Heart disease may have killed pitchman

"Pitch Man", father and husband Billy Mays was found dead Sunday morning. His wife, Deborah, woke up next to him just before 8 a.m. and found him without a pulse.

Doctors say Mays had died in his sleep. Less than 24 hours earlier, Mays had landed at Tampa International Airport. FOX 13 spotted him getting off of US Airways flight 1241, which landed with a thud, blowing out the front tires.

We caught up with Mays as he collected his luggage.

"All of a sudden as we hit, it was just, I mean, the hardest hit. All the top things from the ceiling start dropping and it hit me on the head but I got a hard head, so," Mays said.

Speculation over whether or not a hit to the head contributed to Mays' untimely death was squashed Monday. After an autopsy, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's office said there were no signs of head trauma.

What they did find was evidence of heart disease, and that, Adams says, certainly could have killed him, according to Dr. Vernard Adams, Hillsborough County Medical Examiner.

"In about 25 or 30 percent of people who die from heart disease, sudden death is the first symptom," Adams said.

Adams won't make the findings official quite yet. Doctors still need to perform toxicology tests, which could take weeks.

When FOX 13 spoke with Mays Saturday, he told us he was scheduled for a hip replacement, but was glad to be home.

"On my way back home, to have surgery on my hip on Monday, if that's the toughest part of it, I'm good," concluded Mays.

Tampa Fire Rescue released the 911 call made shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday. You can hear a frantic woman tell the dispatcher she found Mays cold and unresponsive when she woke up.
When asked what had happened, she says she doesn't know. The dispatcher tries to help get her to perform CPR.

Then a second person gets on the phone and says he wasn't breathing and it's "too late".

Mays had been scheduled to have hip replacement surgery this afternoon.

Dr. Adams said Mays was taking prescription narcotics for his hip pain, tramadol and hydrocodone, but he he had no history of drug abuse and the counts of the remaining medication were correct.

The medical examiner's office said the completed autopsy report should be available within eight to ten weeks, and the cause of death will be released then.

Mays got his first national exposure back in 1996 on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network. His later success with infomercials including Orange Glo and OxiClean. He was also featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel.

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Mays' wife Deborah released a statement shortly after today's news conference:

"Billy would be overwhelmed to see that his life touched so many people in a positive way. The support we have received during this difficult time has been tremendous. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers," she said.  "While it provides some closure to learn that heart disease took Billy from us, it certainly doesn't ease the enormous void that his death has created in our lives. "As you can imagine, we are all devastated. We are asking that you respect our privacy as I will not be conducting any media interviews in the near future."

His son, Billy Mays III, has been posting updates on his Twitter account .

"Just want you all to know that I've read EVERY single reply and they've greatly helped me get through this day. Thank you," Billy Mays III wrote Sunday.