Original subtitles

FITZHARRIS: December 2009.

A famous young star ends up dying on a bathroom floor.

At first, Brittany Murphy's death

was just another LA tragedy.

But when her husband died in the same Hollywood mansion

five months later,

Brittany's final curtain call is rewritten.

MONETTI: That was one of the most surprising things

in Hollywood history.

FITZHARRIS: It's now a mystery

even Tinseltown couldn't have dreamed up.

MERKIN: There was something destructive going on.

FITZHARRIS: Rumors of toxic mold, drug overdose,

even deliberate poisoning.

BERTOLOTTI: She was murdered.

FITZHARRIS: So what or who

killed Brittany Murphy?

(dramatic music)

I'm Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris.

I'm a medical historian and best-selling author,

with a PhD in the History of Science and Medicine

from Oxford University.

I've written about the pioneering days of surgery,

about syphilis, plagues, and pandemics,

and even books made of human skin.

Some might say I'm obsessed with the macabre and with death.

But I think the way people die

tells us a whole lot about how they lived.

I'm going to explore some of history's

most famous lives by looking at them

through their extremely curious deaths.

This is my investigation room.

And here is my science lab where Dr. Raychelle Burks

will be doing tests and experiments for me.

And here is where my crime-solving partner

former Scotland Yard detective, Brian Hook,

helps me piece together my investigations.

Call it biography with a twist.

A biography from the morgue.

(tense music)

Hollywood, Los Angeles.

A place where people come in search of fame, fortune,

and Facebook likes.

A place where dreams are made.

And, as often, unmade.

Because the price of fame is steep

and there are pitfalls under those palm trees.

One star had it all.

To her fans, Brittany Murphy appeared

to be a flawless Hollywood princess.

But behind the red carpet smiles,

her career cratered mysteriously.

And then, she was dead.

She was just 32.

People were saying the death itself was unnatural,

no accident, even murder.

As if this wasn't enough to get tongues wagging.

Her husband also died in the same house.

Just 5 months later.

Brittany Murphy's life and death were... well, curious.

From the moment she dies,

stories in the press become increasingly sensational.

I want to separate the truth from the tabloid news.

This case has so many intriguing medical facets,

I think it merits serious examination.

So, I'm going to combine medical science

with detective work to find out how

and why she ended up in a place like this.

Brittany Murphy was born in 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Brittany and her divorced mother, Sharon,

arrived in the city of dreams

when she was in her early teens.

Hollywood insider and journalist, Sandro Monetti,

can give us the backstory of her life.

MONETTI: Brittany Murphy came from a broken home.

Her parents broke up at the age of two.

She found her salvation in song, in dance, mostly in acting.

Brittany knew from an early age

she wanted to be in Hollywood, as a performer.

But she was in New Jersey, living with her mom, Sharon.

So, what did she do?

She sold up all of her possessions

and she moved to Hollywood.

FITZHARRIS: Brittany's breakthrough came in 1995

when she starred as Tai, the naive new girl

at a Hollywood high school in the hit movie "Clueless."

MONETTI: "Clueless" had a huge impact.

And one of its best aspects was the performance

of Brittany Murphy.

MURPHY: Yeah, it's called "Clueless,"

and it's about growing up in the '90s.

MONETTI: She shone through the screen.

She was like champagne glass on a tea tray.

And the whole world fell in love with Brittany Murphy.

FITZHARRIS: Just looking at her resume,

you get a real flavor of Brittany's success.

After "Clueless", the big roles start flooding in,

she gets third listing to Angelina Jolie and Winona Rider

in the 1999 critical hit, "Girl, Interrupted."

And in 2001, she's in "Don't Say a Word,"

starring the Hollywood legend, Michael Douglas.

Before too long, she's the one who's box office.

The movies are getting bigger and grossing more and more.

"Uptown Girls" grosses $37 million.

"Just Married" with Ashton Kutcher, 56 million.

"Sin City," 75 million.

And she's the female lead beside Eminem in "8 Mile,"

taking a 119 million dollars.

Brittany is a genuine A-lister now.

One of the last to work with her is Alex Merkin,

director of the 2009 indie movie, "Across the Hall."

He agreed to talk about Brittany for the first time on camera.

MERKIN: She just had some of the qualities of a femme fatale

that you hope for, she is really intelligent,

incredibly talented, but she is deceptively delicate

and light, but has that, sort of, killer instinct

and that, sort of, danger behind her eyes,

when she wants to turn that on.

FITZHARRIS: But just weeks after the premiere

of Alex Merkin's picture,

a horror movie scene was playing out

in real life inside Brittany's Hollywood home.

In the early hours of December 20th, 2009,

the emergency services received a panicked call

from Brittany's mother.

It's shocking to listen to.

