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Rudy Eugene, 31, left, who police shot and killed as he ate the face of Ronald Poppo, 65, right, during a horrific attack in the shadow of the Miami Herald's headquarters on Saturday, May 26, 2012. Poppo was in critical condition Tuesday, with only his goatee intact on his face, the newspaper reported. (AP)
There was no human flesh in the stomach of the man dubbed the "Miami Zombie", an autopsy has revealed.
..But there was human flesh lodged between the teeth of Rudy Eugene, despite him missing his two top front teeth.
A Miami police officer shot and killed Eugene, 31, last month as he attacked a homeless man in broad daylight, tearing off his face with his teeth.
Police found chunks of victim Ronald Poppo's flesh on the ground, as if they had been spat out.
Eugene was known to have lost his two front teeth in an accident as a child and police found a set of gold teeth in the pockets of his pants discarded on the causeway where the attack occurred.
An autopsy preliminary review reported there were undigested pills in his stomach, but investigators have not identified them yet, a law enforcement source told McClatchy Newspapers.
Family and friends gathered on Saturday to say a tearful goodbye to Eugene, whose body lay in a silver and grey casket topped with white blossoms in front of Miami's Grace Funeral Home.
The person that everyone remembered was a loving relative and close friend - not the crazed, naked man who shocked the world with an attack so bizarre it still defies explanation.
No one at the service could understand the situation that led Miami police to shoot Eugene several times to stop the vicious attack.
Detectives are still trying to piece together Eugene's final hours. He was last reported parking his car in South Beach, where people from across the nation had gathered for Urban Beach Week, about four hours before the attack.
But his whereabouts in that four-hour gap are unknown. Just before Eugene pounced on Poppo, a motorist called 911 to report a man on the causeway shedding his clothes and swinging from a light pole.
Traces of marijuana in system
Eugene's autopsy records have not been released to the public and will likely not become available until Miami-Dade prosecutors finish their review of the shooting, which could take more than a year.
The preliminary review found the presence of marijuana in Eugene's system, a law enforcement source said, which was no surprise because his family and friends widely reported he was fond of smoking pot.
But marijuana doesn't usually spark violent attacks. Whether the pills found in his stomach played a role in Eugene's outburst of violence is not yet known. Toxicology tests will take weeks to complete.
Investigators assume some type of drug fuelled Eugene's bizarre behaviour, but they have no indication he may have used "bath salts", a synthetic stimulant that in some cases can lead to psychotic episodes, paranoia and violence.
Miami's police union has speculated Eugene might have been acting under the influence of this drug.
Fuelled by the internet and widespread interest in the macabre case, some media reports have dubbed Eugene the "Causeway Cannibal'' and the "Miami Zombie''.
The chatter even led the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a statement last week denying the existence of a zombie virus, and Los Angeles celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred to hold a much-panned news conference in Miami decrying the ills of cannibalism.
A big brother remembered for kindness
At Eugene’s memorial service, his younger brother Markenson Charles described him as "the type of person who would give you his last''.
"If he had it, it was yours,'' Charles told the crowd of about 150.
He described a big brother who would pay his mobile phone bill and throw in a little extra cash when money was tight.
“Those are the moments I cherish the most, him being a big brother to me,'' Charles said.
Ruth Charles, dressed in a black and white polka dot skirt and white blazer, shuffled slowly to the front pew, past her son's casket. With her head bowed and tears streaming down her face, she swayed from side to side.
Pastor Keny Felix, who had known Eugene since childhood when he attended Sunday school at Bethel Baptist Evangelical Church, told the crowd to also remember Poppo, the 65-year-old victim of the attack.
Poppo is recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where a source said he had already undergone skin grafts to help repair his mangled face.
The torn-off skin from Poppo's face - dead tissue that lay on the concrete sidewalk under the hot sun after the attack - could not be used to help reconstruct his face, the source said.
Poppo has so far been unable to tell Miami detectives what happened.
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