Shane Warne’s autopsy shows the cricket great died of natural causes, Thai police say, as his family issued a statement saying they would accept the offer of a state memorial in Melbourne.
Thai police spokesperson Kritsana Pattanacharoen said on Monday afternoon the autopsy report had been received and it concluded Warne had a “natural death”.
Police informed his family and the Australian embassy and will provide the report to the prosecutor to close the case.
The Australian ambassador thanked the Thai police and the related department for the investigation into the 52-year-old’s death on Friday.
Warne’s parents on Monday evening said the past few days had been a “never-ending nightmare”.
“To find words to adequately express our sadness is an impossible task for us and looking to a future without Shane is inconceivable,” Keith and Brigitte Warne said.
“Hopefully the mountain of happy memories we all have will help us cope with our ongoing grief.”
They added: “Over the past few days Shane has been honoured, with the family being offered a state memorial for Shane by premier Daniel Andrews, which the family have gratefully accepted.”
Children pay tribute
Warne’s son, Jackson, said he didn’t think anything would fill the void his father had left behind.
“I love you so much,” he said. “Sitting at the poker table, walking around the golf course, watching the Saints and eating pizza is never going to be the same.”
His daughter Brooke said she would forever cherish her final memories with her father “laughing and joking around”.
“We were happy. We were so similar in so many ways and I always used to joke that I got your genes and about how much that annoyed me,” she said. “Well, now I
couldn’t be happier and prouder that I have your genes.”
Warne’s younger daughter Summer said: “Our time was robbed. I want more holidays with you, more laughs where your smile lights up the whole room.”
‘No suspicious circumstances’
Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, an adviser of the Royal Thai Police, said on Monday afternoon Warne had visited Koh Samui three times since 2017 before his fourth trip last week.
From the official investigation, there were no signs of fighting or of assets being stolen, Hakparn said. There were “no suspicious circumstances.”
He said Warne’s body would be taken to Bangkok on Monday night by road and then flown to Australia on Tuesday.
‘Just a cricket fan’
Earlier on Monday, a German woman had been questioned by Thai police after she had entered the back of the ambulance transporting Warne’s body off Koh Samui island.
Warne’s body was on Sunday taken from Koh Samui by ferry to Surat Thani on the mainland and to a local hospital where the official autopsy was conducted.
Warne’s body was accompanied by his friends, as well as the Australian ambassador to Thailand, Allan McKinnon, and Dfat officials, but they were not with the van when it was parked on the car ferry, the ABC reported.
ABC video footage showed a blond woman accompanied by a Thai woman talking to local immigration officials by the car ferry.
The pair was then escorted to the ambulance parked on the ferry where the blond woman approached the driver’s window holding flowers. They had a brief exchange before he escorted her to the other side of the van and allowed her to enter for less than a minute.
The woman attended the local police station on Monday morning.
Hakparn said after an investigation, police determined the woman was “just a cricket fan”. “She was sad that he died here,” he said. “She just wanted to put down the flowers and honour him.”
The woman, who lives in Koh Samui, was not charged because she was not deemed to be a threat, Hakparn said, adding the incident was a security breach. She didn’t know Warne personally.
McKinnon, the Australian ambassador, on Monday afternoon thanked Thai police for conducting their investigation into Warne’s death “smoothly and professionally”.
Warne was found unresponsive in his villa about 5.15pm on Friday after he did not arrive for dinner with friends as scheduled.
One of the paramedics called to the scene on Friday described how Warne’s friends desperately tried to revive him by applying CPR.
The Australian cricket great was later pronounced dead at the local hospital, with Bo Phut police confirming his death shortly afterwards.
Bo Phut police station superintendent Yuttana Sirisombat has said Warne had been suffering chest pains before arriving in Thailand. He also had asthma and had seen a doctor about his heart.
Warne visited a local tailor before his death. Parsuram Panday said on Monday that the ex-cricketer was “happy and playful” when he saw him for the first time in two years due to the Covid pandemic.
“His body looked the same, he’s a sportsman, he looked fresh,” Panday told Guardian Australia.
“He was funny. He played belly punching with me. He was a nice man. He smoked. He didn’t smoke before but this time I saw him smoking. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know. He looked strong. I heard it was a heart attack.”
The tailor said he was due to have a fitting with Warne at his villa on Saturday but would now “drop his suit to the hotel”.
Last meal was Vegemite on toast
The Sporting News chief executive, Tom Hall, has revealed Warne’s last meal was a plate of Vegemite toast shared with a friend at the Thailand resort where he died hours later.
“I have dined with Shane in many fine establishments, but rather than sample some of the local Thai fare, we tuck into a plate of Vegemite on toast,” Hall wrote in an article on the outlet’s website.
“Shane chomping away: ‘Geez, you can’t beat Vegemite with some butter, always great wherever you are in the world’. An Australian through and through – this was to turn out to be his last meal.”
Warne’s death is believed to have been caused by a heart attack.
