Prince's Son Died of Natural Causes

Medical examiner confirms child died eight months ago

By Marcus Errico Jun 16, 1997 9:00 PMTags
The sad saga of the former Prince's son has come to an end. Nearly eight months after the fact, the Minneapolis medical examiner's office has announced that the singer's child died of natural causes days after he was born in October '96.

Neither the Artist nor his wife, Mayte Garcia-Nelson, have ever publicly acknowledged their infant's death.

Minneapolis officials were tipped to the death and subsequent cover up by two former employees of Prince's Paisley Park. The twin sisters, Arlene and Erlene "Nanny" Mojica, said they cared for the infant around the clock, held the baby when he died, had him cremated seven days later and helped hide the death by falsifying names and records at the orders of the Artist.

Prince later sued the Mojicas, saying they violated a confidentiality agreement.

The medical examiner's confirmation, which was released Friday, ended a three-month investigation that, at one point, included homicide detectives. Officials determined the infant died October 23 of a skeletal abnormality known as Pfeiffer's Syndrome seven days after he was born.

The child was cremated one day later. The death certificate lists his name as Boy Gregory, his mother as "Mia Gregory" and his race as "white." No father is named on the death certificate.

The Artist denied the release of further information. In fact, the only public statements he made about his son came back in November. First, he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "Whenever we give birth to our children, the world won't know their names, their sex, anything. Our child has to make those decisions."

Then, days later, he gave Oprah Winfrey a televised tour of Paisley Park. The former Prince Rogers Nelson told Oprah his child was a boy and showed her the baby's playroom--but the baby was conspicuously absent. When Oprah asked about the boy, the veteran rocker answered cryptically: "We have a long way to go; there will be many more children..."