Bridgeport, Connecticut| A 53-year old drug addict was declared dead this morning at the St. Vincent’s Medical Center, after snorting more than one pound of human ashes that he had found in a house that he was burglarizing.
Hartford native, Frank Emery, was found unconscious this morning, face down in a pile of human ashes, by a woman coming home from work after her night shift.
According to the police report, Mr. Emery had apparently broken into the residence and snorted the entire content of two funeral urns, presumably because he thought the ashes inside were cocaine.
Mr. Emery regained consciousness when the police officers arrived on the site and he seemed to be all right when he arrived at the police station, but he became increasingly confused and sick during his interrogation and he lost consciousness, once more.
He was rapidly transported to the hospital, where he was unfortunately declared dead less than two hours after his arrival.
According to his death certificate, Mr Emery died of a “respiratory arrest”, presumably caused the enormous quantity of ashes that he had snorted.
Dave Franklin, one of the paramedics called to the scene, said he had never seen anything like this in his career. He also complained to reporters, that the paramedics have no medications or tools to deal with such unusual cases, contrarily to drug overdoses.
Mr Emery was well-known of the Bridgeport Police department for his cocaine abuse and had been arrested many times in the past over drug related charges. Considering his long experience with drugs, the police believes he must have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol to confuse the ashes with drugs.
“The autopsy will tell us exactly what he had ingested, but he certainly didn’t behave like a sober man” said Captain Daniel London. “What I can tell you, is that Mr. Emery seems to have entered the residence with the intention of committing a robbery. He found two small funeral urns over the fireplace and “snorted” a large quantity of human ashes, possibly in excess of 500 grams. This is probably what caused his death a few hours later.”
A few people, including Rolling Stones’ guitarist, Keith Richards, have snorted human ashes in the past, mostly by mistake. Mr. Emery, however, could be the first person ever recorded, to die after doing it, if the autopsy confirms the cause of death.