Rick Warren Son Autopsy: Why Did Pastor's Son Commit Suicide?

Rick Warren's son's autopsy is currently underway. Matthew Warren, 27, of California died Friday. In an open letter to the staff of his church, the Saddleback Church, he explained some of his explanations for how Matthew Warren likely died.

Rick Warren cited the fact that much of the staff had been with him and the congregation of over 20,000 the Saddleback Church welcomed for the last 33 years.

"You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate man," Rick Warren wrote, noting that Matthew was often gregarious and enjoyed interacting with church members.

However, Warren noted that Matthew suffered from mental illness of which he did not specify. He cited the "dark holes of depression and suicidal thoughts" that Matthew endured. Rick Warren then said his son died of self-inflicted gunshot wound, shortly after Rick and his wife Kay enjoyed a "fun" family evening together.

Rick Warren said he had offered Matthew numerous different types of treatment from multiple medical professionals, but that it was not enough to save the troubled young man.

There have been increasingly frequent instances of otherwise cheerful and hard-working people that have unfortunately died from their mental illness. The National Football League has been investigating the issue as well. Experts have said that the 'smashmouth' quality of football often causes unseen cranial damage after repeated hits to the head. In response, the league has enacted stricter rules regarding how a defender can tackle or block an oncoming offensive player.

In the last few years a number of football players both retired and active have suffered a death through similarly otherwise unseen and unknown situations. The recent suicide of NFL veteran Junior Seau was said to be caused by "repeated head trauma" which damaged his brain through a disease called chronic traumatic encephalophy, or CTE.

In 2006, Andre Waters, a then-retired Philadelphia Eagles safety shot himself in his Florida home allegedly without warning or a note. Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh said the 44-year-old's brain had become that of an 85-year-old, saying that the likely cause was his participation in professional football.

In 2010, an up-and-coming football star at the University of Pennsylvania was found dead in his West Philadelphia apartment. Owen Thomas, an offensive lineman for the Quakers with "no previous history of depression" was later found to have "early stages" of CTE after physicians at Boston University studied Thomas' death. Thomas was often the one of the most popular students to be around, and was known to be a kind and outgoing young man similar to Matthew Warren, who many that were around him on a daily basis said they never would have expected him to die in that way.

While Matthew Warren may not have suffered from sports related illness, his recent death shows how tough it is to diagnose someone that shows few previous signs of trouble, which can be anyone inside and outside of sports.