Former US Swimmer's Cause of Death in Virgin Islands Revealed

UPDATE Aug 28, 2023 1:30 AM CDT

A former US swimming star found dead in the US Virgin Islands in February died of accidental fentanyl poisoning, according to police. Jamie Cail, 42, died of "fentanyl intoxication with aspiration of gastric content," police said in a Saturday release, per NBC News. An autopsy was performed on Tuesday, per the New York Post. Described as a "beautiful person" with a "huge heart," per WMUR, Cail was found unconscious in her St. John home on Feb. 21. Fentanyl, a dangerous opioid increasingly found in overdose deaths, is about 50 times more potent than heroin.

Feb 28, 2023 2:00 AM CST

The death of a former US swimming star is being investigated in the US Virgin Islands. Jamie Cail, 42, who was a competitive swimmer in her youth and won a gold medal as a member of a US relay team at 1997's Pan Pacific Championships, was found dead in her St. John home just after midnight on Feb. 21 by her boyfriend, NBC News reports. The unnamed boyfriend left a local bar shortly before that time and returned to their home to check on her. He found her unresponsive on the floor, and he and a friend took her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead after CPR was attempted, WCVB reports.

No further information on Cail's cause of death has been released; local police said simply that she "succumbed to her ailment" without naming what that ailment was. The Criminal Investigation Bureau is investigating her death. Cail also won a silver medal at the FINA Swimming World Cup in 1998. The New Hampshire native was a high school swimming champion before going on to swim for the University of Southern California and then the University of Maine. Before her death, she worked at a coffee shop on St. John, and was said to be a popular member of the community. (More Virgin Islands stories.)