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Seven Years On, Brittany Murphy’s Death Remains A Mystery

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 15:51 PST, Jan 27, 2017

It’s been seven years since the tragedy occurred, but Brittany Murphy’s death will most likely always remain a mystery in Hollywood. The 32-year-old actress, who worked in movies like Happy Feet, Sin City, and Riding in Car with Boys, died of pneumonia and anemia under mysterious circumstances in 2009.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Brittany Murphy also worked as a voice artist for 10 years, lending her voice to the character of Luanne Platter in King of the Hill, Fox’s animated television show.

The doctor who performed the young actress’s autopsy ruled out a drug overdose as the cause of her death, and reported that traces of over-the-counter medicines were found in Murphy’s body. The autopsy report seems to be conclusive until Simon Monjack, Brittany Murphy’s widower, also died due to pneumonia and anemia.

At that time, government officials speculated that the deaths of both the actress and her husband could have been a result of a toxic mold that might have grown in their marital house.

The reports were rejected by Murphy’s mother, who argued that traces of toxic mold were never found in her daughter’s home. Even though the environmental review of Brittany Murphy’s house was conducted by the authorities, the results were never known to the public. Later, Angelo Bertolotti, Brittany’s father, appealed to the government to conduct further tests to ascertain the circumstances under which his daughter had died. Brittany Murphy’s father claimed that the toxicology report had attributed his daughter’s death to antimony and barium poisoning, yet E! reported that the actress’ mother discounted the claims, adamant that there was no substantial evidence to prove that there was anything untoward about Brittany Murphy’s death.

“His claims are based on the most flimsy of evidence and are more of an insult than an insight into what really happened.”

However, the case was later dismissed after Brittany Murphy’s father failed to attend the hearing.

With no conclusive way of knowing what really happened to Brittany Murphy and her husband, Jaimie Pressly, a close friend of the late actress contacted a clairvoyant named Tyler Henry for a psychic session. During the session, Henry claimed that a spirit had revealed that Brittany Murphy had been in troubled times and was being manipulated by someone close to her.

The psychic’s revelations rekindled speculations that Simon Monjack might have harmed his wife in some way: yet this possibility provides no explanation as to how Monjack himself passed away under such similar circumstances. Admittedly, Brittany Murphy’s husband was thought of as a rather notorious figure in show business, and had a history of arrests and evictions.

Indeed, Director George Hickenlooper had admitted to thinking of Monjack as a fraud, and according to Mid-Day, Brittany Murphy had nominated her mother to inherit her estate after her death, rather than her husband.

Now, even more recently, author Bryn Curt James claims in his new book A Case For Murder: Brittany Murphy Files that the popular actress was living in “squalor” just prior to her death, according to Hollywood Gossip.

Despite describing details like Brittany Murphy’s bed being “surrounded by a mountain of clothes, make-up, perfumes, an oxygen machine and medical supplies,” and her bedsheets being “twisted and drenched in sweat,” there is little else to suggest that – as the title implies – the actress was murdered. However, it is well recognized that Murphy was in poor health just prior to her death, with a film producer claiming that he had never seen the young actress eat, and she seemed to exist on little more than coffee.

Despite the ongoing mystery surrounding her death, there is very little chance that Brittany Murphy’s case will be reopened because the coroner has reported that Brittany’s death was “accidental.” In the end, the unfortunate death of the Riding in Cars with Boys actress was a grave tragedy and a loss of an enormous talent.

[Featured Image by Michael Buckner/Getty Images]

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