WASHINGTON – The Maryland medical examiner has announced the cause of death of a Bethesda 17-year-old found dead over the weekend.
Navid Sepehri died from acute alcohol intoxication complicated by drowning and hypothermia, the office of the medical examiner reported Friday.
Details about the teen’s blood-alcohol content weren’t immediately available.
The Walt Whitman High School senior’s father, Frank Sepehri, told WTOP he found his son’s body Sunday afternoon laying face up in two feet of water near the Bannockburn Swim Club after a night of drinking with friends.
“It was so cold,” he recalled earlier this week. “I was hoping he didn’t freeze in the woods,” he remembered thinking before he found Navid.
Earlier this week, the Montgomery County police said Sepehri was one of the teenagers they encountered when they responded to a report of a party with possible underage drinking and disorderly people outside a house on Elgin Lane in Bethesda around 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
A source confirmed to WTOP that parents of a Walt Whitman sophomore hosting the party were home and among the children. The same source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, reported it appeared Navid had been drinking before arriving at the party with a group of Whitman seniors.
The teens told the police they were waiting for rides. The police said no laws were being broken at that time.
Frank Sepehri saw an officer’s body camera video of the encounter. “He was talking to my son … and my son was drunk. He was kind of like, shaking around. He asked [Navid’s] friends, ‘Get this kid out of here before I get him in trouble,’” Sepehri said.
Frank Sepehri said he heard from Navid’s friends that he turned down a ride in an Uber the rest of them were taking. They assumed he was walking home, which from there would take about a half-hour on the snowy Saturday night.
After 3 a.m. Sunday, Frank Sepehri told the police his son hadn’t come home. He talked to an officer, but a missing-person report wasn’t taken until almost 1 p.m. Sunday.
Sepehri maintains he was alone when he found his son using the Find my iPhone app he regularly used to check in on his son’s whereabouts. Montgomery County police say officers searching nearby heard Sepehri shout and knew in that moment he likely found his son. Police later found a small bottle of vodka in Navid’s coat, his father said.
The police said they believe Sepehri’s death was accidental, but they continue to investigate.
WTOP’s Megan Cloherty contributed to this report.
