The Mount Vernon man who was found dead last month on a trail at Round Top Mountain in Rome died of cardiac arrest, the state Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday.

Brian Peters, 57, died after a sudden cardiac arrest, said Mark Belserene, spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s Office. The Maine Warden Service initially said the cause of death was possibly cold weather exposure, but later said it might have been a medical event.

Trail signage marks the beginning of the Round Top Mountain trail in Rome on March 17, the day after game wardens found the body of Brian Peters on the mountain trail. Officials initially thought he had died of cold weather exposure, but the medical examiner says he died from cardiac arrest. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Peters died immediately March 16 because of a complication of underlying heart diseases while snowshoeing the mountain trail, Belserene said.

He had been snowshoeing since 1 p.m. that day on a trail on Round Top Mountain. The Rome Fire Department found his body just after 9 p.m.

“Mr. Peters was well prepared and by all indications did everything correctly,” said Warden Service spokesman John MacDonald previously in an email.

Peters enjoyed what he was doing, MacDonald said Monday. He thinks Peters texted his wife at one point while hiking, and had “good communication with his family” about his trip.

The trailhead for Round Top Mountain is off Watson Pond Road. The trail ascends the 1,133-foot-high mountain and is considered moderately difficult because of its distance and slope.

The trail, about four miles round-trip and marked with blue blazes, is maintained by the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance, which conserved the land in the Kennebec Highlands through its land trust.

Related Stories