The investigation into the accidental fall and death of senior Drew Everson has been officially closed.
Acute ethanol intoxication was a “contributing condition” to the blunt trauma of the head due to a fall, which was fatal, according to the report issued Jan. 14 by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner office.
The toxicology report released the same day indicated that Everson had a blood alcohol content of 0.133 upon admission to Duke University Hospital, nearly 10 hours after he was last seen by friends. It is unclear what Everson’s BAC was at the time of his fall.
“It could be a lot higher or the same,” said J. Robert Zettl, forensic technologist in Colorado and member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists. “You would need a whole lot more information than [his weight and BAC upon admission] for me to say. You’d need to know how much he drank, what he drank, how long he had been drinking and what he ate that day, among other things.”
Everson, who would have turned 22 tomorrow, sustained severe head injuries after falling down an outdoor stairwell behind the East Campus Union early Oct. 22.
Friends last saw him walking to his Watts Street apartment off East Campus at 2 a.m., the report stated. A Marketplace employee found him unconscious at the bottom of a seven-step cement staircase at 11:30 a.m., and Everson was then transported to the Duke University Emergency Department.
According to the medical examiner’s report, Everson suffered from multiple skull fractures, diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hematomas and hemorrhage, which eventually led to him being pronounced brain dead at 8 p.m. Oct. 23.
The Duke University Police Department closed its investigation after the medical examiner’s report was released, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.
“The medical examiner’s report released today provides finality to the extensive investigation by the Duke Police,” Schoenfeld said in a statement Friday. “The Duke community is deeply saddened by this tragedy and continues to mourn Drew’s death. His legacy at Duke will be long-lasting, and we offer our thoughts and prayers to Drew’s many family and friends.”
Schoenfeld noted that DUPD consulted with outside law enforcement agencies in order to construct and reconstruct the accident in addition to conducting interviews and reviewing available medical information. He also confirmed that all of Everson’s personal belongings were found in his pockets.
“There are just a number of aspects of the situation and all evidence indicates an accident,” Schoenfeld said in a November interview.
In the months following the tragic accident, Everson’s family and friends have been actively working to ensure that his memory lives on.
Campus Council, of which Everson was a member, sponsored a tribute at the first home men’s basketball game Nov. 14 and gave the first 1,000 students attending Viking helmets, which had been Everson’s trademark attire at basketball games.
Everson’s family donated his organs, according to the medical examiner’s report. They are also working closely with Pi Kappa Phi fraternity—of which Everson was a member—and Duke Partnership for Service to rebuild a playground at the Durham Crisis Response Center as part of an initiative called PlayTime 2011. The playground at the DCRC will be dedicated in Everson’s honor, senior Carissa Mueller, chief of organization outreach for dPS, wrote in an e-mail.
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