In People v. Hartman (1985) 170 Cal. App. 3d 572, the Court found a defendant's due process rights were violated by a seven-year delay between the victim's death and the filing of the murder charge. (Id. at p. 583.) There, a doctor who initially examined the victim concluded the victim had died of natural causes. The victim's widow, however, upset with the authorities' decision not to treat the death as a homicide, conducted her own investigation. The victim's body was exhumed and a second autopsy was performed. At that autopsy, a second doctor determined the victim had been killed by another person, although he was unable to determine the cause of death. Two other doctors, however, supported the findings of the first doctor. After an inquest, charges were filed, and the defendant moved to dismiss on due process grounds. After noting that a defendant must show actual prejudice arising from the delay, and that the time lapse was not itself determinative, we concluded that the lengthy delay had indeed prejudiced the defendant. (Id. at p. 580.) The first doctor (who had determined the victim died of natural causes), as well as one of the doctors who supported this finding, had both died before charges were filed. Some of the victim's organs had been lost, making resolution of medical inconsistencies impossible; autopsy photographs had been lost as well. The defendant was hindered from producing alibi witnesses because such witnesses would have had difficulty remembering the details of one Saturday seven years earlier. (Id. at pp. 579-580.)