Colby: Heart Attack Or Stroke? -- Autopsy Report Issued On Ex-CIA Chief
BALTIMORE - Former CIA director William Colby probably collapsed from a heart attack or stroke while he was out canoeing and then fell into the water and died, the state medical examiner's office said today.
An autopsy found evidence that Colby, 76, had suffered from hardening of the arteries, Chief Medical Examiner John Smialek said in a statement.
Colby's body was found Monday after an eight-day search involving divers, dogs and sonar equipment. He was found lying face down in a marshy riverbank, near where he had disappeared on a canoe outing.
"He apparently had a heart attack or stroke and fell out of the canoe into and the water where he died of hypothermia and drowning," said Jeannette A. Duerr, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Hypothermia is a dangerous drop in body temperature.
The death was ruled accidental, rather than from natural causes, because even though there was evidence that he was ill before falling out of the canoe, in the final analysis it was the drowning and hypothermia that killed him, she said.
No blood clots were found, although they could have dissolved during the weeklong search for his body, the medical examiner said.
Stomach contents indicated Colby died a short time after eating, and he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.07 percent. He had had wine with his dinner, the statement said. No drugs were found in his system, the medical examiner's office said.
Colby capped a long career in intelligence by serving as CIA chief from 1973 to 1976 in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
A private funeral service will be held Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, where Colby will be buried with full military honors. A public memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday at Washington National Cathedral.