Hickory police have identified the body found at the Walmart Supercenter on Saturday as that of Justin Scott Partridge, a 38-year-old from Newland.
Police said they responded to the store off U.S. Highway 70 shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. They discovered Partridge in his vehicle in the parking lot, according to a statement the department released Monday.
Partridge is believed to have died of an overdose, the statement said. The investigation into the death is ongoing.
US life expectancy fell from 77 years in 2020 to 76.4 years in 2022, according to the CDC, a 25-year low. It is also the second year in a row that life expectancy in the US has decreased. Heart attacks, cancer and COVID-19 were the top three causes of death in the US, according to the US. The death rate increased by 5.3% from 835.4 per 100k people to 879.7 deaths per 100k in 2021. Death certificate data shows 416,893 Americans had COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause of death. This was an increase from 350,831 in 2020. The drug overdose death rate was 32.4 overdose deaths per 100,000 in 2021, it was 28.3 in 2020.
