The FBI Are Investigating The Suspected Fatal Overdose Of “Storm Chasers” Star Joel Taylor On A Cruise 

Joel Taylor was like the gay version of Bill Paxton and Helen Hunter’s characters in Twister. He was a professional storm chaser from Oklahoma, and was on the Discovery show Storm Chasers. On January 20, he got on the Royal Caribbean ship, Harmony of the Seas, in Fort Lauderdale, FL for an all-gay cruise by Atlantis Events. Three days later on January 23, Joel was found dead in his cabin. He was only 38. Police sources tell TMZ that people on the ship saw him doing GHB (which some call the “date rape drug,” but is also a party drug) at a club on the ship Monday night and early Tuesday morning. TMZ says the FBI is now on the case.

Sources say that before Harmony of the Seas even left Ft. Lauderdale, several people were put into handcuffs for trying to smuggle illegal drugs onto the ship. But even though Officer Woofy McDrugSniffer was able to catch a few drug smugglers, many drugs still made it onboard. The ship apparently looked like the inside of Charlie Sheen’s veins circa 2011. Just drugs everywhere, which is as surprising as getting a case of violent diarrhea after eating ground beef lasagna from a cruise ship buffet. Anytime a group of strangers get together to party in one place for an extended period of time, there’s a good chance it’s going to rain drugs (see: Coachella, or any music festival, really).

Witnesses claim that Joel was partying with friends in a club on the ship on Monday night, and did GHB on the dance floor. Joel reportedly took enough GHB that he fell into unconsciousness at the club. Two people then carried him to his cabin and just let him there. He was found dead on Tuesday, and his body was taken off of the ship when it docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico that same day. The coroner is currently doing an autopsy.

The ship continued on and Olivia Newton-John performed on Tuesday night. (That really doesn’t have anything to do with this news, but the gay blogger code I took states that if Olivia Newton-John is mentioned in a story, I must mention it in my post.)

A rep for Joel Taylor’s family confirmed the sad news to The Blast:

“We can confirm that Joel Taylor has passed away while on a cruise.  The cause of the death has not yet been determined.  We ask for your understanding during this difficult time and your respect for the family while they deal with the loss of their son.”

The FBI is reportedly looking into how drugs got on the ship and who were the suppliers. A rep for Royal Caribbean says that they don’t allow any kind of illegal drugs on their ships. TMZ is throwing a, “Hmm, is that so, bitch?“, at that since they were told that people were doing drugs out in the open on the ship and an unconscious Joel was carried from the club to his cabin without a crew member saying anything.

It hasn’t been confirmed that Joel was doing GHB and no other details are known (like if the people who took him to his cabin were high too), but with that being said, don’t most of us know that the one thing you don’t want to do after a friend loses consciousness from doing drugs is to leave them in a room by themselves?! I’m pretty sure that “unconsciousness due to doing the bad shit” is not on the list of things you can just sleep off.

Pic: Facebook