01x04 - Brittany Murphy

[bunniefuu]

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 m*rder*d.

FITZHARRIS: So what or who

k*lled 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 m*rder.

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, k*ller 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 k*lled
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 w*r 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 c*ck
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 c*ck
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 k*ll 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 ill*gal 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 m*rder*d,
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 m*rder*d,
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 k*ller 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
k*lled 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 k*ll someone?

MELINEK:
Yes, they can k*ll someone

by causing an inflammatory
or allergic reaction.

FITZHARRIS: Did it k*ll
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 k*lled 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 k*ller
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 ab*ser
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.