Suicide confirmed as veterinarian’s cause of death at Lake Mead

Dr. Shawn Frehner, a well-known veterinarian in the Las Vegas area, officially died by suicide from drowning at Lake Mead, the Clark County coroner’s office has confirmed. It was the cause most people had suspected.

His body was discovered on April 18 near the Boulder Islands within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Dental records confirmed his identity the following day. The coroner determined that Frehner’s cause of death was drowning, with pentobarbital — a barbiturate commonly used in animal euthanasia — also found in his system. The coroner’s office confirmed in an email to PEOPLE that his manner of death is listed as suicide. 

Frehner had been missing since April 6, shortly after a video surfaced showing a man kicking a horse during a medical procedure in Pahrump. The video, shared widely online by animal-rights advocates, appeared to show Frehner interacting with a mustang colt named Big Red and kicking the horse in the jaw.

Before his body was found, Shawna Gonzales filed a criminal complaint accusing Frehner of mistreatment. While law enforcement never publicly identified the man in the video, Frehner acknowledged the footage and addressed it on social media. He claimed the kick was not intended as abuse but as an attempt to reposition the minimally handled colt during a castration procedure.

“I did not blatantly haul off and kick this horse as it appears in the video,” Frehner wrote on Facebook. “It was done simply to get the horse in a better position so that he could breathe and get up and move so I could again try to anesthetize.”

“I love my job and I love helping people and their horses. I am very sorry,” he added.

After the controversy erupted, Frehner’s truck was found abandoned near Lake Mead with his phone, wallet, and keys left behind. A large-scale search followed, involving multiple agencies.

The Nye County Sheriff’s Office had opened an investigation into the animal cruelty allegations prior to his death. In the aftermath, many in the equine and veterinary communities expressed their condolences and reflected on Frehner’s decades-long career serving horses and their owners across Nevada.

»Related: A growing crisis: America’s shortage of large-animal veterinarians