Derek Boogaard - Death

Death

In May, Boogaard was granted another recess to attend his sister's graduation from the University of Kansas. He and Aaron went from California back to Minneapolis, planning to spend a few days together with Ryan, the other Boogaard brother. On the night of May 12, Derek went out with friends. Before they left the apartment, Aaron gave Derek what he said later was a 30-mg Percocet tablet he had been holding for his brother.

Boogaard and his friends went to a steakhouse for dinner, where he consumed some mixed drinks along with his steak. They then circulated among four different bars, drinking more as they did.

On his return home, Derek went to the bathroom, then the bedroom, several times before his friends left. At 3 am, he called Aaron from the kitchen, where he had been making pancakes, several times, complaining that the bed was spinning. "He was miserable", Aaron recalled. Derek finally stopped, apparently asleep, and Aaron went to a girlfriend's house and did not return until the afternoon.

When he did, Derek was still in bed. Assuming his brother was still hung over, Aaron said that he was going to pick Ryan up at the airport. When he returned, Ryan, who had like his father become an RCMP officer, saw that Derek's body wasn't moving and that rigor mortis had set in. The two called 9-1-1 and their parents.

Firefighters who responded first declared him dead at the scene. He was a month and ten days short of his 29th birthday. An autopsy found that the cause of Boogaard's death was an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone. "The coroner said with that mixture, he probably died as soon as he closed his eyes," said Aaron.

His family subsequently agreed to donate his brain to the Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University Medical School which studies the brains of athletes in high-contact sports. The SLI is especially interested in the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be diagnosed after death.

Two months later, SLI doctor Ann McKee told the family in a conference call that Boogaard had indeed suffered from the ailment, with significant damage to his brain tissue. His CTE was more advanced than of another former NHL player, Bob Probert, an enforcer who had recently died at the age of 45, and likely would have led to middle-age dementia had he lived.

On July 22, 2011, Derek's brother Aaron was charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. The charge was dismissed in October 2011, at the same time he pleaded guilty to tampering with the scene of a death, a misdemeanor, since he had admitted to police that he had flushed the remaining pills down the toilet before they arrived. He was sentenced to probation and 80 hours of community service.

After his brain was removed for the SLI study, Boogaard's body was cremated. His mother keeps the ashes in an informal shrine to her son in her home in Regina. The next season, the Wild paid tribute to Boogaard with a highlight video and moment of silence. His family was presented with flowers, a painting of Boogaard and a framed jersey at center ice.