More than a year after influencer Emilie Kiser lost her 3-year-old son, Trigg, an official medical examiner’s report has confirmed his cause of death.

According to a report released by the Maricopa County medical examiner on Tuesday, Aug. 25, Trigg died from anoxic brain injury caused by drowning. His manner of death was formally classified as an accident. The report states that the injury occurred after the child drowned in a residential swimming pool.

The finding provides the medical conclusion to a tragedy that began at the Kiser family’s home in Chandler, Arizona, on May 12, 2025.

Trigg was found unconscious in the backyard swimming pool that day and was taken to a hospital. Despite efforts to save him, he died six days later, on May 18.

At the time of the accident, Emilie was not at home. Her husband, Brady Kiser, was caring for Trigg and the couple’s younger son, Teddy.

What the Medical Examiner Determined

The newly released medical report lists Trigg’s immediate cause of death as anoxic brain injury due to drowning.

An anoxic brain injury occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen. In Trigg’s case, the medical examiner connected that injury directly to the drowning.

The determination that his death was accidental is also significant because the circumstances surrounding the incident had been the subject of a police investigation for months.

Chandler police initially responded to the family’s home after receiving a drowning call on May 12, 2025. Trigg was hospitalized in critical condition following the incident before his death several days later.

What happened in the minutes before he was discovered later became an important focus of investigators.

Investigators Reviewed Surveillance Footage

Brady, now 29, initially told authorities that he had lost sight of Trigg for approximately three to five minutes before finding him in the pool.

Investigators later said surveillance footage provided a more detailed timeline.

According to the Chandler Police Department, the video showed Trigg alone in the backyard for more than nine minutes. Police said he was in the water for approximately seven of those minutes.

Brady was also looking after the couple’s younger son at the time.

After completing its investigation, the Chandler Police Department recommended that prosecutors consider a Class 4 felony child-abuse charge against Brady.

That recommendation, however, did not result in criminal charges.

Prosecutors Declined to Charge Brady Kiser

The case was forwarded to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which reviewed the evidence gathered by police.

Prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges against Brady.

The county attorney’s office said there was “no likelihood of conviction” based on the available evidence, meaning prosecutors did not believe they could establish the elements necessary to obtain a guilty verdict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The decision effectively closed the criminal portion of the case.

The medical examiner’s new ruling more than a year later separately confirms that Trigg’s manner of death was accidental.

For the Kiser family, however, the legal and medical conclusions have unfolded alongside an intensely public grieving process.

Emilie Fought to Keep Records Private

Emilie, who built a large audience by sharing her family life online, faced an extraordinary level of public attention following Trigg’s death.

Shortly after losing her son, she went to court seeking to prevent certain records connected with the tragedy from becoming publicly available.

Her legal filing said that more than 100 public-records requests had already been submitted to government agencies. Those requests reportedly included attempts to obtain footage depicting the accident.

Emilie argued that being a public figure did not mean that her family should lose the right to grieve privately.

In a declaration connected with the case, she also addressed the fact that she had been away from home when the accident occurred.

She said she would always question that decision, along with many others surrounding that day.

Her court filing emphasized that while she had shared many aspects of her family life with millions of followers, she had done so from a place of love — and she wanted Trigg to be remembered in that same way.

The legal effort highlighted a difficult tension for families whose lives have become part of social media: the difference between voluntarily sharing joyful moments online and having the most painful moment of their lives treated as public material.

Emilie Later Spoke About Forgiving Her Husband

For many months after Trigg’s death, Emilie remained largely silent about the details of what happened.

In June 2026, more than a year after the accident, she gave her first extensive interview about the tragedy during an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast.

She recalled being approximately five weeks postpartum when she went out for dinner with friends on the night of the accident.

Shortly after arriving, she received a phone call from Brady telling her that Trigg had fallen into the pool and was not breathing.

Emilie described that moment as the point when the family’s entire world changed.

She also discussed the process of forgiving Brady.

Rather than publicly placing all responsibility on her husband, Emilie said she had come to understand that a devastating lapse could have happened while either parent was caring for their children.

Her comments reflected the complicated reality of grieving a child while continuing to raise another child and remain married to the person who was present when the accident occurred.

The Family Is Preparing for Another Child

Emilie and Brady are now entering another chapter of their family life.

On July 3, the couple announced that they are expecting their third child together.

Their younger son Teddy is now 17 months old.

While announcing her pregnancy, Emilie also made clear that the way she uses social media has changed significantly since Trigg’s death.

She said protecting her family’s privacy would remain her priority and acknowledged that she might share far less about the pregnancy and their lives going forward.

That decision marks a noticeable shift for an influencer whose career had previously included frequent glimpses into motherhood and daily family routines.

A Medical Answer After More Than a Year

The Aug. 25 medical examiner’s report does not change what the Kiser family has lived through since May 2025.

But it does provide a final medical classification for a case that generated extensive investigation, legal questions and public scrutiny.

Trigg’s death was caused by anoxic brain injury due to drowning, and his manner of death was officially ruled an accident.

Behind those clinical words is the story Emilie has spent the past year trying to protect from becoming merely another piece of online content.

Her son was 3 years old.

And while the circumstances of his final day became the subject of police reports, court filings and intense internet discussion, Emilie has repeatedly made clear that she wants the public memory of Trigg to be defined by something much larger than the accident that ended his life.

For the Kiser family, the challenge now is learning how to carry that memory forward while building a life that inevitably looks very different from the one they had before May 12, 2025.