In a statement the Seychelles police saidtoxicology reports indicate a lethal combination of heroin and alcohol killed MarkKennedy and Jeffrey Reynolds, US security contractors who were hired to protectthe Maersk Line Limited containership from pirates.
"Further forensic analysis done on stomachcontents and blood samples of the two officers sent to Mauritius has revealedno trace of any poison, thus ruling out foul play,” officials said in an announcementreleased by a government-funded news agency.
“The same analysis carried out on the heroin sample discovered and seized bythe police in the cabin had a purity of the heroin at 44%. Blood sample analysis has as well shown that thetwo men had also been consuming alcohol.”
As TradeWinds has reported, the bodies of the44-year-old Americans were found on 18 February 2014 when the containership wasdocked at a terminal in Port Victoria, which is located on the main island ofMahe in the Seychelles archipelago.
An autopsy performed by local investigators shortlyafter determined that the former Navy SEALS suffered heart attacks. Thesefindings, coupled with statements from the duo’s employer, led some to suspectfoul play even though drug paraphernalia was found at the scene.
“Clearly stated on each autopsyreport is that death by drug overdose is ruled out,” TridentGroup president TomRothrauff told TradeWinds in a lengthy telephone interview conducted shortlyafter local pathologists released the findings of their examination.
The1,068-teu containership Maersk Alabama (built 1998) first made TradeWinds headlinesin 2009 when it was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and laterserved as the centerpiece of ‘Captain Philips’, a Hollywood blockbusterstarring Tom Hanks.
Attemptsto reach Rothrauff, who was angered by the onslaught of negative news coverage andurged the public not to jump to conclusions before the toxicology reports werecomplete when the incident first occurred, were not immediately successfully atthe time of writing Wednesday evening.
