MILFORD – A high-profile medical examiner who worked on the OJ Simpson case and more recently the Michael Brown police shooting has determined that the death of a Milford man in Saudi Arabia last January was a homicide.

Christopher Cramer, 50, was in Saudi Arabia on behalf of Merrimack defense contractor Kollsman when he died Jan. 15. A fellow employee discovered the body beneath the third-floor balcony of his hotel, and Kollsman officials initially said the death was a suicide, something that family and friends said is impossible.

Dr. Michael Baden, who recently retired as chief medical pathologist for the New York State Police, issued an autopsy report that says Cramer had extensive injuries that could not be caused by a single impact from a fall.

Cramer’s body was mostly injured on the left side, consistent with a fall from a height, he said in a phone interview Monday, but there were also injuries to his front and back “that couldn’t be the result of a single fall,” from the balcony.

“A person could stab himself and then jump,” but to damage his body the way Cramer’s body was damaged, was not possible, Baden said in a phone interview. “He had suffered fractures before the fall.”

Baden was the chief medical examiner of New York City for many years and investigated more than 100 falls, and most were suicides but some were homicides.

His final report, issued March 1, gives the cause of death as “multiple blunt force injuries of the head, chest, back and extremities,” and says the manner of death was homicide.

The toxicology report rules out any drugs that would have made Cramer hallucinatory or paranoid, he said, and a urine analysis indicated no sign of alcohol or drugs in the body.

Noah Mandell, a Nashua attorney and friend to the Cramer family, believes Cramer was beaten to death, and that he had a confrontation with a Saudi agent from another military contracting firm and perhaps messed up a lucrative deal for the agent.

Mandell also said the autopsy report contradicts the idea that Cramer committed suicide, because the urine examination shows there were “no therapeutic drugs, drugs of abuse or poisons present” in the body.

“He was not depressed, anxious and was highly functioning psychologically,” said Mandell in a phone interview Monday.

He also said the company put Cramer “in a dangerous place without adequate resources and protection,” and without enrolling him in the U.S. State Department’s safe travel program.

Kollsman Vice President Clark Freise said he would not comment until he has read the autopsy report, but he said enrollment in the State Department’s safe travel program is a personal responsibility and not a company responsibility.

The preliminary autopsy report, done in Saudi Arabia, found Carter’s death was caused by “multiple traumatic injuries,” including fractures of the skull and brain, hemorrhage and shock” after a fall from height.

Baden issued a preliminary report after the body was transported to New York that said the injuries pointed to homicide. The final report goes into more detail.

Mandell has maintained that his friend had a confrontation with a corrupt Saudi agent of another military contracting firm who sabotaged the equipment, and then profited by repairing the same equipment, in what Mandell calls an “old used car trick.”

Cramer was a 12-year employee of Kollsman, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, an Israeli-based defense company. He was staying at the Makarem Hotel in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and worked with Saudis on thermal optical devices that are part of its missile systems.

According to the U.S. State Department, between 15 minutes and a half hour before he died Cramer sent a text message to his roommate, Shad Smith, of Milford, saying, “I’m in the Marakim tabuk hotel in Saudi. I think something bad is going to happen to me tonight. Please contact state ddept (sic) ASAP. Bad things were said.” Cramer’s next text message gave his hotel room number: “Room 315.”

Mandell said the Cramer case is similar to another one he has been involved in.

Michael Truczinskas, of Connecticut, was 46 when he died in Tabuk while working for another defense contractor, General Dynamics Arabia.

“Michael complained to his family about an illegal arms deal,” Mandell said.

Baden’s autopsy was paid for by Kollsman, and Kollsman attorney Chris Puffer said the company has not yet received a copy of the report. He said company officials are frustrated in their search for answers to their employee’s death.

“We have been working to get information from Saudi Arabia” and with local police with no success, working through the U.S. State Department, he said.

Cramer’s sister Jennifer Kelley, of Nashua, said Wednesday she never had any doubt that her brother’s death was not a suicide.

“My bond with my brother was extremely close … he had a healthy lifestyle and was a good guy.”

The family has heard nothing at all from the U.S. government.

The idea that nothing can be done because it’s Saudi Arabia is “insane,” she said. “They’ve got to stop sending Americans over there.”

Cramer’s body was returned to the family naked and in a steel casket, she said, and none of his belongs, including his clothes and iPad, have been returned.

“If this could happen to my brother, it could happen to anyone,” she said.

Cramer had been sent to Saudi Arabia as part of a $750,000 arms deal, sent to show the Saudis that the weapons they had were not defective, and she thinks he was murdered because he overheard something he was not meant to hear.

Shad Smith, in a phone interview Wednesday, said he is glad the autopsy report said the death was not a suicide “as the company tried to classify it. All of us knew that was not possible” and it amounted to a defamation of character that was “totally irresponsible without any evidence.”

Kollsman officials had said they thought the death was suicide based on information they received from the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia.

Baden recently retired after 25 years as chief medical examiner for the New York State Police and is a forensic science contributor to Fox News.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 304, or kcleveland@nashuatelegraph.com.