Wednesday, June 21, 2017 | 2:27 p.m.
A Moorpark man died at the venue that hosted the Electric Daisy Carnival outside Las Vegas over the weekend as a heat wave with triple-digit temperatures began to move through the area, authorities said.
The coroner's office in Clark County, Nevada, identified the man as 34-year-old Michael Adam Morse. His cause and manner of death have not been determined.
Morse's wife, Jennifer Marshall, said Tuesday that he was born and raised in Thousand Oaks and the couple was currently living in Moorpark. Marshall, 35, said this was the third year Morse attended the festival and that he was there with two of his friends. She said it was the last festival he planned on going to.
Festival organizer Insomniac Events reported that on average, 135,000 people were at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from sundown to sunrise Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The event featured more than 230 musicians performing on elaborate stages amid a carnival-like setting of rides and pyrotechnic displays.
After the festival's first night, Morse and his friends were in line for an Uber car to leave the festival about 3:35 a.m. when he began convulsing and having seizures, Marshall said. He was taken to the medical tent and died there about four hours later, she said.
"We have no clue why he was not taken to a hospital," Marshall said.
Police said Morse's death occurred outside the festival's operating hours of 7 p.m. to about 5:30 a.m. and is not being investigated as a crime.
Marshall said she was at a golf tournament on Saturday morning when she was notified of her husband's death.
"He was literally one of the nicest people you'd ever meet," Marshall said of her late husband. "He had such a zest for life."
He is survived by his parents and older brother, Marshall said.
The Moorpark man's wife said she met Morse while they were both about 18 years old and were working at Best Buy. After a few years of friendship, they started dating, she said. The couple would have celebrated their seven-year wedding anniversary in July, Marshall said.
Morse graduated from CSU Northridge and worked as an insurance broker. He started his own firm, Morse and Morse Insurance Brokers, in Thousand Oaks a few years ago.
Marshall said she's been having a difficult time trying to find answers about her husband's death. One of the questions she's trying to answer, considering the heat, is whether there were adequate free water stations for the guests.
The National Weather Service put midnight temperatures at 89 degrees Friday, 92 degrees Saturday and 97 degrees Sunday.
"It was definitely warmer this year overnight, specially last night," meteorologist Ashley Allen said Monday.
Marshall said she and her husband had been texting each other about 11:30 p.m. Friday and he had been complaining of the heat.
Compared to last year, medical calls soared during the largest music festival in North America, southern Nevada officials said. The festival also started as a heat wave moved through the area.
Most of the 1,090 people who received medical assistance over the weekend were treated at the site, but 15 ticket-holders and one employee were taken to the hospital. Last year, 617 people were treated at the venue, and 17 were hospitalized.
Police did not provide details on the reasons why people sought treatment. Insomniac Events did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the nature of the medical assistance sought by festivalgoers
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
