Coronor: "Glee" actor Cory Monteith died from heroin and alcohol overdose

[News_Editor]

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (BNO NEWS) -- Canadian actor Cory Monteith, who played quarterback and drummer Finn Hudson on the U.S. TV musical comedy "Glee," died from a heroin and alcohol overdose, officials said on Tuesday. He was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room late last week.

Coroner Barbara McLintock said post-mortem testing, which included an autopsy and toxicological analysis, found that the 31-year-old actor died of a mixed-drug toxicity involving heroin and alcohol. She said the lethal mixture involved "primarily" heroin, but gave no details about how much he had taken.

"The Coroner's investigation is continuing. Mr. Monteith's family is of course aware of the circumstances of his death and we do, on behalf of them, ask for privacy as they go through this grieving process," McLintock said. "We should also say at this point that there is absolutely nothing at this point, no evidence, to suggest that this was anything other than the most sad and tragic accident."

Monteith was found dead on Saturday inside his room on the 21st floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in downtown Vancouver. He had checked into the hotel on July 6 and was due to check out of the room on Saturday, but staff went into the room at noon when the actor missed his check-out time.

"There were others with Mr. Monteith in his room earlier [Friday] night, but video and fob key entries show him returning to his room by himself in the early morning hours [of Saturday] and we believe he was alone when he died," acting police chief Doug LePard said during a news conference on Saturday.

LePard said police had secured both security video footage and room access records from the hotel, where staff members were said to be cooperating with investigators. "We had detectives assigned to the case who attended with our Forensic Identification Unit to examine the scene, to ensure to the extent possible that there are no unanswered questions," he said.

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[Scott]

Very sad news. He was a talented actor and singer.

RIP

[Mooner]

Drugs and Alcohol. Shame but we all know the risks!