Family members were suspicious when they were told that a former U.S. Marine’s fatal fall from a balcony in Cancun, Mexico, was ruled to be accidental. And so about 15 months ago, they reached out to Stamford defense attorney Stephan Seeger.

What Seeger has learned since then has raised doubt exactly how Sgt. Joe Bitet died. At the same time, Seeger has received a crash course in the Mexican legal system, learning that private lawyers can, at times, work closely with prosecutors.