can Tetrahydrozoline be detected in a routine autopsy??? (strictly for
informational puposes i watch a lot of CSI and wondered if they were
going off the deep end)

The presence of tetrahydrozoline can be detected through the use of
high-tech equipment. Today's CSI labs have access to chromatographic
analysis techniques that make such a discovery theoretically possible.
However (and this is a big "however"), the fact that a chemical
substance may be detected when you are specifically looking for it
does not mean that it would be likely that the substance would be
found in a routine autopsy. Tetrahydrozoline is not a chemical that is
typically part of the toxicologic screen that is used during the
investigation of a suspicious death. Unless the examiners had reason
to suspect that tetrahydrozoline was present, they would almost
certainly overlook it. Searching for poisons in dead bodies is a lot
easier than it used to be, but we're still a very long way from having
a global search that will report all foreign substances found in a
body.

"High-performance liquid chromatographic stability-indicating assay
for naphazoline and tetrahydrozoline in ophthalmic preparations."

Medline Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6644602&dopt=Abstract

"Simultaneous determination of ofloxacin, tetrahydrozoline
hydrochloride, and prednisolone acetate by high-performance liquid
chromatography."

Medline Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12387333&dopt=Abstract

"Determination of tetrahydrozoline hydrochloride and fluorometholone
in pharmaceutical formulations by HPLC and derivative UV
spectrophotometry."

Medline Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10683871&dopt=Abstract

My strategy in locating this information began with an email to a
friend who used to work in a forensic lab in Kansas City. I then used
this Google search string to gather additional info:

Google Web Search: detection OR determination OR identification tetrahydrozoline
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=detection+OR+determination+OR+identification+tetrahydrozoline

Incidentally, my friend who used to work in the forensic analysis lab
says that, because of the extreme unlikeliness of many of the plot
elements and investigative findings, CSI and its spinoffs are his
favorite science fiction shows. ;-)

Best regards,
pinkfreud

this was an amazingly complete answer (and humorous to boot) i thank
you and will even include a small tip

Thank you very much for the five-star rating and the nice tip!

~pinkfreud