The death of Nathan Millard led to national headlines after the 42-year-old father was found dead rolled up in a carpet in Louisiana.
His death has now been ruled as an accident caused by an overdose of fentanyl and other drugs, the coroner said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Georgia construction executive was on a business trip to Baton Rouge where he joined a client at a Louisiana State University basketball game, but instead, he may have gone on a drug binge with a group of strangers, according to allegations made in an affidavit and by missing people organisation Texas EquuSearch, according to NBC News.
The coroner said in a report that Mr Millard showed no signs of trauma, internal, or external.
“Our toxicology test results show the presence of fentanyl, cocaine and ethanol in Mr Millard’s system,” the report states.
The report aided medical investigators to reach the conclusion that Mr Millard’s death was an accident and caused by the mixing of the drugs.
Texas EquuSearch said that Mr Millard went to a bar but vanished when he was on his way back to his hotel room.
Police have said that they have three suspects in the case. The affidavit for one of them – Tiffany Ann Guidry, 27 – states that Mr Millard encountered a man, who has been named as Derrick Perkins, 45, and later two unnamed women.
The affidavit states they used crack cocaine while driving around the city. The document goes on to say that Mr Millard wanted to leave the women for the night because he preferred two others. The filing states that Mr Perkins, Mr Millard and two other women, Ms Guidry and Tabbetha Barner, 33, went to a home where they continued to take crack cocaine.
Mr Perkins departed to acquire more drugs, but Mr Millard was dead upon his return. The women urged Mr Perkins to get rid of the body. It was found on 6 March rolled up in a carpet close to a funeral home near Baton Rouge’s Scenic Highway, the affidavit said.
Mr Perkins told officials that he had acted out of panic.
Ms Guidry was arrested on Friday, the second of the three suspects in the case to be detained.
Police say the suspects’ handling of Mr Millard’s death was improper. Police said that Ms Guidry faces charges of unlawful disposal of human remains and failure to seek assistance when Mr Millard died.
Mr Perkins had already been detained and charged with unlawful disposal of remains, obstruction of justice, simple criminal damage to property, and failure to seek assistance.
Mr Perkins’s bail has been set at $1.4m and Ms Guidry is being held in lieu of $3.75m bail, according to NBC News. It’s unclear if they have retained attorneys to speak on their behalf.
Ms Barner, 33, from Baton Rouge hasn’t been detained and remains wanted. She’s also accused of failure to seek assistance.
Mr Millard had five kids – two teens from a previous marriage, two stepsons, and a seven-year-old daughter with his wife, according to WXIA.
