David Carradine Died of Accidental Asphyxiation

By Brian Orloff

Originally posted Thursday July 02, 2009 03:40 PM EDT

David Carradine Photo by: Tsuni / GammaUSA

More details about David Carradine's death are coming to light.

The actor died from accidental asphyxiation, a medical examiner who performed a private autopsy on the actor has concluded. "The cause of death was asphyxiation, an inability to breathe, now why that happened is still what we're working on," Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by the late actor's family, told Reuters.

The ties that bound Carradine, who was found hanging in the closet of his Bangkok hotel on June 4, helped Baden rule out suicide as well. "He didn't die of natural causes, and he didn't die of suicidal causes from the nature of the ligatures around the body, so that leaves some kind of accidental death," he said.

Baden also clarified that Carradine's hands were tied above his head and not behind his back, as some had previously reported. His report also did not rule out the possibility that the former Kung Fu star died of auto erotic asphyxiation, though he did not say that was the cause of death, either.

Results from an earlier autopsy performed on Carradine after his death at age 72 were unclear, though on June 11, Baden did publicly state the actor's death was not suicide.