Eight months after Matthew Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” authorities reportedly believe “multiple people” should be charged for his untimely death.
Perry’s death investigation is “nearing its conclusion,” a source told People magazine. The insider also said the U.S. Attorney’s Office will make the call about whether to press charges.
The “Friends” star died on Oct. 28 after an apparent drowning in a hot tub at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. He was 54.
MATTHEW PERRY DEATH TRIGGERS JOINT LAPD, DEA CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Los Angeles Police Department officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that the department is still actively working on the investigation.
“The Department has an open and ongoing investigation into Matthew Perry‘s death,” authorities said.
When Fox News Digital asked about the status of the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office responded, “no comment.”
MATTHEW PERRY’S CAUSE OF DEATH LISTED AS ‘ACUTE EFFECTS OF KETAMINE’
Last month, Los Angeles Police Capt. Scot Williams said in an email that the police department was working with the DEA and U.S. Postal Inspection Service into why Perry had so much ketamine in his system when he died in October, The Associated Press reported.
Trace amounts of ketamine were detected in the stomach contents, according to Perry’s autopsy. “The exact method of intake in Mr. Perry’s case is unknown,” the report stated.
Other conditions that contributed to his death included “coronary artery disease, buprenorphrine effects,” the report said. “Prescription medications and loose pills” were also found at his residence, according to the autopsy.
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Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug with “established medical and surgical uses,” the autopsy detailed. Perry reportedly received “ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety.”
His last known treatment was more than one week prior to death, but the medical examiner determined “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”
The “Fools Rush In” actor was already deceased when first responders arrived and found an adult male “unconscious in a stand-alone hot tub,” according to Capt. Erik Scott. “A bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then firefighters removed him from the water.”
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Scott added that, following a “rapid medical assessment,” the man was “deceased prior to first responder arrival” and that circumstances were under investigation by the LAPD and the LA County Medical Examiner. LA County Medical Examiner’s office closed their investigation in December.
The case was moved to the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division, which is not uncommon due to the high-profile nature of the agency’s cases.
Perry, who was born in Massachusetts and raised in Canada, was 24 years old when he began portraying Chandler Bing on the sitcom “Friends.”
“Friends,” one of the most-watched shows on television, first debuted on NBC in 1994 and starred Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.
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