The death of an Athens man whose body was found in the Hocking River more than a month after he first disappeared in March was caused by drowning, the Athens County coroner said in an autopsy report.
The body of Sam Wiater, 21, was found in April about three-eighths of a mile south of the Currier Street Bridge. Wiater had been missing for almost six weeks before his body was found in the Hocking River. His body was then sent to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy, according to a previous Post
article. Athens County Coroner Harold Thompson filed the autopsy, along with two other reports, to the Athens County Clerk of Courts last Thursday.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office sent their reports to Thompson between the end of the May and the end of June.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s office ruled drowning as Wiater’s cause of death. His body was found submerged in water and there was no evidence of significant traumatic injury, according to the report.
The other two reports filed to the clerk’s office shed light on a couple of other mysterious springtime deaths in Athens.
The body of Sammie Donato, 22, of Mt. Orab, Ohio, was found last spring near Dow Lake off U.S. Route 50. Donato had been hiking through the area. His body was found in a creek.
Donato’s cause of death remains undetermined, according to the autopsy reports. A postmortem examination suggests Donato had pulmonary congestion.
The autopsy report of Ying C. Chang, 80, was also filed last Thursday. Chang was found dead after a one-car accident at The Ridges in late-April. Witnesses reported seeing her speed up a hill and heard her crash. She earned a Master's degree from Ohio University in 1973 and was a popular benefactor for scholarships in OU science departments.
The autopsy report stated her death was caused by “blunt force trauma to the chest,” which included multiple rib fractures and a deep cut of the pulmonary artery.
Lt. Tim Ryan, who is the head of criminal investigations at the Ohio University Police Department, said the Chang case is still under investigation and the department has no other information to release at the moment.
jl951613@ohiou.edu
@JoshuaLim93
