Autopsy reveals Anna Nicole Smith died of accidental drug overdose
By Macollvie Jean-Francois of sun-sentinel.com
& the Associated Press
Posted March 26 2007
DANIA BEACH -- Anna Nicole Smith was on nine prescription medications that killed her in an accidental drug overdose, authorities said Monday, six weeks after the 39-year old former Playboy Playmate died in a hotel room.
"The cause of death was combined drug intoxication," said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper. "It looks like of she died of natural causes."
Perper and the police chief of the Seminole Indian tribe ruled out suicide, disease and foul play as causes of death.
Perper said tests showed chloral hydrate was a major factor in the death. Smith was taking a lengthy list of other medications including methadone for pain, he said.
Chloral hydrate is a sedative used to treat insomnia and alcohol withdrawal, relieve anxiety and ease post-surgery pain. Perper said Smith had been on several antidepressant and antianxiety drugs prior to her death. He cited the recent death of her son Daniel as cause for depression and a number of legal issues for adding on even more stress to her life.
In the days prior to her death, Smith had taken several antidepressants and antianxiety drugs medications, including methadone, human-growth hormones for longevity, weight loss and immunoglobulin drugs, Perper said. Her friends and psychiatrist said Smith had suffered from a 105-degree fever two days before her death. He said Smith was on anti-flu medication for a fever caused by a bacterial infection from the drugs she was taking.
Perper also listed as ``contributory causes'' of Smith's death abscesses on her buttocks caused by the injections and an intestinal inflammation.
Minutes earlier, the police chief of the Seminole Indian tribe, Charlie Tiger, announced that Smith died Feb. 8 of an accidental drug overdose, adding: ``We found nothing to indicate any foul play.''
In the six weeks since Smith's died at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tiger said investigators found no illegal drugs were involved in the death. He also said nothing unusual was found on videotape taken at the hotel on the day the former model and Playboy Playmate collapsed and died. And, Tiger said, nothing unusual was found on a computer owned by Smith's lawyer-companion Howard K. Stern.
The Medical Examiner's Office had delayed releasing Smith's autopsy results because of additional evidence, still not publicly released, about what had left the model unresponsive at the hotel near Hollywood.
Perper's initial examination revealed no serious injuries and no evidence, either in Smith's stomach or her bloodstream, that she had taken large amounts of prescription medication. Perper said prescription drugs, but no illegal drugs, were found in Smith's hotel room. He wouldn't identify them.
The initial examination also found signs of inflammation in Smith's heart. Perper said it was ``something which looks a little bit unusual'' but ``may be nothing.''
Smith had arrived at the Hard Rock on Feb. 5 and planned to leave four days later aboard a new yacht that her companion Stern was arranging to buy. She was seldom seen outside her room during her stay: She was said to be suffering from a stomach flu before she died.
Because her death was so sudden, and because her 20-year-old son Daniel died under suspicious circumstances five months earlier, there has been speculation about possible criminal activity surrounding the deaths.
Perper said he knew of no criminal investigation into Smith's death. The Seminole Police Department is investigating because the casino is on tribal land.
An inquest into Daniel's death is scheduled to start Tuesday in the Bahamas, where he died.
Smith, 39, grew up in Texas and went from topless dancer to Playboy Playmate of the Year, Guess jeans model and bride of 89-year-old oilman J. Howard Marshall II. She took her fight for Marshall's estimated $500 million fortune as far as the Supreme Court, and the ongoing battle could make her infant daughter, Dannielynn, very wealthy. Stern and two other men have claimed to be the baby's father.
