I have just a few nuggets of new information, and no real hard information, on the death last week of independent wrestler Damien Steele.
As noted in my previous post, Steele died suddenly in Georgia. I still don’t know where exactly; presumably it was in the Atlanta area, where, according to LinkedIn, he worked as a personal trainer. Online journalist Aaron Glazer reports that Steele’s real name was Damien Dothard. Wikipedia reports that Steele was 33 years old and “passed away in his sleep on July 22, 2009 at his home. Steele had complained of feeling unwell the same evening.”
Glazer published an unverified post from a purported friend of Steele’s, who said: “D went to the doctor over a week before he passed away because he was sick with flu symptoms. I went to his house & hung out end of last week & other than his lower back hurting he seemed fine. He actually went out with one of his friends last Friday. On Saturday he was suppose to meet some friends from out of town, but he had a migraine. He spoke to a friend on Monday & said if his headache didn’t get better he was going to the hospital. That was the last time anyone could reach him. He leaves behind 2 young sons. One of their mother’s found him deceased in his livingroom Wednesday around noon. COD is TBD.”
Flu-like symptoms would suggest something like swine flu more than the usual wrestler drug-related death.
Some wrestling fan sites say vaguely that the authorities “removed property” from the home. Others say that an autopsy is being performed by the Georgia medical examiner. The involvement of that office is invoked by the Georgia Death Investigation Act, but I do not mean to imply that a state medical examiner autopsy is necessarily less routine than a county coroner autopsy.
Anyone with information is invited to email tips@muchnick.net.
Irv Muchnick
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