Coroner officials in Oklahoma today ruled the troubled ex-Diff'rent Strokes star committed suicide--intentionally overdosing on a toxic batch of painkillers.
Plato died May 8 in Moore, Oklahoma, as she slept in a mobile home parked outside the home of her fiancé's parents. She was 34. Police first said the actress' death appeared to be an accident.
But Dr. Larry E. Balding, Oklahoma's deputy medical examiner, said the number of pills found in her system, combined with what he termed a past history of suicidal tendencies, led his office to conclude Dana Plato meant to die.
The former child star left behind no note. Some have said Plato was shaken the day before her death by an appearance on Howard Stern's radio show. During the interview, Plato alternately wept, volunteered to take a drug test, un-volunteered to take a drug test and declared herself "never...happier."
Lab work showed Plato's system swimming with the painkillers carisoprodol (a muscle relaxant) and hydrocodone/acetaminophen. The equivalent of seven carisoprodol tablets were found. Initial reports fingered the prescription drugs Valium and Lortab (a brand name of hydrocodone/acetaminophen).
In 1992, Plato was busted for forging a Valium prescription. Other bumps in her well-chronicled post-TV life included a 1991 arrest for a video-store hold-up and a 1989 Playboy spread.
On Stern's show, Plato said she'd been sober for 10 years.
Plato played dutiful daughter Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes from 1978-84.