Amazingly, more than a month later, the Indian River Shores Public Safety Department has still not been afforded an autopsy report, toxicology report or even an official cause of death in the case of 48-year-old Randall Clark, who died in his car on March 30.
Police reports say paramedics on the scene – as Shores police officers are triple-trained as paramedics and firefighters – suspected Clark’s death might be due to heatstroke, but that nothing, including potential foul play, could be ruled in or out at the time Clark was found around 6 p.m. after leaving his parents’ home in The Estuary around 10:30 a.m. “to make some conference calls,” records say.
Shores Public Safety Chief Rich Rosell confirmed that, without some direction on what caused Clark’s death, detectives have been writing down observations from the scene, interviewing witnesses and family members and collecting evidence from Clark’s white Jaguar, which was taken to a facility for processing.
At this point, they have no idea whether it was in fact heatstroke, or some other natural cause, or some other factor that led to the death of the 48-year-old California man. Even getting the toxicology screen back would at least eliminate some possibilities, but none of that information is yet available to law enforcement.
When found in the south side of the CVS parking lot, Clark was given CPR by the manager and pharmacist from the drug store, but records indicate signs that Clark had been dead for some time on the warm spring day, with temperatures topping out that afternoon at 79 degrees.
To verify that the Shores death was not for some reason pushed to the end of the line by the Medical Examiner, behind more urgent cases or cases where criminal activity was immediately suspected, Vero Beach 32963 checked with the county’s largest law enforcement agency, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
“That’s absolutely, 100 percent normal what they’re telling you,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Eric Flowers. “We usually wait about six weeks for the toxicology report to come back, about a month and a half.”
