Chase Massner Case: Autopsy Shows Heroin, Meth Use: Report

KENNESAW, GA -- An autopsy released in the Chase Massner case shows that the Army veteran had traces of heroin, meth and morphine in his system, according to news reports. Massner's body was found this summer in the backyard of a Cobb County home.

The medical examiner has not been able to establish a cause of death because Massner's body was too badly decomposed, local media reported. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The results of the autopsy are officially “undetermined,” the medical examiner said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal, who was first to report the results.

Cobb County police apprehended 31-year-old James Bradshaw Clement, an old friend of Massner's, after charging him with concealing a death in the missing person investigation.

On Aug. 1, Cobb County police announced that remains believed to be Massner's were found in the backyard of Clement's former home at 555 Farmbrook Trail in Kennesaw.

The autopsy, which was released recently, offers a gruesome account of Massner's body, indicating that the former husband had a history of heroin abuse, WGCL reports. His body was found wrapped in a tarp underneath a poured concrete slab. See the autopsy here.

Meanwhile, Clements' fate is up to face the legal system. Stephanie Cadena, Massner's mother, told local media that the whole ordeal is still hard for her to fathom, especially because her son and Clement were friends. "I always tried to think of where he was, or what happened, but I never thought he would be in Brad's backyard," she told WGCL-TV.

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Massner was a 26-year-old husband and father to two children at the time of his disappearance. He was close to Clement and reportedly went to his home one day in March 2014 after having an argument with his wife. He presumably spent the night there, but was never heard from again.

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Cadena said that Clement told her flat out that he had nothing to do with her son's disappearance.

"He sat and told me a long and elaborate story about what they did that night, stayed up all night, talked, very sincere, gave me a hug," she told the TV station.

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