The man reportedly had a camp at the festival.
The annual Burning Man Festival began last Sunday on August 25, and five days in, there’s been a tragedy in the desert Nevada. Every year, thousands eccentric and creative characters come together in all their free spirit glory to live like happy nomads in the middle nowhere. As with any event that hosts a multitude people who come together to live life without boundaries, injuries are bound to arise. However, no one expected for someone to turn up dead.
According to the SF Gate, on Thursday, ficers were called to the party in the Black Rock Desert and found a man, dead, inside the medical tent. The man, 33-year-old Shane Billingham, was transferred to the medical fice for an autopsy. There weren’t any obvious marks to indicate what caused his death, but the sheriff’s fice released a statement calling the death “suspicious.” However, they did add, “preliminary toxicology showed the presence controlled substances to be an exacerbating factor. Quantitative analysis the toxicology will not be available for a few weeks.”
According to reports, friends initially found Billingham at his camp and CPR was administered, but he was unresponsive. Billingham reportedly ran a camp at the festival called “Beats Boutique.” Friends and mourners have built a memorial in the area in memory him.
Billingham’s death wasn’t the only tragedy to occur at this year’s Burning Man. There was an accident near the festival after a pickup truck ran into an RV, causing the death 61-year-old Lonnie Richey Carson City. Also, three people were injured after the small plane they were traveling in as they were leaving Burning Man crashed near an airport.