Toxicology

Houston Oiler Jeff Alm made a frantic 911 call to summon help after a car crash, yelling to the operator, "I have a buddy dying!" Seconds later, the operator heard four gunshots as Alm committed suicide. Fire department officials Wednesday released a recording of the call Alm made on his cellular phone shortly after his car crashed into a highway guardrail Dec. 14. His best friend, Sean Lynch, died after being thrown from the car and down an embankment.

An 18-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student was found dead in the surf at UC Santa Barbara , officials said Monday. The Santa Barbara County coroner's office plans to perform a toxicology screening on the body of Giselle Esme Ayala of Santa Rosa, officials said. She was found by a jogger Saturday morning in the water just west of Campus Point at the UC Santa Barbara campus. Ayala's friends had not seen her since 11 p.m. Friday and reported her missing the next evening.

An 18-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student was found dead in the surf at UC Santa Barbara , officials said Monday. The Santa Barbara County coroner's office plans to perform a toxicology screening on the body of Giselle Esme Ayala of Santa Rosa, officials said. She was found by a jogger Saturday morning in the water just west of Campus Point at the UC Santa Barbara campus. Ayala's friends had not seen her since 11 p.m. Friday and reported her missing the next evening.

More tests need to be performed before a cause of death can be determined for the Canadian tourist whose body was found inside a water tank atop a downtown Los Angeles hotel, coroner's officials said Thursday. The body of Elisa Lam, 21, was pulled from a tank at the Cecil Hotel on Tuesday. Lam, who authorities said traveled to California from Vancouver on Jan. 26, was last seen Jan. 31 at the hotel. Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said the autopsy was completed.

Sage Stallone, eldest son of Sylvester Stallone, died of natural causes -- heart disease, specifically -- the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Thursday. The actor-writer-producer died of coronary artery disease, with the coroner mentioning the 36-year-old's history of heavy smoking, L.A. Now reported. Family members reportedly said he'd cut back before his death. Toxicology tests came back "negative except for a sub-therapeutic level of hydrocodone," or Vicodin, the coroner said.

Dr. Dre's 20-year-old son, who was found dead in August at the family's Woodland Hills home, died of an accidental drug overdose, coroner's officials said Friday. A toxicology test on the rap impresario's son revealed that Andre R. Young Jr. died of "morphine and heroin intoxication," said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. It was ruled an accidental death, he said. Young's mother found him dead at the family's home at 10:24 a.m. Aug. 23. An autopsy was completed a few days later, but the determination of the cause of death was delayed pending the outcome of a "gamut of tests, including toxicology," Winter said.

Traces of a drug used as sleeping pills and tranquilizers have been detected in all seven bodies unearthed from the yard of a downtown boardinghouse, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Sacramento Union, citing an unidentified source, identified the drug as benzodiazepine. Valium and Dalmane are types of the drug, which can be lethal, especially when taken in combination with alcohol or a sedative.

A Florida man shot and killed by police as he gnawed on a homeless man's face had marijuana in his system -- but not other street drugs, prescription drugs or alcohol, according to toxicology reports released today. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office released the results of toxicology tests performed on Rudy Eugene, 31, after the bizarre May 26 attack that made headlines around the world. Police still don't have a motive for the unprovoked attack, a portion of which was captured on surveillance video.

More than a month after the sudden death of Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, a Nevada coroner said Thursday it could be two or three more weeks before he releases his report on the cause of death. Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said that toxicology and microscopic reports have been submitted to a medical examiner, who has not yet determined a cause and manner of death. Gans was found dead in bed at home in Henderson, Nev., early May 1 after his wife, Julie, reported she couldn't rouse him. Murphy noted that police do not suspect foul play.

Tissue tests from a man initially believed to have died from natural causes show he may be the second person in the area to die of a cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Excedrin capsule, a source close to the King County Medical Examiner's Office said today. Preliminary toxicology reports of the tissues from the body of Bruce Nickell, 52, indicated the presence of cyanide, the source said.

