Did Corey Haim Pull a Brittany Murphy?

L.A. coroner confirms License to Drive star was sick before his sudden death last night; prescription pills found

By Josh Grossberg, Whitney English Mar 11, 2010 12:41 AMTags
Corey HaimDr. Billy Ingram/Getty Images

At first blush, Corey Haim's death is starting to sound a lot like Brittany Murphy's.

Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter confirms that the '80s teen heartthrob was ill before he died and that investigators have recovered prescription drugs in his name from the scene.

Haim was staying with his cancer-stricken mother, Judy, in the famed Oakwood Apartments (site of Rick James' death in 2006), when he collapsed early this morning.

"He had flu-like symptoms," says Winter. "He got out of bed at 1:30. He started to walk and went to his knees, and his mom helped him back onto the bed. He became unresponsive within about a minute or so. She called paramedics and they transported him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:15."

But Winter refuses to speculate on whether Haim had taken an excessive amount of pills à la Murphy, whose official cause of death was due to a combination of prescription drugs and pneumonia.

"LAPD put out that they thought it might be an overdose," says Winter. "It's too early to say. "We found no illicit drugs in the house. We did take four pill bottles that were prescriptions for him." Winter would not say what the prescriptions are.

An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow morning, but no results are expected for several weeks, until toxicology tests can be completed.

Haim had admitted to past struggles with drugs, but acquaintances had said he had appeared in good health of late, and Haim himself had stated he didn't have any more sobriety issues, turning down a slot on Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.

"Last year we reached out to him," says John Irwin, whose company produces the reality show, "and he was not interested in doing the show."

(Originally published March 10, 2010, at 1:20 p.m. PT)

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Want a little more? Revisit all the highs and lows in Corey Haim: The E! True Hollywood Story, tonight at 6 ET/PT. And tune into E! News tonight at 7 ET/PT for an exclusive lost interview with the Lost Boy.

Plus, there's always our Corey Haim retrospective gallery.