CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — An autopsy report says former Olympic sprinter and North Carolina assistant track coach Antonio Pettigrew committed suicide by overdosing on a drug common to sleeping pills.
An autopsy report released Wednesday by the state medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was diphenhydramine (dy-fen-HY’-drah-meen) toxicity.
Another report rules the case a suicide and the likely toxic agent as the sleep aid Unisom, which the National Institutes of Health says contains diphenhydramine.
A bottle of the pills was found with the 42-year-old Pettigrew when his dead body was recovered from inside his locked car in August.
Pettigrew admitted to doping and was stripped of the gold medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
