LOS ANGELES — Authorities have arrested at least one person in connection with the death of Matthew Perry from an accidental ketamine overdose last year, a law enforcement official tells The Associated Press.
The official was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Authorities have scheduled a news conference in Los Angeles for Thursday morning to release details about the case.
Los Angeles police said in May they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to investigate why the 54-year-old had so much surgical anesthesia in his system.
An assistant found Perry face down in his hot tub on October 28, and paramedics who were called immediately pronounced him dead.
His autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was within the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.
The decades-old drug has seen a huge increase in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing IV ketamine therapy.
But the medical examiner said Perry’s last treatment a week and a half earlier would not explain the amount of ketamine in his blood. The drug is typically metabolized within a few hours. At least two doctors treated Perry, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, the medical examiner’s report said. No illegal drugs or paraphernalia were found in his home.
Ketamine was listed as the leading cause of death, which was ruled an accident without foul play, the report said. Drowning and other medical problems contributed, the coroner said.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation for 10 seasons as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.
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Balsamo reported from New York.
