Watches and gems stuffed in socks, the paranoid final hours of Robin Williams
ROBIN Williams spent his last days in a paranoid frenzy, a television show will claim tonight.
The day before he hanged himself, the Oscar-winning actor stuffed his watch collection into a sock and took it to a friend for safekeeping.
The 63-year-old had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s but in his final 24 hours was convinced something else was wrong with him and frantically began looking up drugs on the internet.
A post-mortem examination showed that he had undiagnosed case of dementia – a condition that could explain his bizarre behaviour.
richard Shepherd, a pathologist, told Channel 5 show Autopsy that Williams’s online activity suggested he knew ‘there was something else wrong with him … something that he couldn’t put his finger on’.
He said the undetected disease – Lewy body dementia – could explain Williams’s insomnia, anxiety, paranoid tendencies, periods of confusion and impaired decision making.
According to the post-mortem report, Williams spent the last night of his life at his Californian home with wife Susan Schneider.
She said he stuffed a number of his expensive watches into a sock before driving to the house of a friend.
‘This is a very peculiar incident that his wife describes as typical of the increasing paranoia that he had been suffering,’ said Dr Shepherd.
Anjula Mutanda, another psychologist, told the show: ‘Somebody experiencing paranoid feelings may fear that they are in danger and under threat. Whether it is physiological, physical or financial – harm could be coming their way.’
The show reveals Williams cleaned his bathroom of blood after cutting his wrists on the day he died last August. His body was found by his assistant.
A bottle of quetiapine, a powerful drug used to treat schizo- phrenia and bipolar disorder, was found unopened in his bedroom.
He had been prescribed it a week before his suicide, suggesting his symptoms may have changed prior to his death.
Blood samples taken after his death showed he had not taken cocaine or alcohol in the last 24 hours of his life. There was also no sign of damage to his liver from previous drinking binges.
In the months before his death he had checked into rehab to ‘fine-tune and focus’ on his commitment to staying clean.
But the documentary concludes there were no signs that drink or drugs were exacerbating his depression when he died. Toxicology reports showed that his moods were being controlled by mirtazapine, which is used to treat depressive disorders.
There was also levodopa in his system, which is used to treat Parkinson’s.
Mrs Schneider Williams, his third wife, is in a battle with his three children from previous marriages – Zak, Zelda and Cody – over his £33million estate.
The actor found fame with his portrayal of a kooky alien in the 1970s sitcom Mork and Mindy.
He did stand-up while acting in such films as Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and Mrs Doubtfire.
His Oscar was awarded for best supporting actor in Good Will Hunting in 1998.
‘Undiagnosed
dementia’