S. MURPHY: My daughter's passed out.

Please get here quick, please.

OPERATOR: Okay, we're going to send somebody out there, okay.

-Is she breathing? -S. MURPHY: No.

OPERATOR: Look inside her mouth

and check for food and vomit.

S. MURPHY: She just threw up tons of stuff.

OPERATOR: Has she taken any kind of medications at all?

-S. MURPHY: What? No. -OPERATOR: Has she taken...

No medications, nothing?

S. MURPHY: Please. Why aren't they here?

FITZHARRIS: My chief investigator,

former Scotland Yard homicide detective, Brian Hook,

has been looking into the circumstances

of Brittany's death.

Wow, Brian, that was really distressing.

As an ex-cop you must hear phone calls like that

all the time. Do you ever get used to it?

HOOK: No, you never ever get used to that.

The fear, the confusion, the panic.

Raw human emotion.

FITZHARRIS: It was awful.

Now tell me, was Brittany Murphy alive

when the paramedics arrived at her house?

HOOK: Yes, Brittany was alive when they arrived

but she was unresponsive.

So she was taken by ambulance

to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was pronounced dead.

Ed Winter, the coroner for L.A. County,

makes an announcement to the world's press

outside of Brittany's mansion in Hollywood Hills.

WINTER: We're conducting an investigation

into the death of Brittany Murphy.

It appears to be natural at this time.

We'll be conducting an autopsy tomorrow or Tuesday.

We'll have to analyze everything and go from there.

FITZHARRIS: So there's no cause of death at this stage?

HOOK: No. Coroner Ed Winter says he's going to wait

for 4-6 weeks before the lab results come back

to actually determine the real cause of death.

Significantly, prescription drugs were taken from her home as evidence,

and that just sends the press into total overdrive.

FITZHARRIS: Yeah, yeah.

NEWSCASTER: 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy died...

NEWSCASTER 1: ...today, apparently of cardiac arrest.

REPORTER: There a lot of questions this morning.

DOCTOR: A stroke, or a bleed, a heart attack or arrhythmia.

NEWSCASTER 2: Rumors of an eating disorder.

MAN: She had a lot of inner demons,

a lot of self-image issues.

INTERVIEWER: Rumors of drug use and as you said, anorexia,

-that sort of thing. -MAN: Correct.

REPORTER 1: Was it drug related?

There's a lot of speculation about it.

FITZHARRIS: This is another weird thing.

On the death certificate,

it says that Brittany's father is unknown.

HOOK: We do know who her father is.

He was Angelo Bertolotti, allegedly an ex-mob guy.

It's suggested that Brittany's mother

didn't want his name on the death certificate

because Brittany had fallen out with him.

She actually hadn't spoken to him since 2006.

FITZHARRIS: So, Brittany's parents are estranged,

possibly hostile towards each other.

That's something to keep an eye on.

HOOK: Yes. I think you're right.

FITZHARRIS: It's time to meet Brittany.

I want to find out what she can tell me

about the night in her bathroom,

at home with her mum and her husband.

To help me investigate the mystery of her death,

I've had this dummy made out gel

which has the same qualities as a human body.

With heart, lungs, brain, stomach, skeleton, and blood.

Brittany died so young, just 32 years old.

But under her exquisite make-up

and expensive haircut, she's just the same as any woman.

Her body would have behaved like anyone her age.

I'm going to use it to find out why

and how a young woman in the prime of her life,

appears to suddenly drop dead.

When the coroner's office releases

the autopsy report, the results show anemia.

Multiple drug intoxication and pneumonia

caused by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus.

Even without the pending toxicology investigation,

there's dozens of pages in Brittany's postmortem record.

So I really need some help making sense of it all.

(tense music)

Dr. Judy Melinek is a forensic pathologist

who's pronounced in over 2500 cases.

Dr. Melinek, this is a familiar

but unconventional space for you, isn't it?

MELINEK: It is.

FITZHARRIS: Where do you start?

MELINEK: We start with the external examination.

We look on the outsides of the body

to see if there's any signs of injury.

And in Brittany Murphy's case there was no sign of injury.

The next step is to do the autopsy,

to figure out if there's any sign of disease.

FITZHARRIS: And that would tell you whether

there's any underlying condition

that could have contributed to the cause of her death.

MELINEK: Or been the cause of death, correct.

FITZHARRIS: I know this is just a model but can you show me on this,

where the coroner would have started?

MELINEK: Absolutely.

The death of film star Brittany Murphy in 2009,

was immediately considered suspicious.

With the help of a virtual cadaver, forensic pathologist

Dr. Judy Melinek is guiding me through the coroner's autopsy.

MELINEK: So we go from shoulder to shoulder,

and then cut down the middle of the abdomen.

And we remove the skin.

