When Kyle Nixon, an Auburn senior in political science, died unexpectedly last September, the cause of his death was unclear. Six months later, his family still had no answers.
A toxicology report was required to determine if any substances in Kyle's system had led to his acute heart failure, and Barbara Nixon, Kyle's mother, finally received the results of the report Friday.
"The information we got in the toxicology report is that there was nothing in Kyle's blood that shouldn't have been there," she said. "He'd taken some muscle relaxants for an injury he'd had, so there was an appropriate amount of that in there and the trace of one other medication he was taking. That's the only thing it turned up."
Kyle's personal belongings, including a brand new smartphone, had been held at the Auburn Police Department since his death. Nixon said they would not be released until after the toxicology report came back.
"We had to keep service on his phone this whole time," Nixon said. "Even though it's kind of the least of my priorities, that's $20 a month for his cell phone when it had little to no use during that time."
Capt. Tom Stofer of the APD declined comment on the reason for the delay in getting results to the family; the case is still considered an ongoing death investigation.
Nixon said she had no idea that the process would take this long.
"Initially they told us that we should know something within three days," Nixon said. "We thought that three days was an awfully long time to wait."
At the end of the three-day period, the family was told that more testing had to be done at a lab in Montgomery.
"They said it could take up to 60 days to get that information," Nixon said. "Right at the end of 60 days, I called and they said, 'No, we don't have anything back.' Once a month after that I would call and ask for an update.
"Because there was no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, I think that's why it got pushed to the bottom of the list."
Nixon still doesn't know what caused a three-day process to be stretched over six months.
She said that even after the long wait, she still doesn't have a medical explanation as to why Kyle died.
"I believe that the information is going to go back to the medical examiner now," Nixon said. "He said he would get in touch with the Alabama organ donation to see if they found anything at all in their testing, because Kyle is an organ donor."
Bill Harris, Lee County coroner, said initial investigation usually yields a cause of death within 24-48 hours.
In cases like Kyle's, when toxicology is required because the cause of death is not clear, results take longer.
"If we're going to have to do toxicology to determine the cause of death, it can take several months to get results back because there's some backlog right now," Harris said. "It takes approximately two years to train a scientist.
"They are short-staffed right now at the state and there's no money there to hire anyone else."
At this point in the investigation, Nixon said she is not holding out hope for any more answers.
"What we know now is just slightly more than what we knew before, that Kyle died from acute heart failure," Nixon said. "We still have no idea what caused a healthy 22-year- old's heart to fail."
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