LEWISTON – An autopsy performed on a man who fell from a tree last week confirmed that he suffered a fatal head injury.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Mu Zou of Lewiston fractured his skull. He had been cutting tree branches in front of his daughter’s house on Manning Place in Lewiston. He was 63.

Police arrived at the home about 12:45 p.m. Nov. 10 to find Zou lying on the grass, unconscious.

He had been up in a maple tree, cutting branches with a chain saw, when he fell about 15 feet to the ground, police said. The chain saw was still running when the officers arrived.

Paramedics conducted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Zou for more than 10 minutes before putting him on a backboard and rushing him to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

Due to the relatively short distance from where he was sitting in the tree to the ground, rescue workers and police had wondered if he suffered a heart attack before or after falling and that had caused his death. The autopsy revealed otherwise.

Zou’s wife and two other women were with him at his daughter’s house at the time of the accident. Neighbors said the daughter had moved into the house the previous day, and Zou had been working in the yard all morning.