MYSTERY remains over the cause of a three-week old baby’s death.

Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers told an inquest the reason Alexie Wyn Cyster Marnell died was “unascertained.”

The tot had an underlying bone abnormality but it hadn’t caused the tragedy.

Turning to the parents he assured them: “Baby Alexie hasn’t died from any family intervention. There’s nothing to suggest any member of the family played any part in baby Alexie’s death.”

The baby had been taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd from her home in Trem y Wyddfa, Penygroes, near Caernarfon, last August.

The inquest heard, at first, doctors and police thought there might be a head injury. But they were wrong.

The pathologist explained: “An assumption was made she had a head injury and a likely skull fracture. That wasn’t the case.”

Dr Rodgers said there was a femur fracture consistent with a birth injury.

A friend told the inquest the family had been put “through hell” and weren’t to blame for the tragedy.

North West Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones recorded an open conclusion at the Caernarfon hearing.

He said :”The cause of death is unascertained. But more importantly the medical evidence doesn’t show any medical mishap or that a person killed her basically.”

The inquest heard Alexie had been in a Moses basket in the early hours when Paul Marnell passed and noticed a cat on her face. But the pathologist said the pet hadn’t suffocated her.

Her mother Nicola Cyster had indicated that her daughter often screamed when her right leg was lifted. Dr Rodgers said it was a sign the thigh bone was broken.

After the hearing the baby’s parents declined to comment