Leah Hartley died by accident. Like many women in Missoula, Leah must have been clumsy and swimming-deficient. What else am I to assume with so little information to go on?
The Missoula Police Department (MPD) has released the medical examiner’s findings into the death of Leah C. Hartley, 38, in September.
The circumstances surrounding Hartley’s death were under active investigation, but it’s now been determined she died from asphyxia due to accidental drowning.
I have put in a request to the coroner, a role played by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, for the autopsy and toxicology report. The first response I got was bullshit, but now is not the post to detail the stonewalling. I just want the people who keep reaching out to me to know my blog silence doesn’t mean I’m not actively seeking information about ANOTHER suspicious death that local authorities seem to just want us, as a community, to NOT be curious about. Or anxious about. Or PISSED OFF about.
Despite my tendency to be righteously pissed off about a variety of local issues, I’ve done pretty well not being TOO angry in my recent public comments, which I’ll get around to posting soon. I’m also looking at my time contributing to the blog, 4&20 Blackbirds, and was surprised to see that Jay Karl Stevens passed away from a heart attack at the age of 72. Jay was the one who started the blog, then locked me out when I was a meanie to the Sheepdog, Bernie Sanders.
CORRECTION: this is NOT the Jay Stevens who established 4&20 Blackbirds. (Thanks Pete!)
For the context I wasn’t aware of until researching my book, here’s a little more about Jay Stevens:
Jay Karl Stevens (November 11, 1953 – February 19, 2025)[1] was a freelance writer and social historian.[2] Stevens was born and raised into a family of farmers in Springfield, Vermont. He attended school there as a child and then Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, going on to the University of Vermont after graduation.[1]
He is the author of Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (1987), which has been described as a “classic” by historian David Farber[3] and “the quintessential work on the history of LSD in America” by Kristin Robinson.[4] Historian of science and medicine Benjamin Breen also recommends the book for those wishing to learn more about the history of LSD.[5]
Stevens is also the co-author of Drumming at the Edge of Magic with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and ethnomusicologist Fredric Lieberman.[6] He founded Applied Orphics, a digital marketing and distribution company, and Rap Lab, a program bringing at-risk teenagers and professional musicians and poets together.[7][8] Prior to his death, he was living at his family farm in Weathersfield Bow, Vermont, where he produced maple syrup.
Before I wrap up this short post I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to the woman who just donated $100 dollars to my gofundme page, which I haven’t promoted for many months. It was unexpected, very needed, and very appreciated. Especially after finding out the “police hold” on my record for not letting the PD vampires have my blood during their failed attempt to make a marijuana DUI stick.
Thanks for reading!
Not the same Jay Stevens, Travis.
I thought for sure it was, do you have any contact info for him? Better yet, do you have that Indy article? The archive, as you know, is gone thanks to Matt Gibson and your daddy’s former employer, Lee Enterprises.