Thursday, March 1, 2012

Cause of Death In the Chace Swatek Case Remains Undetermined

Chace Swatek

Alabama lawyer Chace Swatek died of undetermined causes, and a law-enforcement official says cause of death probably will not be known for six months or more.

Captain Larry Palmer, of the Pelham Police Department, said an official cause of death would not be known until toxicology tests are completed. He said there were no marks on the body or evidence in the area to suggest that foul play was involved. That means testing in the Swatek case will take a relatively low priority at a time when Alabama forensic scientists are stressed by heavy caseloads and tight budgets.

"I've seen cases like this take six months to a year," Palmer said.

Palmer did clarify one item about the Swatek case. According to news reports, Swatek's body was found at a construction site near the Shelby County Services Building in Pelham. Palmer said the body actually was discovered in a vacant lot.

"A water line is being laid in the area, and pipes are placed at several spots beside the road," Palmer said. "But it really is not a construction site, and Mr. Swatek's body was found in what amounts to a vacant lot.

"It appeared he was walking beside the road when he came upon a stack of pipes. It looked like he chose to walk behind the pipes, rather than in front of them, and his body was found behind the pipes."

Upon initial inspection, Palmer said, it looked like the 35-year-old Swatek might have died from a heart attack. But he said the official cause of death currently is undetermined. It also is unknown why Swatek was walking beside the road.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

To quote Rick James, "Cocaine's a helluva drug."

Anonymous said...

Have you ever wondered why the Rich and Famous always are in trouble with drugs? Do you think it could be us regular folks have to wait and plan and budget for what we get.. They just go get it and not have to wait and after a while buying things no longer gives them the high it does the ones that wait on getting things and are so excited when they finally are able to.. So the rich have to turn to something else to get their highs? Drugs? For the life of me I can never understand why ANYONE wants to do drugs.x

e.a.f. said...

Cause of death remains undetermined"? Really, & its going to take up to 6 months to figure it out. Now that is not the usual response you receive when the deceased is from a well connected family.

You would think a family with that type of influence would be able to insist on faster lab results or arrange for them, themselves.

On the other hand it does seem interesting as to where the body was found. first thing I thought of was body dump.

When you are so high you gonna die, you usually don't walk to some deserted area by your lonesome.

Anonymous said...

You two are jerks!!!

Anonymous said...

I have never left a comment on a website or blog or anything else but I must now. I went to SMU with Chace and we were NOT close friends, hung out in totally different groups. But the crap you people are saying about him is horrible, his family has not even finished dealing with his death and yet you say this shit about him. All I know is that someone as nice, funny, open minded, kind and smart as Chace did not wander into a pipe yard and just drop dead! I pray for his family and friends and hope that we find out what really happened to such a good young man.

Anonymous said...

I was blessed to have known Chace for 2 years before he died, he was his own man and did not follow the beliefs as strong as some of his family members, he made and paid his own way...I for 1, miss him and his sweet soul.

Anonymous said...

To "Legal Schnauzer': "Bitterness is like drinking poison hoping it will kill someone else"

legalschnauzer said...

That's some powerful philosophy. Thanks for sharing.