FITZHARRIS: Would this actually be

quite bloody in a real cadaver?

MELINEK: There is blood but because the person is dead,

it's not pumping out.

It just pours out from gravity.

So after reflecting the skin, you'd see the chest cavity

encased in the ribs and then I'd slice the ribs open

using a rib cutter or a lopper.

FITZHARRIS: They look like garden shears.

MELINEK: They are garden shears.

We got them at a gardening store actually.

FITZHARRIS: Wow.

Ooh.

MELINEK: And then we lift up the ribcage

to expose the organs underneath.

The lungs and the heart are now visible.

So then I would lift the lungs up out of the chest cavity

in order to remove them and weigh them.

So this would be a normal-size lung, nice and pink.

We know that standard lungs are around

250 to maybe 400 grams.

In Brittany Murphy's case,

her right lung weighed 1,230 grams.

So it's almost 6 times normal size.

-FITZHARRIS: Wow. -MELINEK: And the left lung

was 760 grams, so it was also heavier than normal.

It would indicate pneumonia,

that the lungs had filled in with both fluid

and immune system cells

and that's why they are so much heavier.

(tense music)

FITZHARRIS: Bacterial pneumonia,

the disease which plays a part in Brittany's death,

nowadays is widely treatable with antibiotics.

But of course, it wasn't always this way.

Throughout the 19th and into the early 20th centuries,

pneumonia killed indiscriminately,

striking fear into the hearts of both patients and doctors.

It carried a case fatality rate of 30 to 40 percent.

The first antibacterial agent

shown to be effective against pneumonia

was called sulfapyridine.

Developed in the 1930s,

it was likely used to treat Winston Churchill's

bout of pneumonia in 1943,

arguably saving his life and changing the entire course

of World War II.

Penicillin and other effective drugs soon followed,

transforming pneumonia into a largely manageable condition.

Nevertheless, about 250,000 people

are admitted to hospitals each year

in the US with pneumonia.

And the infection claims around 50,000 lives annually.

Pneumonia is intrinsically linked

to the larger viral epidemics of our time including SARS

and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patients with either of these viruses

can get life-threatening pneumonia,

making it easy to see why such outbreaks

can still cause mass panic.

Pneumonia can be contracted by anyone, anywhere.

As we now know.

(tense music)

Pneumonia is a particularly nasty disease to die from.

Especially if you're under the influence

of prescription medication like Brittany Murphy.

My expert chemical analyst, Dr. Raychelle Burks explains

what was happening to her on the night that she died.

So, Raychelle, can you tell me exactly

what was going on in Brittany's body?

BURKS: There were a cocktail of drugs inside her body.

For starters, two anti-seizure drugs.

FITZHARRIS: What would the impact on her body be?

BURKS: These could severely

weaken her ability to oxygenate blood.

This particular bacteria, Staph A, causes micro-abscesses in the lungs,

further affecting her respiration.

Releasing poison into her bloodstream

causing septicemia and dangerously high temperature.

The bacteria is multiplying faster and faster to the point

where the infection becomes overwhelming.

Brittany would have gone into the final stage

of septic shock.

Her lungs are filling with fluid.

She'd be in great distress by now.

FITZHARRIS: We know that at around 7:45 in the morning,

her mother, Sharon Murphy, calls for help.

But it's too little too late.

(tense music)

And so, collapsed on her bathroom floor,

this is the moment that Brittany Murphy

reached the point of no return.

I need to go back in time and figure out,

where did this terrible end begin?

My chief investigator, Brian Hook,

is a specialist in unexplained deaths.

HOOK: If you find out how people have lived,

you'll find out how they have died.

They are inextricably linked.

FITZHARRIS: Their personal lives are really important.

HOOK: Yes. Initially, she's dating some very high-profile people.

Such as Marshall Mathers, who we know as Eminem.

FITZHARRIS: All right, okay.

HOOK: Ashton Kutcher.

FITZHARRIS: Everybody knows who he is.

HOOK: Film executives, very, very influential people,

high up in the film industry.

FITZHARRIS: Real power couples.

HOOK: She's dating people that really could have an influence

on her career.

FITZHARRIS: Then, suddenly, in 2006,

someone walks into Brittany's world and everything changes.

From the get-go, the grapevine crackled

with unflattering gossip about her new boyfriend.

MONETTI: When Simon Monjack arrived in Brittany's life,

all the Hollywood community had one question.

Who the hell is this guy?

He described himself as a director,

a screenwriter, photographer.

But he seems to be very short of money.

He was evicted from two previous apartments

for not paying back rent.

He had two ex-wives who claimed that he owed them money.

He owed a huge amount to a bank in his native, Britain,

and he'd recently overstayed his visa.

