According to officials, a former All-American swimmer who was discovered dead in the U.S. Virgin Islands in February had accidentally ingested fentanyl.
According to a news release from the Virgin Islands Police Department on Saturday, Jamie Cail, 42, passed away from “fentanyl poisoning with aspiration of gastric content,” which was confirmed by the results of an autopsy from the U.S. Virgin Islands Office of Medical Examiner on August 22.
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office could not be reached for comment, and the Virgin Islands Police Department’s response to a request for comment was delayed on Sunday.
Cail, a New Hampshire native, was discovered dead on the floor of their home on February 21 by her boyfriend after he got home from a club just after midnight, according to authorities.
When Cail arrived at the Myrah Keating-Smith Clinic, her boyfriend and a friend tried to do CPR before declaring her dead.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau is looking into Cail’s death, according to police earlier.
According to the swimming news website SwimSwam, Cail won a gold medal in the 800 free relay while competing for the United States as a teen in the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships.
She competed for the University of Southern California and won the California high school title in the 200-meter individual medley and 500-meter freestyle, according to SwimSwam.
The University of Maine’s alumni association claims that she also competed as a swimmer at the institution from 2000 to 2001.
Fentanyl, a potent opioid used to relieve extreme pain that may also be fatal, even in tiny amounts, has been associated with an increase in drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in recent years. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021, the majority of which were brought on by fentanyl.
The White House requested nearly $800 million in extra funding from Congress earlier this month to combat fentanyl overdoses by increasing access to addiction treatment and collaborating with the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services to decrease the amount of fentanyl entering the country.