Preliminary autopsy reports on a 22-year-old Tanner man, Jericho “Rico” Hines, discovered dead in his friend’s mobile home late Tuesday afternoon show no physical abnormalities that could have led to his death, according to Limestone County Sheriff’s Investigator Stanley McNatt.

“There was nothing wrong with his heart, and there was no aneurism, nothing like that,” said McNatt, who said he had not received the official report from the state forensic lab in Huntsville, but talked with a pathologist by phone Friday. “It’s just pending toxicology results, and those could take from four to six weeks coming back.”

Hines of Page Road, Tanner, was last seen alive about 1 a.m. Tuesday, according to Reco Allen, who owned the mobile home at 12022-1 Huntsville-Brownsferry Road at Railroad Avenue where Hines spent the night, according to McNatt.

McNatt said Allen told investigators he left the mobile home Tuesday morning and thought Hines was still asleep and didn’t try to wake him. Allen returned home about 4:45 p.m. and tried to awaken Hines. He found Hines unresponsive and called 911.

McNatt said there were no visible signs of trauma on Hines’ body. Family members told him Hines had no health problems, but had complained of headaches.

On Friday, Hines’ father, Ray Cain of Columbus, Ohio, an Athens native who was in town for the funeral, said that there are those who say they expected his son to die a violent death, but that was not the case. Hines was charged with first-degree assault in connection with a shooting in December 2003.

“He didn’t die by the sword—or the knife,” said Cain. “Even though he died, I’m proud to say he didn’t go by how people thought he would or should go.”

Cain described his son as “an old soul in a young body,” who had spoken about the deaths of other family members in recent days as though he had a premonition of death.

“I want my son remembered in a good way,” said Cain. “Folks had an opinion about him, but I want him to be remembered in a loving way.”

Funeral services for Hines were to be today at 11 a.m. at David’s Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Tanner. Burial was to be in Johnson Chapel Cemetery on U.S. 31 with People’s Funeral Home directing.