Autopsy: Couple found in Clearwater apartment died from drugs

Autopsy results have corroborated what detectives long believed - that Eric and Susan Kinkead, a couple who died in June while four children were in their care, perished because of drugs.

Eric Kinkead, 35, died from methadone toxicity, with oxycodone intoxication a contributing factor, according to a Clearwater police investigative file that was released Thursday. Susan Kinkead, 36, died from multidrug toxicity.

Their deaths have been ruled an accident.

The pair was discovered naked in their bedroom, in a Clearwater apartment complex, on June 9, and they hadn't been seen, even by the four children living with them, for two days.

The oldest child, Susan's 17-year-old son, sent a text message to a family friend that Wednesday morning, saying "would it be possible for you to check on my parents."

"When I got home from school they hadn't woke up yet and this morning I banged on their door and there still was no answer and it was locked," another text said.

The other children in the home were Susan's other son, a 15-year-old; a 9-year-old the Kinkeads had together; and a 5-year-old relative of Susan whom the Kinkeads were raising. They lived off cereal and sandwiches while the Kinkeads were in the bedroom

All except the 5-year-old girl went to school that morning, and she was alone with the two dead people in the locked bedroom when a police officer responded to the text message report at about 9:20 a.m., the file says.

When the girl opened the door, she told the police "her parents" were sleeping and had been doing so "a long time." She "stated her brother put her to bed last night and told her that mommy and daddy would come in a (sic) say good night, but never did."

The other children had a less-idyllic take on how things usually went in Apt. 207 in Park Place II apartments, 503 Fairwood Ave.

"They take a lot of meds," the 15-year-old told police. "They have a bucket full."

"They have back and pain issues," he said. "Migraines."

The elder teen said, "My parents take all kinds of medications."

The elder teen also told police his mother and stepfather were into bondage, and said that he heard the snap of an acrylic whip at around 2 a.m. Tuesday, the day before they were discovered dead. A police officer had to kick the door open to get inside, and the TV in the bedroom was still on.

At the foot of the bed where the couple lay was a plastic container with several prescription bottles, at least one of which was for methadone, the report says. They were prescribed to Eric.

The woman whom the older teen sent the text to told investigators Susan would get Xanax and Coxycodone from the mother of the 5-year-old girl she was taking care of. And when the biological father of the two teenage boys went through the apartment, before taking them with him out of state, he found a Carisodropol pill in a bottle prescribed for Eric.

The family friend whom the teen texted said Susan's and Eric's pill problems were getting exceedingly worse and family members were planning an intervention. The two were known to have back problems, and Eric had recently gone to Mease Countryside Hospital because an infection was causing blisters to erupt on his leg.

Investigators also approached a man who used to be roommates with Eric and Susan Kinkead and who was said to share his drugs with the couple. But the man was not fully cooperative, and hired an attorney.

The autopsy found Eric Kinkead had 200 nanograms per milliliter of methadone in his system, plus 80 of oxycodone. Susan had 30 nanograms per milliliter of oxycodone, 90 of morphine and 400 of methadone.

Bill Pellan, director of investigations for the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office, said it is impossible arriving at a standard overdose amount for a drug because the patient might have developed a tolerance for it, and might have other medical issues.

Eric, his autopsy says, had an enlarged heart, and Susan was obese.

The biological father of the two teenage boys has taken them with him out of state.