When I read the news about this, it does not seem mysterious at all. While the article does not explicitly mention suicide, I think it's using journalism code for suicide:
Dr. Tracy Pickett death puts sex-assault testimony in limbo at Burnaby murder trial
My own brother took his life at age 38. It's not that uncommon or mysterious.
Yes, I suppose people do not trust a finding of "no foul play" when they hear it; police are so cagey about elaborating that it recalls other cases where police may have simply ignored signs of foul play.
The fact her death helps the accused though, by some weird technicality, and the fact that her death mirrors that of M*riss& Sh*n's is very triggering to people who have little trust in the courts.
You'd think the police & prosecutors would immediately summon another espert to replace her and re-confirm what was found before, not just allow the judge to throw the whole thing out so arbitrarily.
The accused in this case has wrapped up today with his defense offering no defense at all. They claim not guilty, but offer zero evidence to back it up, so that none of it can be challenged by prosecutors. They do not (can not) deny that the defendant's cum was found inside her 13 year old body, or that she died of strangulation. They just assert that these two facts do not point to him raping and murdering her.
What the defense did do was insinuate that the girl's mother was arguing with the girl, or that the girl was suicidal, or that the little girl was picking up some random dude in Central Park for sex, and even somehow strangled herself.
Classic victim blaming dirty tricks, hoping one or more jurors are "conspiracy theory" types, who do not grasp the "reasonable" part of reasonable doubt. And the odds of this strategy working would be low, but now the jury is (by judge's ruling) not allowed to consider the forensic rape expert's testimony at all. Those are not encouraging developments.
Either the jury acquits because one or more of them are mentally defective, or they do convict, but the judge rules they considered factual evidence that should have been redacted ? Not a good omen.