While Tinseltown is filled with stories of love and hope, no one can deny the existence of its darker parts. Every now and then we are struck with a piece of news that rattles the ground we stand on, including the time Clueless actress Brittany Murphy passed away. She was only thirty-two when she left this world.
As per the report issued by The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, she died from pneumonia, anemia, and prescription drug intoxication. However, while the world seems to have accepted the autopsy results, Brittany Murphy’s father tried his best to convince people that his daughter was poisoned.
Angelo Bertolotti Believed His Daughter Was Poisoned
It is not easy for a parent to accept the fact that their child has passed away, that too at such a young age. After Brittany Murphy’s death, Angelo Bertolotti fought tooth and nail to prove that his daughter was deliberately poisoned and murdered, and not what the autopsy revealed.
While a spokesperson for the coroner told ABC News that they “stand by our report,” Bertolotti was not convinced. Appearing on Good Morning America, he stated that he had a gut feeling his daughter was murdered. In his words, “I have a feeling that there was a definite murder situation here. It’s poison, yes, I know that.”
According to the lab report (obtained by ABC News), testing of Murphy’s hair strand detected “ten (10) heavy metals at levels above the WHO high levels recommendation.” Further, the report stated that if they were to “eliminate the possibility of a simultaneous accidental heavy metals exposure,” the only possible explanation would be that the toxins were “administered by a third party perpetrator with likely criminal intent.”
Years after her death, Bertolotti was still not convinced that Murphy died of pneumonia, anemia, and prescription drug intoxication. According to a press release (via The Hollywood Reporter), he stated that he was not going to rest until his daughter’s “untimely demise is properly investigated, which has not happened so far.”
As for why Bertolotti didn’t believe the autopsy report, he stated that his daughter was “neither anorexic nor a drug junkie, as they repeatedly implied.” Five months after Murphy’s death, her husband, Simon Monjack, died in a similar manner with autopsy results showing pneumonia and anemia.
Toxicologist Denies Angelo Bertolotti’s Claims
Despite what Bertolotti may have believed, a toxicologist at the University of Florida revealed his thoughts stating that Murphy was indeed not poisoned. Bruce Goldberger told ABC News that despite the report suggesting heavy metal exposure, it is practically impossible to come to such a conclusion by a mere lab test done on her hair.
According to Goldberger, there was one key indication of heavy metal poisoning missing from Murphy’s body – Mees’ lines across her fingernails. These lines help in diagnosing the deceased with heavy metal poisoning and without them, it is highly unlikely that the toxins played a role in her death.
He stated that he was satisfied with the coroner’s original findings.
The bottom line is these hair test results cannot be used to support any allegation of poisoning, and cannot be used to establish a cause and manner of death. I feel what really contributed to her death were the drugs that she had ingested… I’m satisfied with the original findings of the coroner.
In fact, Murphy’s mother also believes that her daughter was not poisoned. In an open letter published by THR, Sharon Murphy called out the estranged father for trying to smear their daughter’s name.
I have no choice now but to come forward in the face of inexcusable efforts to smear my daughter’s memory by a man who may be her biological father but was never a real father to her in her lifetime.
She added that the lab Bertolotti used for testing was an “Internet site that farmed out the actual testing” and delivered false results. In the end, she wrote that she had stood by her daughter throughout her life and will continue to do so after her death, defending her from those who want to exploit her.
Bertolotti passed away in 2019.
