Erica Blasberg

LPGA Golfer Erica Blasberg committed suicide according to reports.  Erica Blasberg's death was ruled a suicide after an extensive investigation, with the cause of death called asphyxia coupled with the presence of toxic levels of prescription medication.  According to the LA Times, drugs in her system included prescription headache, cough, pain and anti-anxiety medications.  The specific drugs were butalbital, temazepam, alprazolam, codeine, hydrocodone and tramadol, but the amount of each drug was not released at this time.



This is an extremely sad way for this case to come to an end, but it isn't entirely surprising after the way that she had died.  A suicide note was given by Blasberg, so the combination of that and the drugs led the Police Department to rule out any foul play in the incident.  The case isn't entirely closed though, as the authorities still want to talk further with Dr. Thomas Hess, who had something to do with the prescriptions that Blasberg had in her possession.

Blasberg was pretty new to the tour, so not a lot of people outside of devote LPGA fans knew who she was yet.  It is clear that she was suffering internally though, and it's too bad that nobody saw the warning signs that could have been obvious.  That is not to say that all suicides are preventable, but with the number of prescription drugs that Blasberg was taking, it seems that there was evidence this could have been prevented.

Erica Blasberg passed away on May 9, 2010.