By Erin Ailworth and Kevin Helliker 

The Oklahoma medical examiner ruled the crash that killed shale pioneer Aubrey McClendon was an accident, according to the autopsy report released Wednesday.

No alcohol was involved in the accident, but an unspecified amount of one drug -- doxylamine, which can be used as an antihistamine or to treat insomnia -- was found in Mr. McClendon's system, the report said.

Mr. McClendon suffered a number of injuries in the single-vehicle crash, including several broken ribs, a broken pelvis and a broken back, as well as lacerations to several internal organs, according to the autopsy report.

Those findings are consistent with the medical examiner's previous determination that the former chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp. died of multiple blunt force trauma.

The report shows that while Mr. McClendon's heart was damaged by the crash, he didn't appear to suffer a heart-related medical event.

After reviewing the findings, Paul Thompson, chief cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, said it is almost certain a heart problem didn't cause the crash, but the possibility can't completely be ruled out because an autopsy wouldn't detect an arrhythmia.

The deadly crash on March 2 occurred one day after Mr. McClendon was indicted on a single count of conspiring to rig the price of oil and gas leases. The U.S. Justice Department dropped that charge in the wake of Mr. McClendon's death.

The state autopsy report comes a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Oklahoma City Police Department said its two-month probe into the crash didn't find any reason to suggest Mr. McClendon committed suicide.

Police investigators concluded that when the oil-and-gas executive crashed his natural gas-fueled Chevy Tahoe into a bridge it was an accident, though suicide wasn't officially ruled out. They previously disclosed that Mr. McClendon was driving as fast as 89 miles an hour in the moments before his sport-utility vehicle struck a concrete underpass, and quickly caught fire. He wasn't wearing a seat belt, according to the crash report.

The 56-year-old wildcatter helped launch a renaissance in U.S. energy production by leasing land around the country to extract oil and gas trapped in shale-rock formations through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Mr. McClendon's aggressive approach made him a billionaire at one point, but his appetite for financial risk also caused him trouble, eventually leading Carl Icahn and other activist investors to oust him from Chesapeake in 2013.

Financial problems also forced Mr. McClendon to use some of his remaining wealth -- including his minority stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team -- as collateral to pursue a second act in energy when oil and gas prices plunged.

It is unclear what, if any, impact the police and medical examiner reports will have in the probate case just starting to unfold in an Oklahoma City court. Creditors with claims totaling hundreds of millions of dollars have appeared in that case, although few details about Mr. McClendon's estate have been made public.

Write to Erin Ailworth at Erin.Ailworth@wsj.com and Kevin Helliker at kevin.helliker@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 08, 2016 13:29 ET (17:29 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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