A Denver coroner’s report indicates a Canadian citizen drank or ate cyanide with the intention of killing himself, authorities say.
Salesman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, of Ottawa, Canada, was found dead Aug. 11 at the Burnsley Hotel in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Beside him was a pound of sodium cyanide. “He took a significant amount of cyanide. He either drank it or he ate it,” said Michelle Weiss-Samaras, Denver’s chief deputy coroner. “People don’t take cyanide unless they want to die.”
Police have said Dirie’s death was an isolated incident and unconnected with the Democratic National Convention. Family members in Canada have said that Dirie left Ottawa on Aug. 7, traveling to Montreal in a rental car.
There, it appears he took a bus to Denver, where he told his family he was taking a vacation. The coroner’s report said Dirie was schizophrenic and that he had a high amount of psychotropic medications in his system. Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post
