Coroner: Cause of Scheider's death may never be known

Washington Parish Coroner Roger Casama said Wednesday that the cause of death for Terry Edward Schneider, the man whose skeletal remains were found early this month in the woods off of Sullivan Drive, may never be known.

“What happened is there was nothing but bones,” he said. “We could not obtain blood. The blood vessels were gone. So unless you do a tissue toxicology, which would be very, very difficult, you cannot tell.”

Weather conditions caused the body to deteriorate quickly, said Casama.

“The temperature was so high it caused a rapid deterioration of flesh,” he said. “And it rained a lot off and on. It was a badly decomposed body.”

Casama said the body showed no signs of trauma, but that doesn’t rule out an unnatural death.

“The conjecture is that drug ingestion is a likely possibility,” he said.

That could be self-inflicted or otherwise.

But Schneider, who had been told he needed to have a leg amputated due to severe cellulitis, could also have died of septicemia (blood poisoning), said Casama.

“It is possible that it was a natural death,” he said. “We will never know.”

The coroner credits his civil administrator Kathy Casama, his chief investigator Archie Seals, Detective Tom Anderson and Sheriff Robert Crowe for their work in the case. He also stressed that the cooperation among all agencies involved “was excellent.”