TRAGIC END Christopher Robert, MD, was chief of anesthesia at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

By all accounts, Christopher Robert, MD, was an accomplished and highly respected anesthesiologist, loving husband, doting father and dedicated friend. So how did he end up dead along a highway just outside of Minneapolis, Minn., hours after a recent work-related holiday party?

The circumstances surrounding the death of the 50-year-old chief of anesthesia at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) remain a mystery. Investigators are trying to piece together what happened between the time he left the party and the early morning hours of Dec. 5, when the Minnesota State Patrol responded to reports of a body along the side of Interstate 94 near downtown Minneapolis. The State Patrol says the death occurred on city streets, but provided no additional information.

Dr. Robert's wife, Kerry Ace, MD, an emergency room physician at Children's Hospital Minnesota in Minneapolis, says her husband had planned to walk about a half-mile from the party to their second home, a condo in downtown Minneapolis.

Lt. Tiffani Schweigart, the public information officer for the Minnesota State Patrol, tweeted at the time of the incident that the death was "unwitnessed" and did not appear to be the result of a hit and run.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Police Department says investigators are continuing to work with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office to determine what transpired before Dr. Robert's death. The cause and manner of death remain undetermined, says the medical examiner.

"This is not the way he would want to be remembered," says Dr. Ace.

Dr. Robert joined HCMC in 2003 and was appointed chief of anesthesiology in 2011. The facility says in a statement that his colleagues are profoundly saddened by the tragic event.

Daniel Cook