A Steamboat Springs teen found dead in her bed last month suffered a heart attack brought on by an epileptic seizure, and alcohol was not a factor in her death, the Routt County coroner’s office revealed Tuesday.
A friend found Adele Dombrowski, 17, on the morning of Sept. 24 after she had been out the night before at a high-school football game where she was with a group that had acquired a bottle of rum.
A day later, Kevin Miller Neuwirth, 20, confessed to buying a 1.75-liter bottle of Captain Morgan’s spiced rum for the group and was charged with providing alcohol to a minor. The clerk and the owner of the Bottleneck liquor store also were cited for selling alcohol to an underage buyer.
According to the Mayo Clinic, alcohol can be harmful even in small amounts if combined with some seizure medications.
But Deputy Coroner Mitch Locke said that an autopsy found alcohol was not a factor contributing to the grand mal seizure that prompted Dombrowski’s heart attack and that there were no drugs in her system.
He did not disclose her blood-alcohol content.
Coroner Rob Ryg previously told the Steamboat Pilot newspaper that Dombrowski, a high-school athlete and a member of the Young Life Christian group, had only a small amount of alcohol in her blood. He was out of town and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Ryg, who also serves as pastor of Euzoa Bible Church and officiated at Dombrowski’s memorial Friday, encouraged her friends to “honor her life” by committing to abstain from alcohol and drugs.
Dombrowski is said to have had a history of epileptic seizures, including one the week before her death.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
