Lab results are in and early suspicions are confirmed: Dee Dee Ramone died of a heroin overdose.
The pioneer punk rocker, the founding bass player of the Ramones, was discovered dead in his Hollywood apartment on June 5. He was 49. (At least according to All Music Guide, which lists his date of birth as September 18, 1952; the coroner, however, has Ramone's age as 50.)
According to the recently-released final autopsy report for Douglas Colvin (the musician and his mates all adopted the band's name as their surname), the cause of death was an accidental "morphine (heroin) intoxication" from self-injection.
The report was issued last week by the Los Angeles County Coroner and obtained by the Smoking Gun Website (www.thesmokinggun.com), which has published the full document.
Ramone apparently shot himself up while his wife was away from their apartment. He collapsed face down on the couch and was unconscious when his wife returned home. Paramedics pronounced him dead minutes after arriving at the scene.
Police discovered a used syringe, a spoon with possible drug residue and balloons containing what appeared to be heroin in the apartment, leading the coroner to investigate the death as an overdose. The autopsy and toxicology tests confirmed as much, and the case was officially closed last Thursday.
The findings are hardly a surprise. Ramone had a history of heroin abuse and discussed his sobriety issues in his autobiography, Lobotomy: Surviving with the Ramones.
Dee Dee's death came just over a year after the passing of frontman Joey Ramone, who died of lymphoma in April 2001 at the age of 49, just three months after the Ramones were enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.