Salina Police Thursday released autopsy results for a 21 year old Solomon man who died after being hit by a van on I-135 just before Christmas.
Lt. Jim Norton The I-135/I-70 Drug Task Force Commander said 21 year old Elijah Taylor died from blunt force trauma after running in front the van driven by an Oklahoma man in the early morning hours of December 21st.
Norton said toxicology test conducted by the Sedgwick County Forensics Center and a outside lab indicated that Taylor had MDPV and marijuana in his system. MDPV is a compound that is found in the synthetic drug with the street name “Bath Salts”
Norton said that the lab was not able to test for the JWH compounds that was used in the synthetic street drug potpourri because a baseline has not been established for the compounds.
Norton said witnesses who had been with Taylor said he had used potpourri before he ran out on to the highway.
Taylor was a student at the University of Kansas and died at a Wichita Hospital.
The following is a release from the Salina Police Department released Thursday afternoon:
On December 21, 2011, at approximately 12:11 a.m., Salina police and ambulance personnel responded to a motor vehicle/pedestrian accident in the southbound lanes of Interstate 135, mile marker 92. Upon arrival they found Elijah Taylor, 21, lying in the southbound lanes. He was rushed to the hospital and later died of his injuries.
The police investigation revealed that Taylor had been a passenger in a vehicle southbound on Interstate 135, when he started exibiting aggressive and bizarre behaviors. He battered the driver and started kicking the windshield. Taylor was removed from the vehicle and left at the side of the Interstate, where he ran into the path of a southbound vehicle and was struck.
Taylor had been with a friend earlier in the evening and had been reportedly smoking a street drug marketed as “potpourri.” “Potpourri” consists of dried plant materials laced with synthentic cannabinoids such as JWH compounds. Taylor also had in his possession a small blue container of synthentic cathinones marketed as “bath salts.” These so called “bath salts” are actually hallucinogenic street drugs which contain dangerous compounds that have a high potential for abuse, such as Methylenedioxpyrovalerone (MDPV).
An autopsy, conducted by the Sedgwick County, Kansas Regional Forensic Science Center, revealed that Taylor died from blunt force trauma. A toxicology test performed by an outside agency revealed the presence of the compound MDPV and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in Marijuana.
The toxicology findings were negative for the compounds JWH 018 or JWH 073. The lab was not able to test for JWH 081, JWH 122 or JWH 210 (analogs of the above compounds). Additional testing for these compounds may occur at a later date.