Though toxicology rules out suicide, Lincoln Parkin still missed in Weber County
Lincoln Parkin stands in front of the Utah State Capitol at a clean air rally in 2014.
Lincoln Parkin, a Weber High School graduate known for his LGBT youth advocacy, died in an apparent suicide last week. He was 22 years old.
NORTH OGDEN — The circumstances surrounding Lincoln Parkin’s April death appear to have changed, but the void it created in the lives of his family and friends remains.
The 22-year-old North Ogden native and Weber High graduate was found dead in his Seattle apartment on April 6. Parkin’s father, Brent Parkin said family and investigators originally thought the death was a suicide. Parkin had struggled for years with depression and had previously attempted suicide. He had been vomiting just prior to his death and the initial thought was that he died of some kind of chemical overdose.
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Now, Brent Parkin said results of the autopsy and toxicology report showed nothing unusual in his son’s death or anything that would indicate suicide.
“The medical examiner’s report came back and there was no (harmful) chemicals, no drugs, no alcohol. His liver was normal,” Brent Parkin said. “They concluded that he died of natural causes, most likely some kind of food-borne illness.”
Parkin was well-known throughout the Northern Utah community and a passionate advocate for LGBT youth, animals and the environment.
While attending Weber High, he was responsible for re-establishing the school’s Gay Straight Alliance and he worked with the Weber School District to build support for school-backed GSAs. In 2012, the year he graduated high school, Parkin received a $1,000 scholarship as part of the ACLU of Utah’s Youth Activist Scholarship Program for his advocacy work.
He later attended Westminster College on a music scholarship and played the lead male role in the school’s performance of the musical “The Light in the Piazza” in January 2014.
The Standard-Examiner profiled Parkin shortly after his death, reporting it as a likely suicide. The story was shared hundreds of times on social media and Parkin’s death sparked an outpouring of support from the community.
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Brent Parkin said it was when he flew to Seattle to take care of his son’s belongings that he began to become suspicious the death was caused by suicide.
“He was planning to come home in a few weeks, he had the plane ticket,” he said. “There was no note, nothing in his journal to indicate (suicide). His bank account was full, he was still working, he was planning to go back to school.”
Phone and internet records also revealed nothing unusual.
“Everything pointed to him thinking he was going to get up the next day,” Brent Parkin said. When the autopsy results were released, any lingering doubts were quickly extinguished.
“It confirmed our thinking that he hadn’t planned it,” he said.
Brent Parkin said the grieving process has changed with the knowledge provided by the autopsy, that he and his family were granted a small level of comfort knowing Parkin likely didn’t die in sorrow.
“Obviously, it doesn’t change anything about his death — he’s still gone,” Brent Parkin said. “But to know he didn’t take something to end his own life — it did give us some peace of mind.”
Brent Parkin said in the past few months, he’s learned it’s impossible to understand another person’s pain. He’s found healing in grieving publicly and being unashamed to talk, and cry, about his son. He says he likes it when people ask how he’s doing and when they ask about his son. He’s realized life is fragile and happiness comes through relationships with others.
Life won’t ever be the same, he said, but it will go on.
“It was so final, at least for this life,” he said. “Our lives are forever changed. Things will never be normal again, at least not how I knew them. But you work hard to find happiness, to rediscover joy. I believe it’s possible, but it’s just different. You learn to find a new normal.”
You can reach reporter Mitch Shaw at mishaw@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23 or like him on Facebook.
