MIAMI (AP) — Professional wrestling legend Hulk Hogan died of natural causes last year, according a report by Florida police that formally closes the investigation into his death.
The Clearwater Police Department released a 72-page report on Friday summarizing an exhaustive review of statements, medical records, surveillance footage and a visual inspection of the body. Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, died last July 24 at age 71.
“There has been no evidence to indicate the death of Terry Bollea was anything other than natural,” the report said. “Through the course of the investigation, there has been no evidence to indicate any criminal wrongdoing related to his death. This case will be closed, and will be considered solved, non-criminal.”
According to the report, Hogan's wife, as well as a home health aide and an occupational therapist, were all with Hogan at his home when he stopped breathing. His wife, Sky Daily Hogan, called 911, and then the trio performed CPR on Hulk Hogan until firefighters and paramedics arrived.
Family members told investigators that Hogan had been suffering from multiple heath issues in the weeks before his death, including leukemia, an irregular hearth rhythm, pneumonia and kidney failure. He had also undergone many hospitalizations and surgeries in the years before his death.
Early statements made by the occupational therapist to police led to speculation that Hogan's death was related to damage done to his phrenic nerve during a recent surgery. But the occupational therapist later said that he was still rattled from performing CPR and was speaking out of turn.
The local medical examiner had concluded Hogan died from a heart attack and declined to perform a full autopsy. A private autopsy paid for by the family backed up the initial assessment, finding “no reasonable traumatic or terminal toxicologic contributions.”
Hogan was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history, known for both his larger-than-life personality and his wrestling exploits. He was the main draw for the first WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.
Hogan won at least six WWE championships and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 and reinstated there in 2018. He had been removed from the Hall of Fame in 2015 after he was recorded making racial slurs against Black people, for which he apologized.
A well-attended but private funeral service was held several weeks after Hogan's death at a church in Largo, Florida.
FILE - Famed wrestler Hulk Hogan fires up the crowd between matches during WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles, April 3, 2005. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
BENI, Congo (AP) — The memories come flooding back whenever Vianney Kambale Kombi hears the word Ebola.
He remembers the pain and fear in his community in the eastern Congo city of Beni during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, history's second-biggest with more than 3,400 reported cases and over 2,200 deaths. It was stopped with the aid of vaccines.
Kombi also remembers the broad skepticism over the disease, attacks on health workers and inaction from patients that he blames for the speed in which the disease spread.
“We thought it was witchcraft,” said Kombi. “The community had not accepted that this disease existed and it had not accepted that we could recover from it.”
In Beni, a bustling commercial hub near the borders with Uganda and Rwanda, some fear that a repeat of mistakes made during Congo's past outbreaks and the lack of an approved vaccine this time around might make the response to the latest outbreak more challenging.
A total of 515 infections have been confirmed in the current outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, a type of Ebola virus, including 91 deaths and 12 recoveries.
Kombi recalled how he contracted the virus after being exposed to others who had it. He said they had little information about the disease at the time, and that while many thought it was witchcraft, others described it as a “Western conspiracy for funding reasons.”
“The community had not accepted that we could recover from this disease, that’s why reintegrating into the community at first was a bit difficult,” he said.
“When a pandemic hits here in Congo, we initially think it’s a political issue,” said Bienfait Wanzire, who also recovered after contracting Ebola during the 2018 outbreak.
“At first, we thought it was a spiritual illness,” he said. “Then because there were election campaigns, we believed it was political.”
Dr. Babah Mutuza Lusungu, a physician at “Dieu Est Grand” Medical Center in Beni, remembered losing his uncle and two colleagues even as he tried to convince people the outbreak was real.
“There was very strong resistance,” said Lusungu. “And so there was a climate of mistrust that took place between the population, the authorities, the partners too, right, and the health workers.”
Youths at the time were not directly involved in response efforts, he said, urging local authorities to work more closely with youth leaders to enlighten people about the disease.
“If we wait until they have so many declared cases to start making an effective response, we will have totally missed the target,” he said.
Esperance Masinda, who was working for the U.N. children’s agency in Beni during the 2018 outbreak, said it was particularly difficult caring for children who had lost their parents to Ebola.
She contracted the disease while looking after her husband who was working as a medical doctor. Although they both later recovered, the vaccine that helped save them distanced them from family and neighbors.
“When we were in the community, we were told that you’re not going to make it even five years, you’re going to die with that medication that you took there,” Masinda said.
“And today, when they see us, these people no longer stigmatize us,” she said. “We are all humans, even though we have been victims of Ebola, all of us are humans.”
A general view in Beni, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Kitsa Musayi Sebastien)
Bienfait Wanzire, an Ebola survivor, sits by his house in Beni, Congo, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Kitsa Musayi Sebastien)
Vianney Kambale Kombi, an Ebola survivor, poses for a photo in Beni, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Kitsa Musayi Sebastien)
Esperance Masinda, an Ebola survivor, poses for a photo at her home in Beni, Congo, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Kitsa Musayi Sebastien)
Dr. Babah Mutuza Lusungu, right, a doctor at "Dieu Est Grand" Medical Center, attends to a woman in his office in Beni, Congo, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Kitsa Musayi Sebastien)
