ZOLOFT: Bizzare Suicide: New York

First two paragraphs read: “Toxicology results on Chris Corna released this week do not change the Westchester medical examiner’s conclusion that the popular Colorado restaurateur’s death was a suicide, but police are not closing their investigation.”

“The car Chris Corna of Steamboat Springs was driving very early May 18 crashed into a bridge abutment after he slit his throat, the medical examiner said. A bloodied kitchen knife was found in the car. Either trauma was enough to kill him, Medical Examiner Millard Hyland said at that time.”

Paragraph four reads: “Hyland said today that toxicology tests found appropriate amounts of a medicine, a tranquilizer used to treat anxiety, were in Corna’s system. The tranquilizer, sertraline, he said, is used in Zoloft.”

http://lohud.com/article/20090807/NEWS02/908070399/-1/SPORTS

Suicide ruling remains in Colo. restaurateur’s Port Chester death after toxicology results

By Leslie Korngold • lkorngol@lohud.com • August 7, 2009

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PORT CHESTER – Toxicology results on Chris Corna released this week do not change the Westchester medical examiner’s conclusion that the popular Colorado restaurateur’s death was a suicide, but police are not closing their investigation.

The car Chris Corna of Steamboat Springs was driving very early May 18 crashed into a bridge abutment after he slit his throat, the medical examiner said. A bloodied kitchen knife was found in the car. Either trauma was enough to kill him, Medical Examiner Millard Hyland said at that time.

The initial finding of suicide elicited numerous e-mails and calls to The Journal News and Port Chester police from family and friends of the Steamboat Springs businessman saying it was not possible. He was on the East Coast having just proposed to a Greenwich woman and was doing well financially.

Hyland said today that toxicology tests found appropriate amounts of a medicine, a tranquilizer used to treat anxiety, were in Corna’s system. The tranquilizer, sertraline, he said, is used in Zoloft.

The “quantities are not over the top for someone taking it regularly,” the medical examiner said.

Hyland did not know if Corna was on the medication regularly. But even if it had been administered just this one time, it was still not enough to kill Corna and “it would be very difficult to attribute suicidal tendencies to the drug,” Hyland said.

There was no alcohol in Corna’s system, and the only other chemical present was a byproduct of the breakdown of sertraline, Hyland explained.

Port Chester police have been investigating the curious accident and wanted to see the toxicology report. Today, police said they were continuing their investigation into the circumstances of the death but would not elaborate