Created: Monday, June 29, 2009 10:31 a.m. CST
Updated: Monday, June 29, 2009 11:41 a.m. CST
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Medical examiner: Pitchman Mays had heart disease

By MITCH STACY (The Associated Press)
In this Dec. 6, 2002 file photo,TV pitchman Billy Mays poses with some of his cleaning products at his Palm Harbor, Fla., home. Tampa police say Mays, the television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, has died. He was 50. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida medical examiner says television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack but further tests are needed.

Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said Monday the boisterous, bearded 50-year-old known for hawking Oxiclean suffered from hypertensive heart disease. He was found dead Sunday in his Tampa home. A day earlier he bumped his head during a rough landing on a commercial airliner, but Adams says there there was no evidence of head trauma.

He says Mays was taking the prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain. But Adams says there was no indication of drug abuse, and pill counts showed Mays had been taking the correct amount of the drugs.

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