No Charges in Adrienne Martin O.D.

Case closed: Bob McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon that no charges will be filed in the accidental drug overdose Dec. 19 that killed Adrienne Martin, 27, of St. Charles.

Upon reviewing the police investigation and toxicology report from the St. Louis County medical examiner's office, authorities were left with questions about the aspiring model's death at the Huntleigh estate of August Busch IV, but nowhere else to go for answers.

"We reviewed the circumstances and all of the details with an intent to be as deliberate as possible," McCulloch, with Frontenac Police Chief Thomas Becker at his side, told print and broadcast personnel gathered in the lobby of the Buzz Westfall Justice Center.

"There were a lot of questions we wanted answered," he said, "the same questions you want answered."

But Busch, 46, who had been dating Martin about two years, has been uncooperative, McCulloch said: "He refuses to answer questions."

Busch attorney Arthur Margulis on Jan. 12 notified Frontenac police, in response to their request to interview client and attorney together, that Busch "will make no further statements regarding the death of Adrienne Martin."

The medical examiner's statement released Wednesday described the manner of death as "Accidental" and the cause of death as "Oxycodone Intoxication." If abused, the prescription painkiller can deliver an effect similar to heroin, become habit-forming, as well as cause coma and/or death.

McCulloch, however, said there was also enough cocaine in Martin's system to be fatal on its own.

Police and medical examiner's reports were made available Thursday to the media.

In the bedroom of Busch's home where Martin died, police found a number of empty prescription bottles, one later determined to have trace amounts of cocaine, another with trace amounts of oxycodone. At her apartment in New Town St. Charles, police also found a prescription bottle containing a white, powdery residue.

Toxicology results show that Martin's prescribed medicines had not been in her system for two to three days before her death. None of the prescriptions was for oxycodone.

Martin's ex-husband Kevin Martin, an osteopathic physician, reportedly had feared his diagnosis of long QT syndrome, a heart irregularity, might have been a factor. But McCulloch said that no heart condition caused or hastened her death.

Busch was the last in his family line to head Anheuser-Busch, which Belgian brewing giant InBev bought in a hostile takeover in 2008, two years after Busch took over upon his father's retirement. Still on the company's board, Busch IV reportedly has infrequently attended company or industry events.