To this day, it is believed that Kile died of natural causes. He was playing for the St.Louis Cardinals at the time of his death. On a road trip to Wrigley Field, Kile was absent two hours before the game was supposed to begin. Kile was found dead in his hotel room.
The cause of death was determined to be a atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) leading to a heart attack. Many suspected that Kile died of drug abuse but toxicology reports proved otherwise. His body was negative of alcohol, steroids, cocaine and ephedrine; the only positive test was marijuana, which was predicted he smoked weeks before his death.