The same day Oklahoma City police said that energy billionaire Aubrey McClendon’s March death was the result of a fiery traffic accident and not suicide, the state medical examiner issued a similar finding.
“The cause of death is multiple blunt force trauma due to motor vehicle collision. The manner of death is accident,” said Amy Elliott, Chief Administrative Officer for the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in an email message to OK Energy Today.
Medical Examiner Dr. Marc Harrison signed off on the autopsy report dated June 8, 2016. The report indicated the 56-year old McClendon died of numerous injuries and burns suffered when the SUV he was driving crashed into the abutment of a bridge on Midwest Boulevard in Oklahoma City.
“This 56-year old white male was found unresponsive within a severely crushed and burned motor vehicle after it apparently impacted a bridge. There were extensive thermal burns noted to the decedent,” said the ME in his report.
Toxicological tests carried out in the investigation showed no alcohol or drugs in the body system other than an antihistamine. McClendon died March 2, one day after he had been indicted on federal bid-rigging charges by a grand jury in the U.S. Western District court in Oklahoma City. The co-founder of Chesapeake Energy and one of the owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team issued a statement saying he planned to fight the charges.
Oklahoma City police Captain Paco Balderrama said the department had four detectives look into every possible scenario of the crash. A traffic accident probe was conducted along with a homicide investigation. It found that McClendon’s SUV was traveling nearly 90 miles an hour when he apparently lost control and crashed into a bridge abutment. Investigators calculated the vehicle had slowed to 78 miles an hour when it impacted and burst into flames.
“We were unable to find any evidence or information that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a vehicular accident,” said Balderrama in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. “We may never know one-hundred percent what happened.”
There had been speculation following the crash that the multi-billionaire McClendon might have killed himself as he faced the federal charges. The investigation by the Justice Department followed his ouster as CEO of Chesapeake Energy in 2013.