Coroner Launches Probe Over Brittany Murphy Leak

Officials incensed over unauthorized released of documents related to actress' death

By Josh Grossberg, Whitney English Dec 22, 2009 9:35 PMTags
Brittany MurphyBrian To/Getty Images

Officials wanted to keep information on Brittany Murphy's death on lockdown until the official report could be released in the coming weeks.

Apparently not everyone got the memo.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office has launched an internal investigation after a detailed report was leaked to TMZ.

The site reported late Monday that it had obtained notes written by an investigator Blalock laying out a timeline of Sunday morning, leading up to the 32-year-old actress's cardiac arrest.

The dispatch didn't go over too well with the agency's chief investigator, Ed Winter, who told E! News that no one authorized the disclosure of such information—which not only detailed the frantic efforts of her mother, husband and and paramedics to resuscitate Murphy, but also detailed exactly what kind of prescription drugs were found on the scene.

"The investigator did not release anything to TMZ, nor did he talk to anybody," said Winter. "Where did all this information come from? Neither Chief [Coroner Craig] Harvey nor I released the information. I don't even know if we provided LAPD with a copy of anything yet."

Winter added that he had not seen the notes TMZ had and was not able to verify their authenticity.

"Supposedly TMZ reviewed some documents, and of course they won't show them to me or tell me where they got them," he said.

Nor would Winter comment on whether the prescription medications listed in the documents matched what his team found.

"I hadn't even seen the list of the possible drugs," he said. "I didn't have any notes and I have not checked the evidence log, it's in the labs. I don't even know."

While the coroner's office fully intends to find the leaker, no word yet on any leads or whether Blalock himself is considered a suspect.

(Originally published Dec. 22, 2009, at 11:17 a.m. PT)

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Take a look back at the life and career of the 8 Mile star in our Remembering Brittany Murphy photo gallery.