“There was no indication of cachexia. He was an overweight man on the time of demise,” Dr. Niels Morling, a Danish scientist who helped lead the evaluation, stated on the time. “All different circumstances in his final part of life pointed to some type of an infection.”

However crucially, the researchers additionally present in one in every of Mr. Neruda’s molars traces of the bacterium clostridium botulinum. Some strains of that bacterium trigger botulism, which might paralyze and kill folks, and are among the many world’s deadliest toxins, typically utilized in organic weapons.

Nonetheless, the 2017 evaluation was incomplete, and the scientists stated they wanted extra time to find out whether or not the micro organism was in his physique on the time of demise — as an alternative of seeping in later — and whether or not it had killed him.

Of their closing report on Wednesday, the scientists concluded the bacterium was in his physique when he died, partly by discovering small quantities within the floor close to the place he was buried.

However they might not decide whether or not it killed him, or even when the pressure was a poisonous one, partly as a result of they had been solely in a position to reconstruct a few third of its genome. As a result of the DNA was so previous, it had degraded.

“Botulinum is essentially the most potent poison there’s for people. And due to this fact, a point out of an individual dying with botulinum micro organism in them is hair-raising. It’s sensational,” stated Mr. Brenner, the member of the knowledgeable panel. “Nevertheless, the reality is, some botulinum strains don’t produce the toxin, and on this case, there was no clear proof that was the case.”

Poisonous botulinum micro organism in people is extra typically the results of consuming rotten fish, he stated. “We don’t have plenty of murderers, however we do have plenty of deaths from botulism,” he stated.

Pascale Bonnefoy and Ana Lankes contributed reporting.