Heart Attack, Not Crash, Killed Simi Man : Autopsy: Frank Plaice died from natural causes, coroner rules. He was the subject of a two-week search after disappearing July 7.

A heart attack, not a car crash, killed the Simi Valley accountant who was found dead in his wrecked coupe after being missing for two weeks, the Ventura County coroner ruled Friday.

Frank Plaice, 57, died of ischemic heart disease--a general term covering heart attacks--said Dr. Ronald O’Halloran, the Ventura County coroner.

Coroner’s investigator Zelmira Isaac said Plaice died instantly, before his car plunged off the Simi Valley Freeway two weeks ago.

The ruling that Plaice died of natural causes confirmed his family’s suspicions that he was suffering some kind of medical emergency when his 1994 Ford Probe careened over the edge.

His ex-wife, Jeanette, said she believed Plaice was rushing to get treatment at Kaiser Hospital in Woodland Hills, where doctors had earlier diagnosed his complaint of abdominal pains as indigestion. She declined to comment on the diagnosis Friday.

His friends and family last heard from Frank Plaice about 5 p.m. July 7 when he left the Simi Valley Elks Lodge where he served as secretary.

When Plaice did not go to work the following day or meet his girlfriend for dinner that evening, friends and family reported his disappearance to Simi Valley police. Then they launched an all-out search, handing out dozens of flyers and searching by car and plane the route Plaice often drove from his Chatsworth office to visit clients in Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai and Simi Valley.

But Plaice’s body was not found until Thursday because his car had plunged off the Simi Valley Freeway and landed out of sight in a thick stand of oak trees at the bottom of a 100-foot embankment. Two Simi Valley police investigators riding in a sheriff’s helicopter spotted the car about 10:35 a.m. Thursday while flying over rugged terrain along the freeway near Rocky Peak.

Even friends and family who had been pushing police to search harder admitted no one could ever have spotted the Ford from the freeway.

“I’m absolutely satisfied that’s the case,” said Wayne Myers, grand knight of the Elks lodge. “He couldn’t have been spotted unless somebody happened to be hiking that way.”

The mood among Plaice’s lodge brothers is “pretty solemn,” Myers said. “At least there is a finality to it. It’s sad to see him pass on, but at least we don’t have to worry any more that he met with foul play.”

Plaice’s family and fellow Elks have planned a memorial service for him at 2 p.m. Monday at the United Methodist Church, 2394 Erringer Road in Simi Valley.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Elks Major Project for Crippled Children, care of Simi Valley Elks Lodge 2492, at 1561 Kuehner Drive, Simi Valley, 93063.