HOLTS SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) - The death of a 55-year-old man in a lake south of Holts Summit has been ruled an accidental drowning.
Mark Wenkel's body was found Feb. 10. Callaway County sheriff's Lt. Clay Chism said in an email that his office received the autopsy report Friday with the official cause of death.
An investigator in the Boone/Callaway County Medical Examiner's Office determined the cause of death after the results of a toxicology screen came back. Alcohol was listed as a contributing factor.
Chism said Wenkel was an acquaintance of the property owner near the lake, and evidence suggested Wenkel accidentally fell in the water.
On Feb. 10 while Callaway County deputies were checking on reports of a suspicious vehicle parked on private property on Copper Road, south of Holts Summit, a neighborhood resident noticed a body floating in the nearby lake. Wenkel's body was pulled from the water by Holts Summit firefighters. Deputies investigating the scene identified him from his driver's license.
Chism said it turned out that the "suspicious" vehicle - a white Ford Explorer - belonged to Wenkel. A resident returning home had spotted the vehicle, didn't recognize it and then reported it.