RX MYSTERY
Prince probe focuses on OD, doc and drugs
THE DEATH of Prince may be ruled an overdose as investigators try to determine whether a doctor prescribed the drugs found in the pop icon’s home, according to a new report.
Officials are also investigating whether a doctor was with Prince on a plane that made an emergency landing in Illinois days before his April 21 death, a law enforcement official told The Associatedted Press Thursday.
Prince’s plane — taking him im home from what turned out to be his last concert in Atlanta — made ade an emergency stop in Moline, Ill., on April 15 and he was found unconscious, the official said.
The source said first responders gave Prince a shot of Narcan, an, which is used in suspected opioid oid overdoses, while the plane was still on the runway in Moline.ne. TMZ.com first reported the incident.
Sources close to Prince have denied any knowledge of an ongoing drug abuse problem.
The legendary singer, who suffered from chronic hip and ankle pain from his years of strutting onstage, had also entered an out-patient treatment program, said St. Paul’s ABC affiliate KTSP 5.
The 57-year-old was seeing an outpatient doctor for relief from his severe pain — but he also wanted to move away from taking meds, KTSP 5 reported, citing sources. Investigators are looking into what kind of drugs were on the plane and at Prince’s Paisley Park estate, where he was found slumped in an elevator. An autopsy was conducted April 22, but results aren’t expected to be released for weeks. The search warrant for Prince’s home and studio — carried out the day of his death — was filed under seal at the request of investigators who said it would hamper their investigation if the contents were public. The filing, signed by Carver County Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud, also warned that disclosing details in the warrant could cause “the search or related searches to be unsuccessful” and risk injury to innocent people.
The contents will be made public in 180 days if no criminal proceedings have begun before then, Kamerud said.
But the Carver County Sheriff’s Department did release five years of 911 call records from Paisley Park.
First responders went to Prince’s sprawling palace roughly 40 times since 2011 — mostly for mentally ill fans, not medical emergencies.
A woman named Anita Rae, 58, twice found her way into Paisley Park, prompting 911 calls for trespassing. The woman was camping in one of Prince’s empty tour buses the first time they picked her up in February2014.
A year later, she was found inside the entry gates, banging a small drum and asking for Prince.
This January, cops responded to a 911 call for an intruder and found Kimberly Potts, 52, at a side door. She insisted Prince had called her for a job.