FITZHARRIS: In fact, Brittany has known Simon on and off

since she was 17, when he was hired

to take pictures of her for a magazine.

Now, they begin a whirlwind romance.

It looks like Brittany has finally found true love.

But to Simon's mother, Linda, it seemed that below the surface

there was a hidden dimension to their relationship.

She agreed to talk to us

and share her unique perspective on Brittany's personality.

L. MONJACK: She was an innocent.

She was very fearful of everything.

I think that you'd find, historically,

if you went through everybody that she knows,

she was wanting to be looked after.

And Simon was quite happy to be that person in that role.

FITZHARRIS: After only a few months, the pair get married.

It gets rid of his immigration problem

and helps him out of his financial situation.

It's the classic Cinderella story,

only Simon is the one who goes from rags to riches.

And, of course, once Brittany and Simon tied the knot,

he moves into her Hollywood home.

(tense music)

MONETTI: What you're looking at here is the Hollywood dream

come to reality.

When Brittany Murphy made it,

she wanted to get the ultimate house.

And she found it, here at 1895 Rising Glen,

high above iconic Sunset Boulevard.

Brittany moved in with her mother.

And even when Simon Monjack comes into the picture,

her mother, Sharon, continues to live with them.

It's an unusual arrangement, isn't it?

For the newlyweds to have the bride's mother

with them as well.

FITZHARRIS: I'm not surprised Brittany would want someone

she trusted close to her at all times.

But this is what intrigues me.

When Simon comes on the scene,

they seem to become a threesome,

with Brittany in the middle

book-ended by two strong personalities.

I can't go inside Brittany's home because it's since been rebuilt.

But I can get a sense of what happened there

from this bizarre footage we've uncovered.

It's Simon Monjack taking a film crew

around the house soon after his wife's death.

L. MONJACK: Their house was very dark.

Like a mausoleum.

It didn't look like a happy place

where two young people were living.

There was extensive mold on the windows.

It was doomy, gloomy, miserable.

Terrible atmosphere.

FITZHARRIS: One room I'm really interested in

is where Brittany collapsed.

S. MONJACK: You're the first people to ever see

the infamous bathroom.

FITZHARRIS: You look at all of those products she's got.

There is stuff everywhere, there are shampoos,

there's lots of makeup.

It looks almost like a hoarders bathroom.

The private sanctuary of a woman insecure

about the way she looks.

(tense music)

FITZHARRIS: From the fully-fledged movie star

to the wannabe actor waiting tables,

in Hollywood image is everything.

You might think that we, in the 21st century,

are uniquely obsessed with our appearances.

Yet people in the past were equally eager

to turn back the clock.

Elixirs for improving your appearance

proliferated in the 18th century.

Everything from hair-restoring creams to slimming pills,

each claiming to be a miracle cure.

Many remedies were invented to conceal

tell-tale signs of disease.

For instance, women covered skin lesions

caused by syphilis with beauty spots made of mouse skin.

The Victorians were no less vain

than their 18th century counterparts.

Late 19th century newspapers advertised

tins of arsenic complexion wafers.

Which were just that, little white chalk wafers

filled with arsenic for delicate nibbling.

The wafers made the skin fashionably pale

by destroying red blood cells.

Advertising encouraged ladies not to be nervous.

But long term exposure to small doses of arsenic

is extremely unpleasant,

it can cause kidney damage, hair loss,

growths called arsenical keratosis

and pigment loss called vitiligo.

Victorian products were full of poison

and even radium became a fad in the beauty industry

after it was discovered by Marie Curie in 1898.

It appeared in all kinds of products,

like cigarettes, lipsticks,

and even toothpastes, right up until the 1950s.

Radiation has an indiscriminate,

destructive effect on the human body

but, luckily, these beauty products had such low levels of radioactivity

that they neither worked nor did much harm.

It all makes Botox seem like child's play.

(tense music)

Brittany Murphy's bathroom would have been even more crowded

but it was reported that stacks of pill bottles

had been removed by the police.

Allegedly dozens of them.

Brian has found us some intel on the contents of these bottles.

HOOK: I've been doing some research into

the amount of prescription medication

Brittany was taking prior to her death.

This leaked report shows she's been buying

hundreds of pills each month.

It makes astounding reading.

In the aftermath of film star Brittany Murphy's sudden death,

the Hollywood grapevine buzzed with reports of drug abuse.

My chief investigator Brian Hook has unearthed

a leaked document that backs up those rumors.

Look at this, 120 hydrocodone tablets

prescribed eleven days before her death.

And the day she died, there's only 11 pills left.

That's 109 tablets gone.

FITZHARRIS: Wow. In such a short period.

HOOK: If she'd been taking it according to the prescription,

she should have only taken 44 pills.

FITZHARRIS: Oh, wow, less than half.

