LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office began their autopsy of Michael Jackson Friday morning in an effort to determine the superstar’s exact cause of death.
Jackson died unexpectedly Thursday from an apparent cardiac arrest and officials are conducting a thorough investigation.
Jackson’s body was airlifted across town shortly after his death to the coroners office for the autopsy, which is expected to take several hours. However, an exact cause of death could take several weeks while awaiting the results of toxicology tests.
Los Angeles Police have impounded the car belonging to Jackson’s personal physician, who was at the singer’s home and attempted to resuscitate him after discovering him unconscious Thursday. Officials stressed that the doctor was not under criminal investigation.
“His car was impounded because it may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death,” police spokeswoman Karen Rayner told The Associated Press.
Speculation into what may have caused Jackson’s death began quickly Thursday, particularly after comments made by former family attorney and friend, Brian Oxman. Oxman has hinted that prescription drugs may have played a role in Jackson’s sudden death. He has claimed that the “King of Pop” used the drugs to fight pain suffered as a result of a broken leg in a stage fall, as well as from a broken vertebrae in his back.
“I said one day, we’re going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson,” Oxman said Friday on NBC’s “Today” show. “The result was, I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don’t know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are.”
