RALEIGH, N.C. – An autopsy report says that alcohol intoxication contributed to the death of a South Carolina student who died in an October beach house fire that killed six others.
Released late last month, the report on Cassidy Fae Pendley says the 18-year-old died primarily from inhaling carbon monoxide from the blaze. But Dr. Thomas B. Clark III also wrote that alcohol intoxication was a significant contributing condition.
Pendley's autopsy report is the first to say alcohol contributed to a death in the fire.
Pendley's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for driving a car. State medical examiner Dr. John Butts has said six of the seven had high alcohol levels. One of the students who was killed had no alcohol in their system.
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