Prince may have been dead for several hours before he was found inside an elevator in his mansion, a report over the weekend says.
A day before his body was found, the singer was given IV fluids at a Minneapolis-area hospital, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the investigation into his death.
The paper reported that a paramedic responding to the 911 call to his estate told law enforcement officers and others at the scene that Prince might have been dead for at least six hours before his body was found.
The Tribune doesn’t give a reason for why Prince went to the hospital to get IV fluids. His publicist said that days before his death, Prince was suffering from the flu.
Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said that someone had dropped the 57-year-old at his Paisley Park estate at 8 p.m.---the night before he was found. He was alone, which wasn’t abnormal, according to CNN.
Autopsy and toxicology results are still pending.
A Twin Cities physician had been treating him in the weeks before his death for withdrawal symptoms for opiates, according to the The Star-Tribune, which wrote:
Sources with knowledge of the investigation have told the Star Tribune that despite putting on a calm face after his emergency treatment for an opioid overdose in Moline, Ill., on April 15, Prince grew increasingly agitated in the following days. That prompted one member of his staff to place a call to New York at 6 a.m. on April 20 — the day before the musician’s body was found — seeking advice from someone who had recently worked with the musician, a source said.
And later in the day, Prince was given an IV treatment.
Sources also told ABC News that investigators are looking into whether Prince died of an overdose and whether a doctor was giving him drugs beforehand. Law enforcement sources said that prescription drugs were found in his possession at the time of death and in his home.
His longtime attorney L. Londell McMillan denied allegations he was addicted to drugs.
“People use medication. The question is, are you on meds in a dangerous way?” he said, adding that Prince was a vegan.
“Everybody who knows Prince knows he wasn’t walking around drugged up,” McMillan said. “That’s foolish. No one ever saw Prince and said, ‘He looks high.’ It wasn’t what he was about.”
Prince’s team had contacted Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California-based opioid-addiction specialist a day before he died. Kornfeld sent his son Andrew to meet with the singer.
