Final autopsy released of Lakota grad found dead in Columbus

LaBute was a 2007 graduate of Lakota East High School.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that LaBute had “dry” lungs and no water in his stomach and that toxicology tests revealed only alcohol in his system.

“Due to the decedent being found in water and the probability that he was in the water for a length of time, we cannot definitively give a cause of death,” Franklin County Coroner Anahi Ortiz told the Dispatch. “All we can say with certainty is that there were no signs of trauma” such as gunshot or stab wounds.

Police have labeled his death suspicious, primarily because of the circumstances in which he disappeared and where his body was found.