And that's a powerful drug.

HOOK: Yup. And it just goes on,

hundreds of pills a month are being prescribed,

both in her name and, for nearly two years

before her death, to a Lola Manilow Murphy.

FITZHARRIS: Does that person Lola Manilow Murphy exist?

HOOK: No. That's gotta be a pseudonym.

And in one month that pseudonym

was prescribed 200 hydrocodone, 100 clonazepam.

Hundreds and hundreds of pills.

FITZHARRIS: Even if half of this is true,

it's quite alarming, wouldn't you say?

HOOK: Drug abusers will use pseudonyms,

they'll go to different pharmacies,

they'll recruit family members just to get their medication.

FITZHARRIS: Within a mile radius of Brittany's home in Hollywood

she has access to dozens of pharmacies.

Expand the net to 3 miles, there are even more.

I've learned she plundered one in particular,

Eddie's on Beverly Boulevard.

MONETTI: Brittany Murphy presented herself as clean cut,

the girl next door.

But like a lot of Hollywood stars, she had a secret.

This pharmacy is where Brittany Murphy got her drugs.

And lots of them.

Brittany, Simon, and Sharon would be seen here twice a week.

The owner was once quoted as saying of the Murphy's,

"They might have more drugs in their house

"than I have in the entire drugstore."

Those are sobering words.

FITZHARRIS: This revelation backs up the autopsy findings

that a major factor in Brittany's death

was multiple drug intoxication.

I'm wondering what drug intoxication might mean.

Is that an overdose?

I've given this to my regular scientific investigator,

Dr. Raychelle Burks.

Raychelle, what do the labs tell us?

BURKS: She had quite a cocktail of substances on board.

FITZHARRIS: Yeah, so would these have caused

the symptoms that we're seeing with her?

BURKS: It could have.

All of these have a huge list of side effects

and it leads to how it's so complicated to manage.

FITZHARRIS: Yeah. It seems like she was juggling so much here

and that there's a lot of potential for mistakes.

She was self-medicating when she was ill a few days before.

BURKS: We all tend to self-medicate as far as like

"I'll take an aspirin or acetaminophen"

or something like that.

But when you do that with prescription drugs,

it's very complicated chemistry.

FITZHARRIS: Are there any drugs here that concern you?

BURKS: There's one in particular that concerns me

and that's the hydrocodone.

In the US there's a huge opiate crisis

and that is one of the most abused prescription drugs.

This is in the same class as heroin or morphine

which really sets off alarm bells because it's extremely addictive.

So again, how is she managing all of this

and that really powerful opiate?

That's what really concerns me.

FITZHARRIS: We've discovered that Eddie's Pharmacy

actually cut off the family's supply

4 months before Brittany's death.

And they weren't the only ones who were seriously worried about

how they were affecting her.

Nearing the end of 2006,

around the time she starts dating Simon Monjack,

the big studio offers stop coming in.

Brittany is forced to accept low budget B-movie roles.

MONETTI: If the hits keep coming, people will put up with a lot,

but if the movies aren't as successful,

then the drawbridge can go up very quickly

on a Hollywood career.

Brittany started to show a lot of erratic behavior

and the dream to work with that she was,

was suddenly a nightmare experience

and so people weren't as keen to hire her

as they were before.

FITZHARRIS: 2009's "Across the Hall"

was yet another small Indie movie.

Director Alex Merkin himself was a first time director.

But he reveals in our exclusive interview

how even he was exasperated by Brittany's erratic behavior.

MERKIN: Things were becoming increasingly

more difficult and bizarre.

She might do one performance that was great

and the next take it's a completely different emotional output.

The turn always felt like it happened

after she spent some time with Simon, alone,

and then returned.

From my understanding, she didn't have internet service

or a cell phone and he controlled information

that was coming her way in order to keep her

from spiraling down some sort of dark hole.

When you get into the major mood swings,

or paranoia moments,

you can only speculate about what could be behind

something like that.

FITZHARRIS: Alex does recall one deeply troubling incident.

MERKIN: One day on set, somebody wandered into

Brittany's green room and there was a mirror

that was sitting on top of her director's chair,

and it very oddly it had a streak of white powder

and a cut straw.

I have to say, very clearly, that this was not

a locked set that only she had access to.

But it was certainly an alarming thing

and we definitely took it very seriously

and we had to make a report of it.

FITZHARRIS: With no witnesses,

the studio report was inconclusive.

But because Hollywood stars live their lives

under a relentless spotlight,

we've been able to find disturbing footage of Brittany

just 19 days before she died

attending the premiere of "Across the Hall."

INTERVIEWER: Do you find it easier to film

comedies or thrillers?

MURPHY: It all has to do with the story

and the director and that's really

where the decisions are made on my behalf.

