"We are still investigating, along with police, whether it was an accident, homicide or suicide," said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner. "If we can't make a determination on any one of those three, it could end up being undetermined. That doesn't mean it's a natural death. It just means we don't know the circumstance."

Aronov, 44, vanished from a busy East Side street the afternoon of March 3 while walking a dog. Her body was found in the river Tuesday.

An autopsy found that Aronov drowned - but yielded few other clues about her demise.

A Cartier watch she was wearing stopped at 4:17 p.m. Detectives are working with the manufacturer to pinpoint how long the timepiece - advertised as water-resistant to 100 feet - would tick while submerged.

Three small bruises on Aronov's legs suggest she may have hurt herself on a metal railing that separates the East Side promenade from the water.

But officials can't even be certain she went into the water on the day she disappeared - and forensics alone are unlikely to answer that question.

"It's difficult enough to determine time of death in a body that died above water," said Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensic pathologist in Michigan. "Now you're adding in all these other factors," such as the temperature of the water, the depth and tidal patterns.

Family and friends find it impossible to believe Aronov, a doctor's wife with two daughters, would have killed herself.

"Suicide? Give me a break," said close friend Olga Dolgicer. "Svetlana was very lively and optimistic. She was truly a person who loved life."

Aronov's loved ones had planned to mark her 45th birthday this Sunday with a candlelight vigil outside her York Ave. building, but it was canceled.

"Right now, what are we to celebrate?" Dolgicer said. "We wanted her to be alive. We may be having a funeral instead."

When the medical examiner releases the body, a funeral will likely be held in a Russian Orthodox church in Manhattan, with burial to follow near Aronov's weekend home on Long Island.

Her husband, Alexander, who says he passed two lie-detector tests, remained in seclusion yesterday.

"Right now, all I can say is that we're waiting for more news and that the family is going to stay close together," he said.

Originally published on May 9, 2003