GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—An autopsy shows the death of a sheriff’s sergeant on Mount Kilimanjaro was due to complications from an enlarged heart, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said.
Earlier it was believed Sgt. Jason Lhotka died Oct. 4 of a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a blood clot in the extremities travels to the lungs.
Family, friends and sheriff’s deputies mourned Lhotka, 37, at a gathering Saturday morning.
For the past four years, Lhotka and his mother, Sandra Menefee, had gone on annual backpacking trips. This year, it was to Mount Kilimanjaro.
“We were having so much fun,” Menefee remembered. On the third day of the climb, “Jason said, ‘Where you wanna go next year?’ I said, ‘Let’s get through this one first.’ ”
Hilkey said that when Lhotka applied for his job at the sheriff’s department, Lhotka said all he wanted to do was make a difference.
Lhotka joined the department as a deputy in 1997 after graduating from Mesa State College. He most recently was sergeant of the street crimes unit.
He is survived by his wife, Elena, and their son, Nicholas, who turns 3 later this month.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
