OTTAWA–The mystery deepens in the case of an Ottawa man found dead in an upscale Denver hotel room with more than 400 grams of highly toxic sodium cyanide in a jar beside him.
Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, told his family over a week ago that he was leaving to vacation in Denver, Colo.
On Monday, he was found in a room at the ritzy Burnsley Hotel. He had been dead for several days.
In Ottawa yesterday, the man's family was struggling to understand how the quiet, good, smart boy ended up where he did.
The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force were also trying to unravel the mystery.
Denver police are not calling the death a homicide, suicide or even suspicious. They are conducting a death investigation but have found nothing to suggest foul play.
"It's an isolated incident," said Det. John White. He said they are still waiting for the coroner's report to determine how to proceed but emphasized "it's still a very active investigation."
It's still too early to say whether Dirie's death was a suicide, he said.
The Denver medical examiner's office won't be able to determine whether cyanide killed Dirie or announce a cause of death until toxicology reports are done.
The FBI has been examining possible security issues, given that a foreign national was found dead with a hazardous substance, just two weeks before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
FBI Special Agent Kathy Wright said yesterday there was no apparent connection to terrorism.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Pat Flood confirmed that the Mounties are assisting U.S. authorities.
Sodium cyanide is readily available commercially and possession is not illegal. It is widely used in mining to extract gold, as a pesticide and for other industrial purposes such as making paper, textiles and plastics, and to develop photographs.
Robert Emery, a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said cyanide could be used as a weapon if it's mixed with acid and released as a gas into an enclosed space.
The Canadian Press
