Beloved TV anchor Chauncy Glover’s shocking cause of death at 39 revealed in autopsy report

The popular Los Angeles news anchor Chauncy Glover’s cause of death has been revealed three months after his unexpected death at 39.

On Wednesday, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner announced in a statement that Glover had died due to the effects of acute drug intoxication.

A deputy medical examiner determined that the newsman — who appeared on the CBS affiliate KCAL-TV in Los Angeles — had been using a combination of methamphetamine and chloroethane, a potent gas sometimes used in household products and as a gasoline additive.

It is also used in the manufacturing of certain medicines, and as a numbing agent used for sports injuries and applied before skin piercings and biopsy procedures, according to the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The substance has a second life as an inhaled recreational drug, though it’s a separate substance from the gases used in compressed air duster cans, which are also abused for recreational purposes.

Use over time of chloroethane can lead to brain damage, and larger concentrations of the gas can be deadly. 

Chauncy Glover, an anchor for LA’s KCAL-TV, died in November of acute drug intoxication, according to an announcement from the LA County Department of Medical Examiner on Wednesday; seen in June 2024 in Santa Monica

At low concentrations, inhaling the gas can lead to a high similar to being drunk, but only a small increase in concentration can slow the heart rate and respiration and lead users to pass out, or even die.

The medical examiner ruled Glover’s death an accident, though the announcement notes that the full report won’t be released until late March. 

The preliminary announcement doesn’t specify how the drugs contributed to Glover’s death, though the final report may include that information. It also doesn’t shed any light on how he obtained the drugs. 

Glover was found unresponsive in his LA home on the night of November 5 — election day — and he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight of the following day.

He was still a relatively new face in the Los Angeles media ecosystem, as he had only begun appearing on KCAL-TV in September of 2023 after becoming a rising star at ABC13 in Houston, Texas.

He had previously co-anchored the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. news broadcasts in LA before moving to the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. broadcasts shortly before his death, according to TMZ.

Glover seemed to be on the path toward greater success in television news, and he had already been awarded three local Emmys. 

One of those was for an astounding report filmed as Hurricane Harvey swept through Houston in 2017. 

Glover, who was pronounced dead on November 6 at age 39, was determined to have died from using methamphetamine and chloroethane, a gas repurposed as a recreational drug.

Glover moved to LA in late 2023 from ABC13 in Houston. He won three local Emmys and founded the Chauncy Glover Project mentoring program; his father Robert Glover (center) and Chauncy Glover Project Executive Director Christina Porter (third from right) accepted the 2025 Excellence in Mentoring Award for Public Elevation on his behalf on January 30 in Washington, DC

Glover proved he wasn’t just a newsman but a hero as well when he came upon a woman who had been trapped by flood waters who had gone into labor. 

He helped get her to safety and into an ambulance to a hospital where her baby was born.

During his lifetime, Glover also founded the Chauncy Glover Project, a program to help Black and Latino teenage boys living in inner-city neighborhoods succeed through group and individual mentoring and academic support, while also guiding them toward opportunities for community service. 

Following his death, Glover’s former stations put on tributes to their fallen colleague.

Last month, the late anchor was posthumously honored with the 2025 Excellence in Mentoring Award for Public Elevation at the 2025 National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC.

His father, Robert Glover, and the Chauncy Glover Project Executive Director, Christina Porter, accepted the award on his behalf.