AEW wrestler Pac was found dead in a rental car outside an Illinois restaurant with medication inside and saliva on his shirt, police reported, while the cause of death remains pending.
Benjamin Satterley, the 40-year-old All Elite Wrestling star known as Pac, was discovered deceased around 4 p.m. on Sept. 27 in a rental car outside a CAVA restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, according to a Des Plaines Police incident report obtained by the New York Post.
The report noted saliva on the front of his shirt and medication in the vehicle. The type of medication was redacted in the documents. Officers wrote that a search of his pockets and backpack turned up nothing notable.
There were not “any obviously suspicious marks upon Satterley nor circumstances within the vehicle,” the incident report stated.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office has said the cause of death is pending additional testing after an initial autopsy. Des Plaines police have said the death is not considered suspicious.
An officer at the scene recorded a detail that fixed Satterley’s final plans in plain view.
The officer wrote in the report:
“I noticed that Google Maps was still open on his cellphone and it was routing him to O’Hare Airport,”
His phone had been buzzing. When it was answered, a woman who knew him filled in the hours before he was found.
She told the officer she last spoke to him around 1320 hours and that he said he was heading to CAVA for lunch. She added that he had been traveling for his work as a professional wrestler for the past three weeks across the United States and had been in the Chicago area since Thursday, Sept. 24, or Friday, Sept. 25. His flight back to the United Kingdom had been delayed. He was scheduled out at approximately 1530 hours.
The report captured her account this way:
“she last spoke to Benjamin on the phone around 1320 hours and he related he was going to CAVA for lunch,”
And:
“He had been traveling for his occupation as a professional wrestler for the past three weeks around the United States and had been in the Chicago-area since Thursday (09/24/2026) or Friday (09/25/2026). She related his flight had been delayed and Benjamin was scheduled on his flight back to the UK at approximately 1530 hours.”
He never made that flight. Authorities found him in the parking lot roughly half an hour after the scheduled departure time.
Satterley had wrestled the night before against Andrade at an AEW event at the NOW Arena in Chicago. He was still on the road after weeks of travel when he stopped for lunch in Des Plaines.
Fox News reported that he was found dead in Illinois shortly after competing at All Out, and that police stated no foul play was indicated. Customers had called 911 after he was found passed out in the vehicle. He was pronounced dead on arrival.
An earlier New York Post account put the pronouncement of death at 4:08 p.m. that Sunday and quoted a Des Plaines Police Department representative saying there were “no indications of foul play and the circumstances surrounding the death are not considered suspicious.”
AEW released a statement mourning Satterley. Company head Tony Khan called him a beloved husband and friend and said he defined excellence. The tributes matched the sudden shock that hit the wrestling world after a card the night before.
Sudden deaths of athletes keep landing with the same unfinished questions, much like the loss detailed when AEW wrestler Pac dies at 40 a day after All Out bout first drew national notice.
Satterley, also known earlier in his career as Adrian Neville during a WWE run, had built a reputation as a high-level performer on both sides of the Atlantic before his AEW chapter. At 40, he was still active on the road.
The medical examiner’s office completed an initial autopsy. A spokesperson later told reporters the cause remains pending “additional testing.” No final determination has been released publicly in the reporting so far.
Police documented what they could see at the car: the open maps route to O’Hare, the saliva on the shirt, the redacted medication, the empty pockets and backpack of note, and the absence of obvious trauma or suspicious conditions inside the vehicle. They did not claim a cause. They left that to the medical examiner.
That gap is familiar in other sudden athletic losses, including cases such as a Massachusetts high school football star who died after a sudden brain hemorrhage, where families and fans wait on lab work before anyone can speak with certainty.
As of the latest police and medical examiner statements, no arrests have been described, no foul play has been alleged, and no toxicology or final cause has been made public. The incident report and the pending tests are what the public has.
When a working wrestler dies hours after a match and minutes from a flight home, the public is owed a clear cause, not redactions and open-ended testing with no end date attached.
