Hey, Rush Limbaugh, what are you doing at www.adultcybermart.com ?

from www.stltoday.com – The death investigation of the 27-year-old woman found lifeless in the bedroom of former Anheuser-Busch chief executive August Busch IV shifted to prosecutors on Wednesday, after authorities announced she had died from an accidental oxycodone overdose.

Dr. Mary Case, the St. Louis County medical examiner, said in a one-paragraph statement that a lethal level of the painkiller caused Adrienne Martin’s death on Dec. 19. The manner of death was accidental, the statement said.

Sources have said that toxicology tests also showed cocaine, but Case’s statement did not mention that or say what role, if any, it played in the death.

“That’s all we’re prepared to say … that this is the cause and manner of death,” said Suzanne McCune, the medical examiner’s forensic administrator.
The medical examiner’s report is in the hands of Robert McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. His spokesman, Don Schneider, said Wednesday, “It’s an ongoing investigation. We hope to have something to say in the very near future.”

Tom Becker, the chief of police in Frontenac, said his officers are still investigating the matter in coordination with McCulloch’s office. Frontenac police cover the city of Huntleigh, where Busch’s mansion is located.

The case has drawn worldwide attention; Becker said he had 70 media inquiries just this week.

It remains unclear where Martin got the drugs.

J. Steven Beckett, a law professor at the University of Illinois, said the finding of an accidental overdose likely means the matter will end there.

“The case is intriguing, but unless there is some forensic evidence indicating something was altered or destroyed, it will be hard to prosecute anyone,” Beckett said. “Investigators would’ve had to do stuff like look in drain pipes to see if anything was flushed or discarded.”

Art Margulis, Busch’s lawyer, said the accidental overdose finding seems conclusive. “I can’t speak for the prosecutor, but it would be difficult to proceed with any criminal action,” Margulis said.

The lawyer said that except for Busch’s very brief interview on the morning of the incident, he has had no further contact with the police.

Martin’s family members have said she had a prescription for an unrelated drug called Trazodone, which is used for sleep or depression. It was not mentioned in Case’s brief statement, but the sources said it was not detected in the autopsy.

Christine Trampler, Adrienne Martin’s mother, has said her daughter was having trouble sleeping in the months before her death. Trampler would not comment Wednesday and asked a reporter never to contact her again.

Oxycodone is widely recognized by a brand name time-release form, OxyContin. It is classified as an opiate analgesic and is said to change the way the brain and nervous system respond to pain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Michael Mullins, a medical toxicologist at Washington University, said Wednesday that the amount of oxycodone needed to overdose depends on how much has been taken in the past.

“If you have never taken any before, and your brain cells haven’t adapted to it, it would take a relatively low dose to cause respiratory depression,” Mullins said. “Someone with chronic pain, like a cancer patient, who’s been taking it for a long time, that person would tolerate a much higher dose than someone who is a novice.”

Drug abusers often crush OxyContin, then ingest or inject it to overcome the release mechanism and get all the oxycodone at once. This raises the risk of overdosing.

Dr. Kevin Martin, Adrienne Martin’s ex-husband, has told the Post-Dispatch that his wife had a disorder known as Long QT syndrome, which involves the electrical activity of the heart. That was not addressed in the medical examiner’s public statement.

Oxycodone would probably not affect a heart condition like Long QT Syndrome, but cocaine could, Mullins said. Cocaine is “not a direct actor on Long QT but it does have a more direct effect on the heart.”

In an interview with the Post-Dispatch last month, Busch said he had been in rehabilitation early in 2010 for depression and unspecified “other issues.”

Martin had been dating Busch for about two years and was found with no signs of trauma to her body. Michael Jung, a Busch household employee, called for help about 1:12 p.m. on Dec. 19, saying an unresponsive woman wouldn’t wake up, according to a 911 call recording. He said he wasn’t sure if she was alive because it was “dark back there” and he was going to get a light to check.

Emergency responders pronounced Martin dead at 1:26 p.m.

Police have said there was nothing at the scene to indicate a cause of death. They also said the room was dark “due to curtains drawn in the bedroom” and that the room was outfitted with blackout curtains to shield it from the sun.

Busch, 46, took over as CEO of the brewing giant in 2006, but his tenure ended with the sale of A-B to InBev in 2008. Since the buyout, Busch has faded from public view but remains on the company’s board of directors.

Adrienne Martin’s death has put him back in the spotlight and put focus on the beer heir’s previous incidents with the law.

In 1984, Busch avoided criminal charges after a car crash in Arizona that killed a 22-year-old woman.

The crash occurred on Nov. 13, 1983, outside Tucson. Busch, 20 at the time and a student at the University of Arizona, left a bar with the woman and, shortly after, crashed his black Corvette, police said. The woman, Michele Frederick, was thrown from the car. Busch was found six hours later at his home, dazed and bloodied. He had suffered a fractured skull and claimed he had amnesia.

Authorities later said his blood-alcohol level at the estimated time of the accident had been below the legal level for intoxication in Arizona.

The investigation took seven months, after which authorities declined to press criminal charges, saying there wasn’t adequate evidence to do so. They said the investigation took so long because of the “high profile” of the Busch family and because family lawyers had fought the taking of hair and fiber samples from Busch.

Cocaine was found in Frederick’s system.

In a separate incident, Busch was acquitted of third-degree assault charges from 1985 that claimed he nearly ran down undercover St. Louis police detectives, who shot out a tire on his car. He claimed he thought they were kidnappers.