Brittany Murphy likely poisoned, lab report says

11/19/2013

NEW YORK - A new laboratory report lends credence to what actress Brittany Murphy's father has long suspected: that she and her husband died not of natural causes, but of poisoning by someone out to kill them.

“It's a bona fide report,” the testing company's general manager, Denny Seilheimer, told TheWrap. “It was our client's prerogative to release the report. That's all I can tell you.”

Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, didn't accept the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office conclusion that the “Clueless" star and husband Simon Monjack died of natural causes - pneumonia and anemia - five months apart. He sued to gain access to her hair samples, and hired Seilheimer's private company, the Carlson Company, to look for signs of poisoning.

A lab hired by the company found evidence she was poisoned - probably by “a third party perpetrator with likely criminal intent,” according to the report, which was authorized by Seilheimer. The report found that Murphy's body had dramatically elevated levels of aluminum, manganese, barium and other metals.

Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said his office has not been in touch with Murphy's father and had no updates Monday.

“We have no comment on that and our report stands as of now,” he told TheWrap.

Bertolotti told TheWrap he was not immediately available to comment Monday. Murphy died in 2009, and Monjack in 2010.

LAPD spokesman Officer Cleon Joseph said it would be up to the coroner's office whether to take further action.

“Whatever the findings, if there was something to report, they would report it to us,” he said.