Pleasanton: Initial autopsy results find no signs of foul play in Philip Kreycik's death

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The investigation continues into the death of Berkeley ultramarathon runner Philip Kreycik, whose body was discovered in a remote part of Pleasanton Ridge last Tuesday — 24 days after he was first reported missing when he didn’t return home from a late-morning run.

Initial autopsy results found no signs of pre-death trauma nor foul play, and nothing suspicious was unearthed at the scene, Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly told the Weekly on Monday.

The final coroner’s bureau report is pending additional analysis, including toxicology testing results. A cause of death has not been confirmed, but Kelly cautioned that “likely we may not get a determination unfortunately.” Investigators are also working to determine when Kreycik died.

The search for Kreycik captivated the Tri-Valley — and much of the Bay Area — since that first weekend when the 37-year-old married father of two young children failed to return home to Berkeley on July 10 after going for a run at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park during what was one of the hottest days of the summer.

During the first week of his disappearance, some 20 search-and-rescue teams of law enforcement members and community volunteers scoured the areas around marked trails and what was believed to have been Kreycik’s intended route, but to no avail. As the official effort scaled back to only coordinated mass searches on weekend days, local volunteers continued in smaller groups or individually on a regular basis daily.

There were no reported leads on Kreycik’s location until early in the afternoon on Aug. 3 when a volunteer searching on their own found a body later identified as Kreycik in a thickly wooded area at the northwest end of the Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, about a quarter mile from his planned route and a ways off a wildlife path not intended for human access, authorities said.

It’s possible that Kreycik may have mistaken a game trail — a clear path in a forest that’s trodden by deer and other wildlife — for one that was manmade, authorities said. It was unclear as to what degree, if at all, that exact area had been searched before during the 24 days.