Have a nice day.

FITZHARRIS: Alex confirmed Brittany didn't appear

to be her normal self that night.

MERKIN: At the premiere,

she seemed like she had lost a little weight.

You know she was always a small, petite person,

but when she was holding my hands, I just,

I just have a memory of a little bit of shakiness.

She seemed more fragile than usual.

FITZHARRIS: Do we know when Brittany starts taking opioids?

HOOK: I might have come up with a reason

that's not in her official biography.

1995, Brittany's allegedly involved in a car crash.

She suffered broken jaw, broken collar-bone, cracked ribs.

She would've have been in constant pain.

FITZHARRIS: So we're talking about a serious car crash here.

HOOK: Yes, and it may well be that before she died

she was still suffering that pain.

FITZHARRIS: We know from pill bottles found in her home

that Brittany was later prescribed

a particularly strong painkiller, Vicoprofen.

It was likely her first exposure to opioids,

an appetite for which will come back to haunt her.

(tense music)

As a species, we've always faced the challenge

of how to medicate illness.

Treatments for pain and sickness

have a long history of being more likely to kill than cure.

In the ancient world,

surgeons, from the Greek word, Kheirourgia,

meaning handiwork, had an unique way

of dealing with headaches, epilepsy and mental health conditions.

Trepanation.

In what can only be described

as a crude version of brain surgery,

a surgeon would make one, or a series of holes

in the skull of the still-conscious patient.

It was thought that, for some, the cranial holes

would release demons from the body of the afflicted.

In ancient Peru, the patients may have gotten

some pain relief during this procedure.

While the surgeon cut the hole,

often using an obsidian knife,

he would chew coca leaves,

spitting numbing mixture from his mouth into the wound.

As any modern doctor will tell you,

having a hole drilled into your head

is not recommended for pain relief.

Unsurprisingly, many patients died following the procedure.

But there were exceptions, some survived for years after,

their skulls eventually healing over the holes.

It's even said that trepanning,

immediately after a head trauma, can relieve pressure on the brain

and save a patient's life.

(tense music)

On February 4th, 2010, 6 weeks after Brittany's death,

the coroner's office releases the toxicology report.

And the result is shocking.

No illegal drugs, but a catalog of prescription meds.

14 powerful substances.

This is the full horror

of what was coursing through Brittany's veins.

And Brian has turned up a bombshell,

an interview with none other than Brittany's father

who claims the drugs in her system were no accident.

BERTOLOTTI: The fact is that she was poisoned

and she was murdered, as far as I'm concerned.

For months after the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy,

attention was focused on her drug habit,

but there was still a suspicion of foul play.

Now, her father makes a full blown accusation.

BERTOLOTTI: She was murdered, as far as I'm concerned.

FITZHARRIS: We've tracked down this contemporary interview

in which Angelo Bertolotti demands that his ex-wife,

Sharon Murphy, is investigated,

questioning why she alone has inherited

all of Brittany's estate.

Then he's asked if he suspects Sharon

was involved in her death.

He replied "Yes, I do."

To try and prove his allegation,

Brittany's father pays for a new toxicology report

conducted on a strand of her hair.

What was he looking for?

BURKS: He requested heavy metals, different metal toxins

and a variety of poisons.

Really get a second look.

-FITZHARRIS: What did they find? -BURKS: Chromium, zinc, iron.

-FITZHARRIS: What does that tell us? -BURKS: Not a lot, I'm afraid.

Some of these things we just need to survive.

And some of them, we're just exposed to in our environments.

FITZHARRIS: Anything alarming?

BURKS: There was one thing that was reported

in the second tox screen that was alarming.

It was the high levels of barium.

It's an element, but it's also found in rat poison.

FITZHARRIS: But is there any evidence of poisoning though?

BURKS: Not a whole lot I'm afraid.

Barium, like a lot of chemicals

has multiple uses.

Rat poison, hair dye.

FITZHARRIS: So what's the takeaway here?

BURKS: As a scientist I'm not dismissing it,

but I don't find the second report super suspicious.

FITZHARRIS: Bertolotti's tox report produces

no conclusive evidence of foul play in Brittany's death.

But doesn't rule it out either.

And there's plenty of other suspicious factors

I still need to look at.

HOOK: Let's put up people that are of interest here.

Husband, Simon.

FITZHARRIS: It seems like ever since she married Simon

things start to go wrong.

HOOK: He owed a lot of money to a lot of people

but when he married Brittany, those money troubles went away.

FITZHARRIS: So we can discount that as a motive?

HOOK: Yes.

FITZHARRIS: And the prescription drugs,

what's going on there?

HOOK: Well, I'm going to add

Brittany's mother to the board now.

FITZHARRIS: Okay, and how does she fit into this?

