks away, where it was found the next day.
Both teens pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday.


