Saturday, June 30, 2007

By Tommy Witherspoon

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Rhythm-and-blues singer Tony Thompson, whose body was found near an air-conditioning unit outside an East Waco apartment complex earlier this month, died accidentally while “huffing” Freon, an autopsy report released Friday shows.


Dr. Reade A. Quinton, a medical examiner at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, determined that Thompson, 31, died from “toxic effects of chlorodifluoromethane,” or inhaling a toxic amount of Freon.

Freon is a gas primarily used in refrigeration and air-conditioning units.

Thompson, a Waco native and former lead singer for the platinum-selling Waco quintet Hi-Five in the 1990s, was found dead outside an apartment complex June 1.

Waco police said his body was found by officers working security at the apartment complex.

The autopsy report also shows that Thompson had a history of “Freon huffing.”

No alcohol or illegal drugs were detected in the singer’s system.

Methadone Detected

However, the autopsy showed that Thompson had a small amount of methadone in his bloodstream.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat drug addiction.

The U.S. Department of Justice has reported that the huffing of Freon is nothing new, but the practice of taking it from air-conditioning units in use apparently is.

Justice officials report that chronic inhalant abuse may result in serious and sometimes irreversible damage to the user’s heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and brain.

Death from inhalant abuse can occur after a single use or after prolonged use, according to Department of Justice reports.

Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said officers report that Freon huffing is not a widespread phenomenon in Waco.

“I am told that it is not something that everybody does, but it is a way of getting high,” he said. “Evidently, it was a way that (Thompson) had gotten high before, but I don’t know exactly how it affects you.”

Anderson said Thompson apparently had taken the cap from the valve that attached the Freon to the air-conditioning unit, which resembles a stem on a bicycle tire.

He had something to depress the valve and some type of pipe from which he was inhaling the Freon, Anderson said.

Coming Back Home

Thompson, who had returned to Waco after a period in Dallas, enjoyed national success with Hi-Five in the early 1990s.

The music was generally described as an imaginative updating of groups such as the Jackson 5.

In recent years, Thompson had sought to find similar success in the music field.

At the time of his death he was working on a new CD project.

I never heard of such a thing. That's really sad that his deamons got the best of him.

Very sad, but just shows how sometimes they always tend to call these things "suicides" when they arent, they are just people going too far, whether its Jimi or Janis or Michael Hutchence, none of them really were trying to end it, like ringo starr said, "One too many"

wow, how awful... i've never heard of freon huffing. Very sad

Sad, sad, sad.

Damn shame.