HOOK: A lot of the drugs that were seized as evidence

are in her name.

FITZHARRIS: Could Sharon have been enabling

her own daughter in a prescription drug habit?

HOOK: I think Sharon is a little bit more complex.

I'm thinking along the lines of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

FITZHARRIS: Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a bizarre condition

where a carer fakes an illness in the very person

they are looking after, harming their victim.

I want to talk to an expert to see

if this could have been a factor in Brittany and Sharon's relationship.

Dr. Marc Feldman has been unraveling

this tangled form of abuse for many years.

Dr. Feldman, you're an expert in Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Can you tell me what that is?

DR. FELDMAN: Yeah, it refers to a situation

in which a caregiver, almost always a mother,

either claims that her child is sick

or actually makes the child sick,

and her motive seems to be to get attention,

care, concern for herself.

FITZHARRIS: How do you tell whether the child

is actually suffering from a real condition,

versus being manipulated or abused by someone else?

DR. FELDMAN: You're faced with the conundrum

of trying to distinguish between what's real

and what's been lied about.

But you know the best lies, and I'm using best ironically,

are those that mix some truth

and add some fiction and that's what happens

in a lot of these Munchausen by proxy cases.

FITZHARRIS: Do you see it sometimes between

a mother and daughter in an adult relationship?

DR. FELDMAN: I've been increasingly concerned

about adult victims who don't recognize

that they're being victimized,

and may in a sense even collude,

that is they trust the perpetrator,

and so they do what they're told

and they say what they're told to say,

and that can be very baffling.

FITZHARRIS: Dr. Feldman, thanks so much for joining me.

DR. FELDMAN: Oh, I'm glad to do it, thank you for inviting me.

FITZHARRIS: I find this a fascinating syndrome

but there's really no evidence

Sharon wanted to cause

her daughter deliberate harm.

On the flip side, she also appears to have done little

to prevent Brittany's worsening health.

Which for a mother, is not exactly normal behavior.

But there's more.

This clip from "The Larry King Show" from February 2010,

a month or so after Brittany's death,

but before the official tox report revealed

she was loaded full of prescription meds,

is I think very revealing.

KING: What happened the day she died?

S. MONJACK: She woke up, she couldn't breathe.

She went out to get some air. Sharon followed her out.

I'll say this because I know you can't,

she said, "Mom, I'm dying. I love you."

KING: "Mom, I'm dying. I love you?"

She knew she was dying?

S. MURPHY: From when she collapsed, I was with her in the bathroom,

and she said, "Mom, please hug me"

and I went to get up

and she just collapsed like right there.

KING: Okay, TMZ reported medications found included

anti-seizure migraine medication, Topamax,

anti-anxiety meds, Klonopin and Ativan,

pain relievers, Vicoprofen and hydrocodone,

depression medication, fluoxetine,

and a hyper medication, propanol.

S. MONJACK: Yes.

KING: Why?

S. MONJACK: Well, number one,

I suffer from seizures and migraines.

So they weren't in her name.

-KING: They were for you? -S. MONJACK: They were for me.

KING: Do you fear the toxicology

might say an overdose of prescription medication?

-S. MONJACK: No. -KING: Is that possible?

BOTH: No.

FITZHARRIS: Sharon and Simon certainly appear to be

in complete denial about Brittany's pill intake.

Autopsy evidence clearly details

that she'd been prescribed the anti-seizure meds

Simon claimed were for him in the Larry King interview.

I can't work out if they are deluded,

still in shock at Brittany's death,

or covering something up?

They certainly never deal with Larry King's big question,

who were all the drugs for?

I really need to get to the bottom of this.

Brian, what do we know about Simon's health, was he well?

HOOK: Simon had some serious health issues,

he was taking medication for epilepsy.

Also Brittany and Simon booked a trip to Puerto Rico.

They came back early because Simon was ill.

On the return journey, he had a suspected heart attack

-and had to be given oxygen. -FITZHARRIS: Right on the plane?

HOOK: Right on the plane. When they arrived,

the paramedics went on board

and he was actually unconscious.

FITZHARRIS: Simon's collapse is a sign of things to come.

In the months following Brittany's death,

Simon shuts himself off from the world,

rarely leaving the house he now shares with Sharon Murphy.

Simon's mother, Linda, reveals to us

how she was becoming increasingly concerned

for his well-being.

L. MONJACK: Simon was putting on weight

like I've never seen anyone put on weight ever before.

He was getting more and more wild in his hair,

in his manner.

And I felt something was really, really wrong at that point.

I spoke to Sharon, I said I really think

you need to get the doctor out. "No, no, we'll be fine."

I said, "Sharon he's not fine, he really, really isn't fine,

"I'm his mother, and he's not fine.

Ring the doctor."

