Remembering The 51 Day Standoff In Waco, Texas – 25 Years Later

Autopsy Findings

Photo Credits: Steven Reece/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

Furthermore, it was discovered that at least 20 of the Branch Davidians were shot, including five children under the age of 14, with a three-year-old baby being stabbed to death. Although this initially pointed to evidence of mass murder, the medical examiners who performed the autopsies believed that these deaths were mercy killings with no escape from the fire. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel went on to conclude that the gunshot wounds “support self-destruction either by overt suicide, consensual execution with a proxy, or less likely, forced execution”.

The questions to come were not so much about how the victims died, but how the fire started and who was responsible for everything that had gone wrong in the 51 days.