Biscuit Was Not a Drinker

Dear Editor,
    What sad news about the death of our beloved Randy "Biscuit" Turner [“Making Biscuit,” Music, Aug. 19]. In your article [online], the cause of death was reported as cirrhosis of the liver, "consistent with alcohol abuse.” I would like to set the record straight: Randy has been a close family friend for more than 30 years, and he rarely, if ever, drank alcohol. Rather, he fought a lengthy battle with a particularly virulent strain of hepatitis C for years, which ultimately compromised his liver and contributed to an untimely end.

   [The Chronicle received numerous e-mails of a similar vein from friends and family. Jordan Smith reports: Although Travis Co. Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo did not perform the Turner autopsy, he said he recalled that Turner's liver was severely damaged and "all shrunken, like a little walnut," a finding apparently consistent with alcohol-related cirrhosis. Toxicology reveals alcohol in Turner's system at the time of his death, but not how much. When told by the Chronicle that Turner's family and friends are adamant that Turner was not a drinker, Bayardo seemed somewhat surprised. "Oh, really?" he said. "Not a drinker?" Bayardo acknowledged that the damage to Turner's liver could have been caused by the hepatitis C virus, which Biscuit had made known that he had. Assistant Medical Examiner Elizabeth Peacock performed the autopsy but did not complete a "microscopic examination of [Turner's] liver," reports Bayardo, which is the only way to determine if hep C was indeed a factor in his death. Bayardo says that his office will now go back and "cut the tissue" needed for a liver exam and estimates that additional test results will be available this Friday.]