Brittany Murphy Death: Investigation Could Be Reopened, L.A. Coroner Says

It’s been six years since the death of Clueless actress Brittany Murphy. At the time, the 32-year-old’s death was ruled accidental. It was said to be cardiac arrest due to a combination of anemia, pneumonia and a mixture of over-the-counter cold medications. But Friday, Ed Winter, the Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner, confirmed that the case could be reopened and re-investigated as a murder.

Brittany Murphy Death

At the time of Murphy’s death there was a mass of conspiracy theories after her husband, English screenwriter Simon Monjack, died just five months after Murphy, also from “acute pneumonia and anemia.”

In 2013, Murphy’s estranged father Angelo Bertolotti tested Murphy’s hair samples at a private lab and found that Murphy had abnormally high levels of more than 10 heavy metals that are usually found in rat poison.

But Winter said that in order to open the case, more conditions need to be met.

“In all honesty,” he said, “It would take something like a confession. Something connecting somebody with it.”

Winter explained Bertolotti’s findings with the fact that Murphy dyed her hair and those who dye their hair have traces of heavy metals in their hair naturally.

The police insist that the investigation is unlikely to be reopened.