ONE YEAR AFTER HIS DEATH, MUCH ABOUT PRINCE, ESTATE STILL IN LIMBO
Many questions continue to fester after his overdose
One year to the day of his demise, the late superstar Prince Rogers Nelson remains as enigmatic in death as he often was in life.
This has compounded the shock and sorrow of his departure for his fans, still wondering why he died of an opioid overdose and why his multimillion- dollar estate is still such amess.
“Contradictions and seeming inconsistencies are part and parcel of ( Prince’s) whole story — nothing is simple or self- evident,” says Alex Hahn, a Boston lawyer, Prince fan and co- author of The Rise of Prince: 1958- 1988. “With someone like Elvis Presley or Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse, there is an unambiguous picture of physical or psychological deterioration as part of substance abuse. Prince died of an overdose, but he doesn’t have these other ( signs) in common with them.”
“There’s a lot of mystery, a lot of information behind the curtain,” says Frank Wheaton, a lawyer who, up until last month, represented one of Prince’s siblings and presumed heirs, one of an army of lawyers involved in the case.
Meanwhile, fans who want to commune with the spirit of Prince can tour Paisley Park, his home/ studio complex in suburban Minneapolis, which has been turned into a museum. Prince’s ashes are in a custom- designed glass and-ceramic Paisley Park- shaped urn on display in the atrium. Paisley Park planned four days of events and performances, starting Thursday to mark the one- year anniversary.
At least five recent books have been published examining Prince’s life and legacy, including a memoir by his first wife, Mayte Garcia. But there are many questions left unanswered:
He died April 21, WHAT KILLED HIM? 2016, in an elevator in Paisley Park in Carver County, Minn. The one- page autopsy report later released said he died of an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl.
Famously clean- living Prince died of a painkiller OD at age 57? Unthinkable. Numerous friends, associates, relatives and former wives and girlfriends insisted they never saw him take drugs.
Was there some medical condition that contributed to his death? We may never know because under Minnesota law, the full autopsy report can be kept secret for up to 30 years unless the next of kin agree to release it. So far, that has not happened.
WHY WAS HE TAKING FENTANYL AND FOR
Where did he get it? Was it HOWLONG? prescribed by a doctor or acquired by illicit means? Did he know some of the pills containing fentanyl were falsely labeled as something else? What was the relationship between his death and the episode of six days earlier when he suffered a medical emergency on a plane? ( It landed, he was rushed to a hospital and received overdose- style treatment.)
“There is some indication that his addiction went fairly far back, to the mid- 1980s and into the late 1990s, but the evidence is ambiguous,” Hahn says. “It’s an incredibly murky picture. He was a very controlled and focused figure, he kept his cards close to the vest, so that’s why we don’t know.” HOW MUCH IS PRINCE’S ESTATE WORTH? One year later, we still don’t know if it’s $ 300 million, nowhere near that or way more. This despite the efforts of two estate administrators, three entertainment industry consultants, dozens of lawyers and hundreds and hundreds of documents filed in the probate court of Carver County Judge Kevin Eide.
In a summary filed with the court in January, the estate had $ 25 million in real estate, about $ 110,000 in bank accounts and 67 gold bars worth more than $ 800,000. But the valuation of entire Prince’s musical catalog is still pending.
Almost certainly it WHO ARE HIS HEIRS? will be his six siblings, led by full sister Tyka Nelson and five half- siblings. Numerous other claimants have come forward, but so far none has been able to establish a DNA or familial link to Prince acceptable under Minnesota parentage law. Judge Eide has indicated he intends to officially certify the heirs at a hearing in May but is awaiting the outcome of appeals to a higher court by some claimants.