Here is how The Times matched doctors to their patients who died of prescription drug overdoses or related causes: Reporters examined coroners' records in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties and identified cases in which: Toxicology tests found a prescription drug in the deceased's system, usually a painkiller, anti-anxiety drug or other narcotic. Coroners' investigators reported finding a container of the same medication bearing the doctor's name, or records of a prescription.

Sage Stallone, eldest son of Sylvester Stallone, died of natural causes -- heart disease, specifically -- the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Thursday. The actor-writer-producer died of coronary artery disease, with the coroner mentioning the 36-year-old's history of heavy smoking, L.A. Now reported. Family members reportedly said he'd cut back before his death. Toxicology tests came back "negative except for a sub-therapeutic level of hydrocodone," or Vicodin, the coroner said.

A Florida man shot and killed by police as he gnawed on a homeless man's face had marijuana in his system -- but not other street drugs, prescription drugs or alcohol, according to toxicology reports released today. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office released the results of toxicology tests performed on Rudy Eugene, 31, after the bizarre May 26 attack that made headlines around the world. Police still don't have a motive for the unprovoked attack, a portion of which was captured on surveillance video.

The death of NFL star Junior Seau was officially ruled a suicide by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office on Thursday. Officials are awaiting the family's decision regarding the study of Seau's brain for evidence of repetitive injuries. Seau was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in his beachside home in Oceanside on Wednesday morning about 9:35 a.m., according to the report. Officials have not determined an exact time of death. Dr. Craig Nelson, deputy medical examiner, conducted a forensic autopsy Thursday, including a full examination of Seau's body and organs and a collection of appropriate specimens for laboratory studies, including toxicology and microscopic examination of organs and tissues.

OCEANSIDE -- The death of NFL star Junior Seau was officially ruled a suicide by the San Diego County medical examiner's office. Officials are awaiting the family's decision regarding the study of Seau's brain for evidence of repetitive injuries. Seau was discovered dead in his beachside home in Oceanside on Wednesday morning from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, according to the report. Officials have not determined an exact time of death. Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Nelson conducted a forensic autopsy Thursday, including a full examination of Seau's body and organs while taking a collection of appropriate specimens for laboratory studies, including toxicology and microscopic examination of organs and tissues.

Whitney Houston was found underwater in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel suite, authorities said Monday as they continued to investigate her death, including examining prescription drugs found in her room. Authorities have collected several bottles of drugs from Houston's suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, law enforcement sources told The Times. But the sources stressed that the amount of drugs did not seem unusually large, and it remained unclear whether the drugs had anything to do with her death.

When paramedics arrived at Whitney Houston's hotel suite in Beverly Hills, they found her unresponsive in the bathtub, and officials said that drowning is one of the possible causes of death being investigated. The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it performed an autopsy on the singer's body Sunday, but deferred any conclusion about her death until toxicology results are available, in six to eight weeks. Sources who were briefed on the probe Sunday said drowning is one of several scenarios investigators are exploring.

Detectives on Saturday were investigating the death of Rickie Ann Blake, a 14-year-old girl whose body was found on a freeway off-ramp in San Diego several hours after she was reported missing from her home under mysterious circumstances. The junior high school student was last seen alive by her sister shortly before midnight Thursday in the living room of the family's Chula Vista home, located in the 1500 block of Oleander Avenue.

When paramedics arrived at Whitney Houston's hotel suite in Beverly Hills, they found her unresponsive in the bathtub, and officials said that drowning is one of the possible causes of death being investigated. The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it performed an autopsy on the singer's body Sunday, but deferred any conclusion about her death until toxicology results are available, in six to eight weeks. Sources who were briefed on the probe Sunday said drowning is one of several scenarios investigators are exploring.

The death of Whitney Houston over the weekend is still being investigated, and it might take weeks to get toxicology reports back, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said. That's not an unusual time frame for such a case, but why does it take so long? Several factors may be involved, experts said. The main issue may be a big backlog of cases, said Dr. Doug Rollins, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City: “Funding to most of these labs has been decreased,” he said, “so they don't have the staff to handle that large of a caseload.” Then there are the tests themselves.