Police have reportedly said that “multiple people” could be charged in connection to Matthew Perry’s death.
The beloved actor - who played Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom Friends - was found dead at age 54 in the Jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28.
Initial reports suggested that he had drowned, however, a toxicology report revealed that he died from acute effects of ketamine. His manner of death was ruled to be accidental.
Other contributing factors in his death included drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, used to treat opioid use disorder, as reported by TMZ.
According to the late actor's autopsy report, he had 3.54 micrograms per milliliter of ketamine, which is nearly three times the average amount, in his bloodstream at the time of his death, as cited by The New York Post.
Ketamine expert and author Dr. Philip Wolfson spoke to the outlet in December and said that Perry had way too much of the substance in his system.
“He really did himself in. He must have taken a large amount. You don’t do this and go swimming or go into a pool of any sort,” Wolfson added.
In May, seven months after Perry’s death, an investigation was opened at both federal and local levels into who gave the actor the ketamine that led to his tragic passing.
Local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration are involved in the investigation, per the TMZ report.
A law enforcement source has now disclosed to PEOPLE that the investigation is “nearing its conclusion” and that they believe “multiple people” should be charged in connection to the 17 Again star's death.
The source said the U.S. Attorney's Office - who responded "no comment" on Tuesday, (June 25) - will make the ultimate decision on whether or not to press charges.
The Fools Rush In actor was open about his decadeslong battle with addiction in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
He revealed in the book that he received ketamine infusions while in a Swiss rehab clinic during the pandemic.
“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression,” he said. “Has my name written all over it - they might as well have called it ‘Matty.’“
Perry described the drug as a “giant exhale,” and said that he would “disassociate” during his infusions and often felt as if he were “dying.”
“‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘This is what happens when you die,’" he wrote in his memoir. “Yet I would continually sign up for this s***t because it was something different, and anything different is good.”
The late actor's autopsy revealed that he received his last ketamine treatment a week and a half before his untimely death.
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