Current:Home > reviewsParents of US swimming champ suggest foul play in her death -ProsperityStream Academy
Parents of US swimming champ suggest foul play in her death
View
Date:2025-04-14 06:22:20
The parents of former American swimming champ Jamie Cail said they are demanding answers about their daughter's death in the U.S. Virgin Islands and refuting autopsy findings that an accidental drug overdose killed her in February.
In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, Cail's parents, Pat and Gary Cail, slammed the police investigation into their daughter's death in February, claiming critical evidence was "completely overlooked" and suggesting foul play may have been involved.
"What we are looking for is justice for Jamie. We're looking for truth," Pat Cail said.
Jamie Cail, who was raised in Maine and lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands for nearly two decades, was found unresponsive in February in a residence she shared with her boyfriend in St. John, the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department said in a statement.
Cail's boyfriend, whose name was withheld by police, told investigators he found Cail, 42, unconscious after he left a bar and went back to their residence to check on her just after midnight on Feb. 21, according to police. The boyfriend told police he and a friend immediately rushed Jamie Cail to the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Toxicology results from the autopsy found that Cail died of "fentanyl intoxication with aspiration of gastric content," according to a statement the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department released in August.
"Manner of death is accidental," the police department said in a statement, citing an Aug. 22 report from the medical examiner's office.
But Cail's parents said they believe their daughter's death was no accident and claim police have not been forthcoming with information. They said they haven't been given an official copy of the autopsy report despite repeated requests to obtain one.
"There is no way that she had fentanyl in her voluntarily," Gary Cail said.
MORE: Death of former American swimming champion probed in Virgin Islands
Pat Cail added that her daughter "never did drugs. Never."
The parents shared with "GMA" graphic photos of their daughter they said were taken by a person they authorized to go to a funeral home to view the body.
"She had a black eye. She appeared to have had a blunt trauma to the forehead. It appeared that her nose had been broken. Her lips had blood around them," Pat Cail said, describing the images.
MORE: Tributes pour in for former US swimmer amid death investigation
Gary Cail said, "We don't know if there's anything else on the rest of the body because we don't have the autopsy report."
ABC News has reached out to the U.S. Virgin Island Police Department for comment.
Jamie Cail was a star swimmer for much of her youth in Claremont, New Hampshire. As a teenager, she was a member of an 800-meter relay team that won a gold medal at the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships and in 1998 she notched a silver medal at the Swimming World Cup in Brazil.
Her parents said compounding their grief is the knowledge that their daughter was preparing to leave the U.S. Virgin Islands on March 14 to return to New Hampshire.
"She was coming home," Pat Cail said. "It makes no sense."
veryGood! (31656)
Related
- Jury selection set for Monday for ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter
- Aaron Rodgers talks of possible return this NFL season during MainningCast appearance
- Phillies sluggers cold again in NLCS, Nola falters in Game 6 loss to Arizona
- Hate crimes in the US: These are the locations where they're most commonly reported
- Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy case reaches 'impasse' over NIL information for CU star
- Prince William to travel to Singapore for Earthshot Prize announcement on climate projects
- All the Bombshell Revelations in Britney Spears' Book The Woman in Me
- Counting down the NBA's top 30 players for 2023-24 season: Nos. 15-1
- Beware of giant spiders: Thousands of tarantulas to emerge in 3 states for mating season
- Eagles trade for two-time All-Pro safety Kevin Byard in deal with Titans
Ranking
- Matt Damon remembers pal Robin Williams: 'He was a very deep, deep river'
- How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
- Israeli military reservist from D.C. suburb is killed in missile attack in Israel
- Trump and Michael Cohen come face to face at New York fraud trial
- The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
- Trump and Michael Cohen come face to face at New York fraud trial
- Prosecutors close investigation of Berlin aquarium collapse as the cause remains unclear
- Police in Massachusetts are searching for an armed man in connection with his wife’s shooting death
Recommendation
What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
Women in Iceland including the prime minister go on strike for equal pay and an end to violence
Tom Schwartz's Winter House Hookups With Below Deck's Katie Flood Revealed
Reno man convicted of arsons linked to pattern of domestic violence, police say
Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
Oregon State University gives all clear after alerting bomb threat in food delivery robots
Chicago holds rattiest city for 9th straight year as LA takes #2 spot from New York, Orkin says
Israel is preparing for a new front in the north: Reporter's notebook