All of this would show up in an autopsy. Snake bites would leave visible puncture wounds. There are for all practical purposes no deadly spiders native to the US. Tissue necrosis from a brown recluse would be visible, and a black widow would leave neurotoxic signs that a decent autopsy would have found, as well as possibly the toxin itself. (Hardly anybody dies from those two spider bites, and those two are the only medically significant spiders in the US.)

How long would they remain detectable by an autopsy in a county that didn't even want to spend $5k on DNA testing? How long was the body decaying before discovered. I do agree about the necrotizing venoms. But consider a black widow. You could be incapacitated, rendered helpless for a day or so, and become sufficiently dehydrated to be essentially delirious after recovering from the bite proper. That would leave you in a state that, without assistance, you'd not die from the bite, but from starvation/dehydration several days later. How long is the toxin in the body?

> All of this would show up in an autopsy

Not necessarily. The toxin could have been ingested, especially if it was something man-made rather than natural. Many would have left recognizable signs, but others you'd have to know what signs to look for and/or do a specific test. Whatever it is might even have cleared his system (it takes a while to become that emaciated) but not before doing some kind of neurological/motor damage.

Depends on the state of decomposition as to what they would find in the autopsy, but I would generally agree that invenomation is unlikely as it wouldn't explain the emaciation (they could be coincidental). Found in a tent in FL... I don't want to imagine that smell. It's also possible they found anomalies or issues but were not able to tie them to the death (I imagine the autopsy is confidential).

It would take a fairly long time for even a 130 person to get into the 80s. If you can't move or care for yourself, you'd be dead in that tent in less than 3 days.

True. I saw another poster commenting on a case where a person was being too strict in rationing their (plentiful) food. Which perhaps makes more sense here. If he'd already lost a lot of weight and stamina as a result of that, could've laid down and died shortly after.

Rationing could be an issue, if he had reason to ration. Maybe if he got lost deeper within the park and was on his way out. Depends on how much food he had with him, when he was previously buying supplies, etc.

Florida is like the US's Australia. There are so many things that can kill you including a number of poisonous species of spiders and snakes. It's not a good place to hike alone.

Aneurism would show up in the autopsy, right? And snake bite in the toxo report?

Not sure about stroke.

Well, I'm not a doctor or medical professional of any sort so I honestly don't know. I was just presenting things that could lead to an apparently healthy young-ish man suddenly dropping dead for no apparent reason.

I didn't pick them totally randomly, though. I had a rationale: He seemed emaciated, which suggests something left him immobile for an extended period since he had food at hand. This made me think of strokes and snake/spider bites. The former could leave you permanently immobile, but alive. Without assistance he'd have died within a few days. The latter, depending on the sort, could leave you immobile and in great pain for a day or so, with a chance to recover and survive. But if he'd already become sufficiently dehydrated he may not have had the energy or wherewithal to care for himself.

There are other conditions which could lead to a similar outcome. Heat exhaustion, for instance, may not kill outright. But could leave you in a state where you need assistance and can't recover on your own.

Whether they'd show up on an autopsy, I don't know. But also per the article it was a while before he was found. So given a sufficient level of decay, it's possible these conditions wouldn't show up or would be sufficiently hard to detect (remember, the sheriff's didn't even want to pay $5k for the DNA testing, he wasn't a crime victim so their budget wasn't paying for a lot of analysis).

Bothrops or Vipers distroy blood or tissues. Would made unmistakable swelling or extensive inner bleeding.

Micrurus bites could be not so easy to detect but would not explain the weight loss.

And liver and kidneys were clean