Billy Mays likely died from heart disease
Pitchman extraordinaire Billy Mays died from a pulmonary embolism, according to the coroner in Tampa, Fla., who announced preliminary autopsy results at a press conference Monday. Evidence of heart disease was also found.
According to Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams, Mays “had an enlarged heart, a thickening of the wall of the ventricle which takes blood to the heart.” Final results of the autopsy and cause of death will not be known for several weeks.
Mays, 50, the bearded man with the booming voice best known for his ubiquitous OxiClean ads died in his sleep in his Florida home over the weekend.
On Saturday, Mays was aboard a U.S. Airways flight that had a rough landing in Tampa. Mays told a TV crew that he bumped his head in the landing, fueling speculation that a possible injury could have lead to his untimely death. But the coroner says there was no evidence of head trauma. Internal and external injuries also did not exist.
“The news of Billy’s death came as a total shock to me,” Anthony Sullivan, his longtime friend and comrade on the Discovery Channel series Pitchmen told People Sunday night. “I’m devastated.”
