Fractures around Bob Saget’s eye sockets and bleeding around his brain were possibly caused by the comedian hitting “something hard, covered by something soft”, such as a carpeted floor, according to a report on the TV’s star’s death.
In the incident report released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, Florida, a detective notes that Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany said the fractures “would have stunned Mr Saget”, and that he would have experienced dizziness.
Had he been with people at the time, they would have noticed “confusion, balance, and/or slurred speech,” the report states. It does not pinpoint a location for Saget’s fall.
The medical examiner concluded after a post-mortem examination in January that Saget died from an accidental blow to the head, likely from a backwards fall. He was found dead in his hotel room in Orlando in January.
Investigators called to the luxury hotel suite found no evidence of struggle, foul play or signs that anyone else had been in Saget’s suite during his stay.
A toxicology analysis did not show any illicit drugs or toxins in Saget’s body.
There were no signs of blood on the hotel bed’s sheets or bedspread, according to the report released on Tuesday.
An initial examination of Saget’s body in the hotel suite showed that he had slight swelling and small bruises in the corner of his left eye.
“There were no other indications of any type of trauma or injury,” the report states.
The 65-year-old entertainer was found by a hotel security officer on his hotel bed at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando on January 9 after he had failed to check out of the hotel and his family had asked for a wellbeing check.
A hotel maintenance worker had to be called to open the door to Saget’s suite since it had been latched from the inside.
Even though the door between Saget’s suite and the adjacent room was found to be unlocked, records on the electronic locks at the hotel showed that no-one had been in the abutting room since January 7, two days before Saget’s body was discovered, the report says.
Best known for his role as beloved single dad Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House and as the wisecracking host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, Saget was married to Kelly Rizzo Saget and had three daughters from a previous marriage.
Saget was on the road as part of his I Don’t Do Negative Comedy Tour, and said just before his death that he enjoyed warm audience receptions in Orlando and the Ponte Vedra Beach resort area.
On Monday, a judge in Florida agreed to make permanent an order that prohibits the release of photos, video or other records related to the investigation into Saget’s death.
Saget’s family had filed a lawsuit seeking the order.
