CLINTON TWP. (WWJ) – Officials have released more information surrounding the death of Jason Thompson, who was found dead in a Macomb Community College ventilation system over the weekend.
Early Thursday the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Thompson’s death had been ruled an accident, caused by asphyxiation. No foul play is suspected.
Officials say Thompson burrowed “a great distance” through the building’s HVAC system before he “came to a duct that was vertical in a downward direction, which he entered head first, getting stuck when encountering a narrowed section.”
Late Thursday afternoon the Macomb College Police Department released a timeline of events, detailing what led up to Thompson’s death, as well as other key findings in the investigation.
November 7 – First contact from Sterling Heights Police Department
Macomb College Police Chief William Leavens says the Sterling Heights Police Department initially contacted the school’s police department about Thompson, who they “described as a fugitive with several outstanding felony warrants and whose family hadn’t spoken to him since Oct. 25 or 26.”
Thompson had “told his family he was running from police, was on the college’s Center Campus, had gotten onto the roof of a building.” Family members believed it was the theater roof and he may have been hiding in the ventilation system.
The MCPD had been informed that Thompson “was a fugitive evading arrest,” according to the department. Leavens said Thompson had not been described as a missing endangered person.
A college police officer and another school staff member searched the roof of the Macomb Center for Performing Arts on Nov. 7, but saw “no evidence of human activity, human access points to the ventilation system, remains or odors,” the department said.
November 17
More than a week after the initial search, Sterling Heights police again contacted the college police department, asking them to review video covering the area around the Macomb Center and its roof for Oct. 25 and 26 to ascertain whether Thompson could be seen accessing exterior areas of the Macomb Center or its roof. Officials say there is no camera coverage of the requested areas.
November 26
This past Sunday afternoon, Macomb College police officers on routine duty at the Macomb Center “noticed a distinct foul odor emanating from part of the Macomb Center” and notified their supervisor, who then notified Leavens.
Over the course of several hours,police and college staff “worked to identify the source of the odor, which led them to a remote area of the building unavailable to the public, containing a mechanical room and enclosed duct work within the room.”
Further search required specialized equipment and expertise, so police called in the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad, who used X-ray equipment which showed a mass within the duct work. A small opening was then created to insert a camera into the duct work near the mass, “showing what appeared to be an inverted human body,” the department said
Macomb College police contacted Clinton Township Police for evidence technicians to document the scene before disturbing it and the medical examiner was notified and was on-scene to supervise the Clinton Township Fire Department’s extrication of the body from the duct work and to conduct an onsite examination and removal of the body.
Other investigation evidence and findings so far, according to MCPD
MCPD officials say there is no evidence indicating anyone else was with Thompson and did not bring any supplies to sustain himself, such as food and water.
Thompson believed he was being chased by police. Though he had five warrants for his arrest, officials say “there is no evidence that any law enforcement agency was actively pursuing him.”
During Thompson’s communication to a loved one, he “did not indicate he was in distress, trapped or in any need for assistance other than a ride from the location.”
“He made a deliberate decision to unlawfully enter the building’s ventilation system once on the roof, entering an air vent not designed to accommodate human access,” police officials said.
Once he entered the duct system from the roof, Thompson “kept breaking through barriers and burrowing deeper into the HVAC system, traversing a great distance through the duct work across the entire mechanical room,” officials said. “Ultimately, he came to a duct that was vertical in a downward direction, which he entered head first, getting stuck when encountering a narrowed section.”
At that point, Thompson was in an inverted position that he couldn’t recover from, as the space “would not have allowed him to move, kick or use his arms in any way.”
Leavens says “this supports the medical examiner’s preliminary report finding of an accidental death due to asphyxia/ entrapment/ environmental suffocation.” A toxicology report is pending.
It is still not exactly clear how long Thompson was in the vent before he died, or how long his body had remained there until it was found on Nov. 26.