Josh Mauro had been on a four-day cocaine bender before his accidental overdose death in April, according to a Phoenix Police Department case report first obtained by the California Post.
The former New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals and Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end died at 35, and the report says he had been partying at his Arizona home with several women, including a dancer, in the hours before he was found dead.
According to the report, Mauro met the dancer a week earlier and later invited her, a friend and two other women to his home in the early hours of April 23. The woman told police that Mauro and his friend began snorting cocaine while “all of them” drank tequila and listened to music.
After a few hours, she said, the dancer and the other women went upstairs to sleep while Mauro and his friend stayed downstairs.
When she woke up, she found Mauro alone and apparently dead on the floor. She tried to revive him and called emergency services.
The woman also told police that Mauro had said he’d been on a “bender for four days” before she arrived. She said she noticed he would get frequent nosebleeds and sweat after snorting cocaine.
The report says investigators found a bottle cap with a white substance in it near Mauro’s body, along with a white powdery substance near a rolled-up dollar bill, tissues with apparent blood on them, and a syringe in a trash can.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner previously ruled Mauro’s death an accidental overdose. That report found “traces of fentanyl, cocaine and ethanol” in his body, as well as “cannabinoids and caffeine”.
Mauro’s father, Greg, announced his death in a statement that said: “With many tears and broken hearts, yet anchored in the unshakable certainty that our precious Josh Mauro is now healed and made new - living in the presence of the Lord - we humbly covet your prayers as our family walks through the devastating loss.
It added that Mauro “breathed his last breath on this earth and his first breath in heaven.”
Born in St Albans near London, England, Mauro moved to the United States when he was three and grew up in Texas. He went on to play college football at Stanford before going undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft.
He was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent, but his time there was short-lived, and he was released during final roster cuts. Mauro then landed with the Arizona Cardinals, where his NFL career took hold.
He spent four seasons with Arizona from 2014 to 2017, then returned for a second stint from 2020 to 2021. Across that time, he became a rotational defensive lineman and occasional starter, and in 2016 he started 13 games and finished with a career-high 42 tackles.
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