TACOMA — The death of a 54-year-old Jewish man on a snowy slope on Mount Rainier set the stage for a Pierce County court fight pitting religious belief against scientific certainty.

Brian Grobois, of New Rochelle, N.Y., died on a solo snowshoe hike, apparently from hypothermia. His body was recovered Dec. 13.

Three days later, a judge upheld an appeal barring Pierce County's medical examiner from conducting an autopsy on the body because of religious objections from the family, The News Tribune reported in Sunday's paper.

The case attracted the interest of Gov. Chris Gregoire and Jewish leaders around the country.

Jewish law requires a fast burial and no autopsy, but the medical examiner fought for an autopsy because questions remain about Grobois' death.

"This is not a matter of life and death. This is a matter of death and afterlife," Rabbi Zalman Heber, director of Chabad Jewish Center of Pierce County, said Friday.

But Pierce County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Clark said state law clearly empowers him to investigate unnatural deaths and that an autopsy was needed to answer questions.

"Their concerns were very real to them," Clark said. "But they're in conflict with Washington law and our charge to accurately determine deaths, and I can't make everybody happy."

State law doesn't allow families to stop autopsies on religious grounds. Heber said Jews intend to ask state legislators in the next session to change the law.

"This case is a classic example of why this is needed so there is no confusion in the future," Heber said. "The family (members) shouldn't have had to go through what they went through."

Clark said such a change would have significant implications for medical examiners and could jeopardize the integrity of investigations.

Grobois realized a dream Dec. 11 when he arrived at Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park for a snowshoe excursion, but something went amiss.

The family called the park the next morning to report him overdue. A helicopter crew found him later that afternoon lying in the snow at the top of the Stevens Creek drainage at an elevation of about 5,400 feet.

A park spokeswoman said he likely lost this way, became exhausted and succumbed to the brutal cold. Paradise reached a low of 14 degrees that night, and Grobois was not equipped to spend the night outdoors.

Grobois was taken by helicopter to Madigan Army Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Attending Madigan doctors wrote that he died of "hypothermia/cardiac arrest," according to Clark.

Heber said the doctors told him and Grobois' wife, daughter and son there was no need for an autopsy; they were confident about the cause of death.

The circumstances of Grobois' death and the fact that he was in good health and no one witnessed his death made Clark determine he needed to conduct his own investigation.