Steamboat Springs teen died of seizure, not alcohol

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — A popular high school senior and member of a Christian youth ministry died of a seizure and had a minimal amount of alcohol in her system, Deputy Routt County Coroner Mitch Locke said Tuesday.

Adele Dombrowski, 17, died of “cardiopulmonary arrest consistent with a grand mal seizure,” Locke said. Such a seizure is also known as a tonic-clonic seizure, according to the Epilepsy Therapy Development Project, a nonprofit research organization.

A toxicology report that was part of the autopsy performed by the Jefferson County Coroners Office determined Dombrowski had a blood alcohol content of 0.013, which is six times less than Colorado’s drunken driving threshold of 0.08.

“There was not a thing in her,” Locke said. “Alcohol had nothing to do with it.”

Dombrowski was found dead in her bed Sept. 24. Witnesses told investigators Dombrowski had been drinking that night along with other teens and police arrested Kevin Miller Neuwirth, 20, on suspicion of buying rum and making it available to her. A liquor store was cited for allegedly selling to an underage buyer.

Dombrowski was a tennis player, reaching the state doubles semifinals in 2004. She also played hockey and volleyball, sang, played the flute, danced and choreographed dances. She was a member of Young Life, a Christian ministry aimed at young people.



Summit Daily News, Summit County, Colorado