Coroner: Nothing unusual in autopsy

~ Investigators are waiting for toxicology results of Scott Cornman whose body was found Friday.

An autopsy on a 37-year-old man found dead near his home was inconclusive and pending toxicological studies.

Scott Cornman was reported missing after being last seen Feb. 21 following a night out at the Pilot House, a restaurant and bar at 3532 Perryville Road near Cape Girardeau.

His body was found Friday off the roadway between the restaurant and his home in the Route W Trailer Court.

The autopsy Sunday revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and investigators were awaiting results from toxicological testing, according to Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton.

The test results could take between four and six weeks, he said.

Cornman, who had worked at AT&T as a service representative, was a regular at the Pilot House, which is less than a mile from the home he shared with his partner, John Miller.

Monday night at the small neighborhood bar located just north of town off a curvy Perryville Road, Pilot House staff remembered Cornman.

He and Miller would stop by the Pilot House almost every night, staying for an hour or two before heading home. Some nights they just stopped in for food to go.

On many nights, Cornman would have a Big Hot Cheese, a sandwich concoction of spicy cheese, jalapeno peppers and hot sauce, and wash it down with a bourbon and diet cola, according to Erica Raney, a bar employee.

Cornman was described as a quiet man at first who had sat in the back of the bar with Miller when the couple first began coming more than a year ago, Raney said.

The two kept to themselves at first, but as time went on, the pair moved right up to bar and spoke with everybody.

Raney said that even on her days off, she would stop by the Pilot House just to have her daily talk with Cornman.

Cornman enjoyed conversations with staff and other regulars, and from time to time he would play a little chess.

"I'm proud to have known him," said Carletta Bohnert, a daytime bartender who left work hours before Cornman was last seen.

On the night he went missing, Cornman stayed at the bar until about 10 p.m. The next morning, his vehicle was found on the other side of the roadway with a flat tire.

Visitation for Cornman will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill, Mo. The funeral will be 11 a.m. Wednesday.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 127