Journalist Michael Hastings Dies In Car Crash
June 19th, 2013Update: Autopsy Shows Journalist Michael Hastings Had Meth, Pot In System At Time Of Fiery Auto Crash
Via: The Smoking Gun:
The family of journalist Michael Hastings was trying to get him into drug rehab at the time he died in a fiery Los Angeles car wreck, according to a coroner’s report released today.
Hastings, 33, was speeding when he “apparently lost control of his vehicle colliding with a tree head-on in a center grass median” around 4:30 AM on June 18. “Death was rapid, within seconds” due the “massive blunt force trauma” endured by the writer.
The L.A. coroner’s report notes that Hastings’s family told investigators that they were attempting to get Hastings into detox since they thought he “had started to use drugs again in the past month or so.” Hastings was believed to have been sober “for about the past 14 years.”
A brother told a coroner’s investigator that he believed Hastings was “currently using DMT,” a hallucinogenic, and medicinal marijuana, which “was believed as prescribed for PTSD, as decedent was a war journalist, having had assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Baghdad a few years ago.”
A toxicology screen revealed “a small amount of amphetamine” in Hastings’s blood, which was “consistent with possible intake of methamphetamine many hours before death.” However, the amount detected was “unlikely to have an intoxicative effect at the time of the accident.” Additionally, “marijuana was present in the blood…indicating intake hours earlier.”
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Update: Hastings Sent Colleagues Email Hours Before Crash
Via: KTLA:
Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs told KTLA that he received an email from Hastings on Monday.
Biggs had known Hastings since 2008, when the journalist was embedded in his unit in Afghanistan.
“On Monday morning, I woke up and I got an email, and it’s very panicked,” Biggs said.
He was blind-copied on the email, which was sent to Hastings’ colleagues.
In part, it said that the feds were interviewing his close friends and associates, and that he was onto a big story and needed to get off the radar.
The FBI has denied that Hastings was ever under investigation.
—End Update—
Update: Fire
conceptualdecay sent in this local TV news piece about the crash:
Remember Ashley Turton?
The wife of a key White House aide was found dead early Monday in a sport-utility vehicle that was heavily damaged by fire in the garage of the couple’s Capitol Hill home, sources familiar with the incident said.
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Update: WikiLeaks Claims Contact from Hastings Just Before Death
Via: WikiLeaks / Twitter:
Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.
Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 19, 2013
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Via: NPR:
Michael Hastings, the journalist whose candid interviews of Gen. Stanley McChrystal led to the officer’s eventual removal from his post, has died in a car crash. The news was announced Tuesday by BuzzFeed, which employed Hastings, 33. He was reportedly killed in an accident this morning in Los Angeles.
http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/06/either-mercedes-has-a-problem-or-somethings-not-quite-right/
“I’m here to state that I’ve seen dozens of cars hit walls and stuff at high speeds and the number of them that I have observed to eject their powertrains and immediately catch massive fire is, um, ah, zero. Modern cars are very good at not catching fire in accidents. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which is an evolutionary design from a company known for sweating the safety details over and above the Euro NCAP requirements, should be leading the pack in the not-catching-on-fire category.”
http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/06/either-mercedes-has-a-problem-or-somethings-not-quite-right/