And she said, "No, no he's sleeping now,

he's sleeping now". I said, "He could be in a coma, Sharon,

ring 911."

She didn't.

FITZHARRIS: Linda's worst nightmare is about to come true.

Two days later,

in an unbelievable twist to the tale,

it's Simon who faces the same fate as Brittany,

dying in the same house,

with an eerily similar medical diagnosis,

and in almost identical circumstances.

While the world's movie capital was still coming to terms

with Brittany Murphy's strange death,

her husband, Simon Monjack, collapses and dies

sending shockwaves through Hollywood.

REPORTER: Five months after the death of actress Brittany Murphy

another tragedy strikes that family.

Brittany's husband, Simon Monjack, has died.

FITZHARRIS: This is the autopsy report for Simon Monjack

and this is the mind-blowing bit.

The cause of death is almost identical to Brittany's.

Pneumonia.

And here, multiple medications.

It's not surprising that the Hollywood rumor mill

went into overdrive.

MONETTI: Having reported on Hollywood for many years,

I think that there's nothing that can shock me.

But, when Simon Monjack dies

in identical circumstances

to the way Brittany Murphy died,

that was one of the most surprising things

in Hollywood history.

FITZHARRIS: So, Brian, what's going on here?

Where did he die? Walk us through that.

HOOK: It's Deja vu.

Sharon made the 911 call, listen to this.

OPERATOR: What's the problem? What happened?

S. MURPHY: My son-in-law, he's stopped breathing

OPERATOR: Lay him flat on his back on the ground, no pillows.

S. MURPHY: I can't get on the ground, he's gigantic.

OPERATOR: He's gigantic?

S. MURPHY: Yes.

OPERATOR: We're going to do compressions.

We're going to do compressions now.

Pump the chest hard and fast at least twice per second.

S. MURPHY: One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine.

HOOK: By the time the paramedics arrived,

Simon is dead.

But here's the twist.

Later Sharon is telling everybody

Simon and Brittany have died

as a result of the mold that's in the house

FITZHARRIS: The killer mold theory caught the public imagination.

Ever since the press have run and run with the story.

But was Sharon right?

Could Brittany have been killed by toxic mold?

Maybe Dr. Melinek can help me solve the mystery?

So, these are the two most common molds found in a household.

Could this kill someone?

MELINEK: Yes, they can kill someone

by causing an inflammatory or allergic reaction.

FITZHARRIS: Did it kill Brittany Murphy?

MELINEK: No, it didn't. What we saw at her autopsy

was that she had pneumonia from bacteria.

FITZHARRIS: So a lot of people think

that it was the mold in the house

because her husband dies five months later

with pneumonia in the same house.

MELINEK: I reviewed his autopsy as well.

And both Brittany Murphy and her husband

died of pneumonia from bacteria.

Molds are a fungus, they're not a bacteria. Different organism.

(tense music)

FITZHARRIS: So, it wasn't the mold.

Nor was it the poison.

And nothing suggests to me

that she deliberately took her own life.

So what killed Brittany Murphy?

Overall, there's more speculation

than conclusive facts and arguments.

Certainly the family set-up is no ordinary one.

She's living with a controlling husband

who monitors her cell phone

and a neurotic mother who doesn't stop her massive use

of prescription drugs.

They appear to have become normalized

inside the Murphy household.

Listen to what Linda says happened at Simon's funeral.

L. MONJACK: She put a pill in my mouth without asking me.

Sharon is so used to taking pills, and I am not,

and of course, had I have swallowed that pill

I would have been out of it.

I felt it was a very bizarre thing to do,

but probably she thought that was a normal thing to do.

HOOK: It wouldn't be easy after all this time

to build a case against Sharon.

Although she may have helped to procure the drugs

that ultimately brought Brittany down,

she faced no investigation into her daughter's or Simon's deaths.

Both were classed as accidental.

So I can't find the killer evidence.

FITZHARRIS: I've considered the facts my experts have brought to light

and thoroughly investigated all the sensational stories.

Now it's time for a verdict.

Brittany Murphy was yet another

prescription drug abuser hidden in plain sight.

Crippled by pneumonia, the more medication she took,

the weaker she became.

In a city full of great hospitals,

for reasons we'll never quite know,

those closest to her didn't get her the help she needed.

That's the eternal mystery.

But one thing I'm fairly certain of,

she dies a preventable death.

Had she been treated with antibiotics early enough

she most likely would have recovered.

She was scheduled for a doctor's appointment

on Monday, December 21st, 2009,

the day after she collapsed.

She never made it.

The silver screen is famous for its romances and comedies.

After examining the evidence,

I think Brittany Murphy's story was a more rare genre,

a tragedy, played out for real

under Hollywood's merciless spotlight.