The body of a Hollywood actor’s daughter has been sitting in a morgue for weeks as her parents desperately try to prove the young woman’s death was not a suicide.
Authorities contend Daelena Mackay, whose dad Dwayne Adway had numerous television rolls in hits like “CSI,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER” and “The Steve Harvey Show,” took her own life after she was reportedly found May 23, hanging by a scarf in her bathroom.
A man who called 911 claiming to be Daelena’s boyfriend said he tried to revive her after finding her body, but she could not be saved.
An autopsy was not performed, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner told the Daily Mail, because an external examination and “the circumstances” of Daelena’s death made on unnecessary.
Adway said he is suspicious about his daughter’s cause of death.
“I’m trying to apply pressure to the LAPD,” Adway told The Post Saturday. “They are dead set on staying where they are and not looking more into the case. This seems to be happening a lot in LA with black and brown girls who die and are written off as suicides.”
Her mother has also insisted Mackay, 20, had suspicious injuries, and decried the lack of an autopsy in the case.
“‘Her body tells a different story than what police are telling us, with bruises and bleeding from two puncture wounds approximately an inch apart that go from the front of her body straight through to the back and other bleeding,” Elaine Mackay told the Daily Mail.
“All of these findings that I found because I was left no choice but to have to examine her body myself, the county coroner left out of his report. Only toxicology was done by county coroner, no autopsy.”
Adway disagreed, contending Saturday that an autopsy is not likely to shed more light on the manner in which Daelena died.
Mackay was living at the El Centro Hollywood building while studying at Los Angeles City College, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
Elaine Mackay told the outlet the man who called police was not the same boyfriend in Texas with whom Daelena had a long off-and-on relationship.
“My daughter was not suicidal, she saw a therapist the day before and [they] said there was zero clinical indication of depression or suicide, that my daughter was full of life, very much excited about life,” Elaine Mackay insisted. “She was so excited about winning a poetry contest and her upcoming 21st birthday, she was actively pursuing modeling and acting after her parents’ footsteps.”
Adway said he was “heartbroken and grieving the loss of my beautiful smart and talented daughter.”
“I am seeking a full investigation from LAPD in hopes of finding the truth and justice,” he told the NBC affiliate in LA.
The mom claims her ex refuses to fully fund a private autopsy for their daughter, whose body has been sitting in the morgue.
‘This autopsy is crucial in the case and I don’t understand why her father would choose to forgo the autopsy when he knows it’s vital,’ she said. “All because I don’t have ‘my half’ when he has money, more than enough to just pay for it in full. Why would he do our daughter like this she’s just been sitting at the mortuary since June 18?’”
But Adway told The Post that he checked with two private forensic pathologists who told him that because there is no question that Daelena was strangled, their autopsy results would not differ from the medical examiner’s.
“The issue is not that she was strangled, but the manner in which she was strangled is the question,” Adway said. “The pathologists would not be able to determine that. That is up to the LAPD and both the mom and I have been to see them about investigating this case more.”
Adway said he has met the man who called 911 about his daughter and said he had concerns about his behavior. He declined to give the man’s name.
The medical examiner could not be immediately reached for comment.
