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Autopsy fails to find how actor Heath Ledger died
| quote: | NEW YORK (CNN) -- An autopsy Wednesday morning on actor Heath Ledger was inconclusive, and a cause-of-death determination will take 10 to 14 days, a medical examiner's spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, tests on a $20 bill found at the Lower Manhattan apartment where Ledger died yielded no drug residue, a New York police spokeswoman told CNN.
The bill was collected for testing because of the way it was folded, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said earlier.
The Academy Award-nominated actor was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose, the New York Police Department said. He was 28.
New details are emerging about the moments before and after his death.
The masseuse who discovered Ledger's body called his friend -- actress Mary-Kate Olsen -- twice before calling 911, a police source with knowledge of the investigation said.
A housekeeper, identified by the source as Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, the police source said.
She went into Ledger's bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjoining bathroom about 1 p.m., saw him on the bed face down with a sheet pulled up around his shoulders and heard him snoring, the source said.
Masseuse Diana Wolozin arrived at the apartment about 2:45 p.m. to give Ledger a massage, according to the police source. About 15 minutes later, when he had not come out of the bedroom and the door remained closed, she went in, saw him lying in bed, and set up a massage table nearby.
She shook Ledger, but he did not respond, so she used his cell phone to call Olsen in California, knowing Olsen was a friend of Ledger's, the source said.
Wolozin told Olsen that Ledger was unconscious, according to the NYPD source. VideoWatch what's next for the Ledger medical examiners »
Olsen told her she would call private security people in New York. After getting off the phone, Wolozin tried to wake Ledger again, then called Olsen back to tell her she believed the situation was an emergency and was calling 911.
In the 911 call, at 3:26 p.m., Wolozin told authorities Ledger was not breathing. While on the phone with dispatchers, Wolozin tried to perform CPR on Ledger, but he was unresponsive.
Emergency personnel arrived seven minutes later, according to the police source, at about the same time as a private security person summoned by Olsen.
The medical technicians performed CPR on Ledger and used a cardiac defibrillator, but their efforts were in vain and he was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. By then, two other private security people summoned by Olsen had arrived, as well as police.
Ledger's former girlfriend, actress Michelle Williams, who was shooting a movie in Sweden, was informed of his death late Tuesday night, a movie production company spokesman said.
Williams left early Wednesday morning with 2-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, the spokesman said. Ledger was the child's father.
Some prescription medications were found in the room where Ledger -- Oscar-nominated for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" -- died, said police spokesman Paul Browne.
He said the pills were not "scattered around," as had been reported.
No note was found, and there was no indication of foul play, Browne said.
In light of Ledger's death, President Bush on Wednesday postponed an event surrounding the launch of a public-service ad campaign warning against the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
"We thought it would be better to postpone the event rather than run the risk of anyone thinking that we were being opportunistic in highlighting the issue," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Ledger's family on Wednesday called his death "very tragic, untimely and accidental." |
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ...dead/index.html
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