I think you missed my second sentence. I don't believe she died while the search was going on, and I doubt the medical examiner believes that either. I think whatever happened to her, happened within 24 hours. I think you also missed my second paragraph. "Inanition" is a misleading label.
"Inanition" shows up on death certificates when the cause of death is unknown, for example when a newborn dies within minutes. Nobody actually believes that newborns can die of dehydration or starvation immediately after birth.
Examiners in Maine are supposed to follow CDC guidelines for labeling cause of death, which leads me to the IDC-10 codes for classifying cause of death. "Inanition" does not appear on the list, but the CDC website search function finds it mentioned in the description of both X53 Lack of Food, and X54 Lack of Water.
("X54 Lack of Water Includes: lack of water as the cause of: - dehydration - inanition ; Excludes: neglect or abandonment")
The codes are organized into a hierarchy. X53 and x54 fall under "Overexertion, travel and privation" (X50 through X57). That's a reasonable category, but to illustrate the examiner's dilemma, hypothermia is X31, in the "Forces of Nature" group. There's nothing remotely close to "death while camping, unspecified natural causes". I can't see anything the examiner could have picked that would have satisfied you.
