Traces of Cocaine, Pot Found in Blood Samples of Rick Nelson

Traces of cocaine, marijuana and the painkilling drug Darvon were found in blood samples taken from Rick Nelson’s body after the singer and six others were killed in the fiery crash of a twin-engine plane on New Year’s Eve, according to toxicological reports released Tuesday.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board said the documents comprise “part of a series of factual reports” that eventually may shed light on the cause of the crash. But no conclusions can yet be drawn from the reports, they said.

An early theory of crash investigators was that Nelson and his fellow passengers may have been “free-basing,” using cocaine in a way that involves processing the drug with an open flame. Supporting this theory is that the propeller-driven DC-3 was burning when it attempted a crash-landing near DeKalb, Tex., investigators said.

The safety board, however, has obtained no known evidence that free-basing took place aboard the World War II-vintage aircraft. No drug paraphernalia was found in the plane’s wreckage, and toxicologists said there was no indication when cocaine had been used by Nelson and others.

Traces of cocaine also appeared in blood samples taken from two other crash victims, Andy Chapin and Patrick Woodard, both members of Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. Small amounts of marijuana also were found in the bodies of Chapin, Woodard and passengers Rick Intveld and Bobby Neal, the reports showed.

Blood and urine samples taken from the pilot and co-pilot, Brad Rank and Kenneth Ferguson, who both survived the crash, showed no presence of drugs or alcohol, the reports said. The toxicological studies were conducted by the Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City and the Center for Human Toxicology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Rank and Ferguson, separated by a wall from the passenger compartment, told investigators that the plane was on fire and the cockpit filled with smoke when they crash-landed in a wooded area. The landing was successful, but once on the ground the aircraft was consumed by fire, officials said.

Board spokesman Ira Furman said federal investigators probably will not determine the cause of the accident for several more months.