7 News Belize

Keith Swift’s Cause of Death
posted (April 20, 2010)
7news reporter, Keith Swift was found dead in his Lizarraga Avenue home 24 hours ago. The thirty year old was found at ten minutes past five on Monday, April 19 by his room-mate Mark Bowman.

A post mortem which was concluded late this afternoon confirmed that he died early on Monday morning of heart failure, which was caused by a brain hemorrhage which sent blood clots coursing down to his heart, clogging it, and forcing a heart failure.

What caused the brain hemorrhage? Police Forensic Pathologist Mario Estradabran said it could have been caused by the ingestion of energy drinks possibly mixed with pain killers. We stress though that Estradaban made it clear that is only a theory and toxicology tests will be performed to come up with a more conclusive finding. Those could take weeks, possibly months to finish, and even so, they might not be definitive.

After the post mortem 7news director Jules Vasquez discussed the findings and what's next in terms of funeral arrangements and other matters.

Jules Vasquez
"The post mortem found that he died from a cerebral hemorhage which caused blood clots to go coursing down into his heart and it went into the right side of his heart and it basically clogged up his heart. He died of heart failure. He died they believe instantaneously, early in the morning. They don't know what caused the cerebral hemorrhage. They'll have to do a toxicology analysis and that will hopefully, hopefully not certainly, give us greater insight. It's important that we stress that there are no signs, absolutely no signs, of any deliberate act. It was not suicide as some have speculated, as some have alluded to. There is no such thing and its important now that …well he is everybody's family…as a leading TV personality. He is everyone's family. For us, the priority is his immediate family. He has 7 siblings. His mother is there in Belmopan. So our priority now is to try to support them, help them in whatever way we can. He had 13 nieces and nephews as well."

Jim McFadzean,
"The station has been receiving inquiries as to funeral arrangements. What's the update on that?"

Jules Vasquez,
"The family has to make a final decision, but they are 100% certain that it will be held in Belmopan. It will be held in Belmopan most likely later this week. During the week at most likely St. Ann's Anglican Church but again these decisions are not final. It is the family's decision. We are just here to support them and inform our viewers. I know everyone wants to show them love. We will be opening up a special portal on our website which you can find at www.7newsbelize.com at which you can post your thoughts, your remembrances. Anything you want to say about your memory of Keith Swift you can post it there and we will be tracking that in the news as well."

Funeral arrangements will be announced later but his funeral will most certainly be held in Belmopan which is where Keith and his 7 siblings were raised with their mother Greta Mossiah.

As we've reported, Keith Swift worked at 7news from 1998 to 2010 – taking a two year study break between 2001 and 2003.

Later on in the news, Jules Vasquez will have a personal remembrance and we'll look back at some of Keith's earlier years.

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