Autopsy Report Rules Cody West Death as Accidental

Cody West, 22, died from blunt force trauma in a freak accident, according to details in an autopsy report released on Thursday.

West’s family and friends launched a frantic search for him after he failed to show up for work at a downtown Santa Barbara restaurant in late April. He was last seen at a party on April 26 around 3:30 in the morning and told people there he was planning to go home.

In the report, investigators determined West was trying to push his car along Los Carneros, just north of Highway 101. The report does not detail why West was pushing his vehicle, but family members reported he had recently purchased the car, and was having trouble getting used to driving a vehicle with a manual transmission, and had to have the clutch repaired.

The report did not detail how West slipped, but he plunged several feet down into a drainage ditch. The car followed the same trajectory, landing on top of him. The report said the impact from the vehicle caused the fatal injuries, which is why his death was ruled accidental.

Five days later on the morning of May 1, his body was found underneath the vehicle.

Dozens of people volunteered to help in the search for a young man described as bright, friendly and popular.

“Cody was a very loved and loving person. He was a talented and hard worker, a devoted son, brother, uncle and friend. He had a large presence and his absence is breaking our hearts,” his mother Juliet wrote in a letter sent to the news media.

In the letter, Juliet West also requested details of the toxicology reports included in her son’s autopsy not be published.

The station has decided not to publish those details, which are a part of the public record.

Law enforcement sources said the combination of substances in West’s system at the time of his death would have resulted in an arrest for impaired driving, had he been pulled over.