Disturbing new details in Matiss Kivlenieks' autopsy.

On Monday morning we all woke up to the shocking and tragic news that 24 year old goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks had passed away after a horrible accident on Sunday. The official story so far has been that Kivlenieks slipped and fell, striking his head in the process, when fleeing a hot tub after some type of fireworks malfunction but there is now reason to suspect otherwise. Reports out of Michigan are now claiming that the autopsy report from this incident paints a very, very, different picture of Kivlenieks' death, one that may still very well be an accident.

According to ClickOnDetroit news the autopsy for Kivlenieks has now revealed that he died from blunt force trauma to his chest, not to his head as had been originally reported, and that trauma is not believed to have come as the result of any type of fall. Instead it has now been revealed via the autopsy that Kivlenieks was struck in the chest by a firework, and for it to be powerful enough to kill him it must have been either a fairly potent firework or a projectile moving at considerable speed.

This is a very different story than the one we originally reported on here, following a statement that had been released by the Blue Jackets organization corroborating reports earlier in the morning. Thus far there has been no indication from any party that there has been any kind of foul play involved in this incident, but it has become fairly obvious that we don't yet have a full picture of what went down here and what led to the death of this promising young NHL talent.

Given that we now believe he was struck by a firework, there are questions whose answers could drastically impact how we look at this case. Was it Kivlenieks himself who lit the firework or was someone else involved? Was he holding it or was it launched at him like some type of projectile? No doubt more details will emerge in the coming hours and days and we will bring you all of the latest on this incident as it becomes available.