The police investigation into the death of actor Matthew Perry has been officially closed.
The Friends star was found dead in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28. His death was ruled as ‘accidental’ and the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to People magazine that it has now shut its case.
Perry’s case with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner is now also listed as closed, online records show.
His cause of death was listed as the acute effects of ketamine. Contributing factors were given as drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, a prescription drug often used to treat those with opioid addiction.
Coroners revealed the actor had similar quantities of ketamine in his system as a hospital patient under general anesthetic when he was found.
Perry’s blood ketamine levels were at 3,540 ng/ml in peripheral blood, and 3,271 ng/ml in central blood.
‘At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,’ the medical examiner, Raffi Djabourian, concluded.
In the week before his death, Perry shared an Instagram post showing him relaxing in the hot tub at his home where he would later be found. He was last seen in public on October 22.
His death came just a year after he penned a tell-all memoir detailing his struggles with addiction.
Perry wrote that he spent $9 million trying to get sober, going to 6,000 AA meetings, 15 times to rehab, and was in detox 65 times.
At his lowest, he was popping 55 Vicodin a day to fuel his addiction.
He said he overcame addiction in 2021 and was leading a healthier lifestyle with the help of ‘sober companion’ Morgan Moses, referred to in the memoir by the pseudonym ‘Erin’.
He was laid to rest in an intimate ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills attended by his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, and David Schwimmer.
For a patient under general anesthetic, in a hospital, a blood ketamine level of 1,000 – 6,000 ng/ml would be normal, the medical examiner explained.
‘Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine-induced myocardial effects on the heart.
‘Buphrenorphine effects are listed as contributory, even though not at toxic levels, due to the additive respiratory effects when present with high levels of ketamine.’
He had no alcohol, cocaine, heroin, meth or fentanyl in his system.
Perry, 54, was found face-down in the hot tub by his assistant.
He had been receiving ketamine infusion therapy as a treatment for depression, the medical examiner reported – but the last session was a week and a half before he died, and the ketamine is only in your system for three to four hours, which means it did not lead directly to his death.
