When people grow up they forget the way.
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
At 1:14pm, the gurney carrying the body of Michael Jackson was rushed into the ER of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The team of 14 doctors and nurses in the ER were prepared for his arrival, and were waiting to jump into action, but none of them knew that the patient they were about to receive was Michael Jackson.
Firefighter-Paramedic Richard Senneff helped to push the gurney directly into the ER as he informed the team of respiratory therapy medics, EKG staff and x-ray technicians of the protocols his team had already carried out on location and in the ambulance on the journey to UCLA. Once the gurney was in place in the ER, Senneff’s duty was done. He went off for a debriefing with his chief and then dedicated his time to getting the ambulance ready for his next call, which came around 6:00pm that day.
As the gurney was rolled past her, Dr Richelle Cooper was introduced to Dr Murray. Dr Cooper was aware that the patient had a personal physician present at the scene of the initial cardiac arrest, as she had been the person at UCLA who had handed care of the patient over to Murray at 12:57pm when she had given authorisation for the pronouncement of death. Now, for the first time, Dr Cooper and Dr Murray came face-to-face.
While Jackson was being put on a monitor in the ER and initial drugs were being administered and began circulating round his body, Cooper asked Murray to explain what had happened. He reported to her that Jackson had been in his usual state of health and had not been ill, but had been working very hard. He stated that he thought Jackson may be dehydrated and that he had also had trouble sleeping so he had given the singer 2mg of Lorazepam through an IV.
Like Paramedic Senneff before her, Cooper questioned Murray what medications the patient was on and what had been administered. She asked again and again. All Dr Murray told her was that he had given Jackson 2mg of Lorazepam at some point in the morning and had later on given another 2mg of the same drug before he witnessed the patient arrest.1 Cooper immediately assumed that, by saying he ‘witnessed the arrest’, Dr Murray must have watched Jackson die in front of him: ‘If I was in a room with a patient and the patient’s eyes rolled back, he stopped breathing and didn’t feel a pulse, I would report that while I was in the room I witnessed an arrest. I’m not sure if you would call that art of medicine. That is what I would take as witnessing the arresting in the room at the time,’ she testified later.
Meanwhile, outside the hospital, rumours were beginning to circulate about Jackson’s well-being, especially on the internet. The USA celebrity website, TMZ.com2 posted a short story suggesting that Jackson had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital having suffered a cardiac arrest which had been treated with CPR by paramedics. Once this had been published online, a number of other news agencies from around the globe were alerted to the potentially breaking story. As the minutes ticked by, TMZ.com continued to update what it knew and published an exclusive of a distant photo, which they claimed showed the King of Pop arriving at UCLA. They also suggested his mother was rushing to be with him. But nobody could verify the story.
While this news was beginning to spread on the Internet, inside the UCLA Medical Center, Dr Cooper continued to ask Murray about the patient’s history of drug use or current drug use as she tried to determine exactly what had happened, while also managing Jackson’s care. ‘I had a 50-year-old male who was dead. I didn’t know why,’ she said. ‘I was trying to think of reasons for something I may be missing or something related to the event that would explain, and it is a common question when you are taking history, is what is the past medical history and what other drugs may be used.’ Murray told her that he knew Jackson was taking Flomax3 and Valium but, other than that, he reported no other drug use (except the Lorazepam he had already admitted to administering) and no past medical history. Murray also stated that there had been no reports of chest pain or anything of that nature prior to the cardiac arrest. Dr Cooper was later to tell the court ‘I assumed I was receiving a clear testimony. “I was at the patient’s bed. I gave 2mg of Lorazepam. I witnessed arrest. I instituted CPR. 911 was called.” My assumption is this was all approximate to the paramedics arriving and the patient arriving to me.’
With Jackson now under the care of Dr Cooper, an ultrasound was placed on his chest to see if there was any cardiac motion. The scan did show some movement of the heart muscle and movement of the valve but Dr Cooper reported that it was not what could be considered good heart function in terms of a heart that was pumping. However, Dr Cooper was informed by Dr Murray that he had felt a faint pulse (despite the report from the paramedics who said that there wasn’t a pulse) so, from the moment Jackson arrived in the ER, she made the decision to attempt resuscitation, and the team of doctors and nurses were working on him constantly.4
Although the team working on him quickly realised their patient was none other than Michael Jackson, it was vital that they used an alias in all manner of patient registration and sample labelling. This was to prevent a delay of care from an inability to label items while Jackson was being treated, and, also, to avoid any information about their VIP patient being leaked outside of the hospital. Despite being cocooned in the ER, everyone was becoming aware of the press quickly gathering outside the doors of UCLA and the hospital’s management were rapidly preparing a room to hold a press conference. In circumstances where an unknown patient needs a name, or where a celebrity needs an alias, the hospital had a list of names to be used. The most obvious one was ‘John Doe’, but Jackson was assigned the name of ‘Trauma WM0241 Gershwin’.
While the medical team was valiantly doing all they could in the ER, Michael Amir Williams had arrived at UCLA in his vehicle, bringing with him Jackson’s three children and Rosalind, their nanny. With Amir Williams trying to block the cameras from recording their arrival, the children were ushered into the hospital through the back doors. Once inside, they were shown to a stark, empty room with a security guard standing by the door. The children had no option but to sit there and wait for any news.
Amir Williams, however, managed to get to the area where the medics were frantically working on Jackson’s body. Realising the true seriousness of the situation, Amir Williams broke down and took himself off to the bathroom to cry privately.
Paul Gongaware was still at his home in Hermosa Beach, an affluent beachfront city in Los Angeles County, about 18 miles from UCLA. Gongaware had received a phone call at his home from Randy Phillips who had, in turn, received a phone call from Frank Dileo telling him to get over to Jackson’s house immediately as something was going on.5 Randy told Gongaware that as he arrived at Jackson’s home, the ambulance was pulling out of the house, so he followed it to UCLA. Despite this news, Gongaware opted to remain at home and not travel to the UCLA Medical Center.
By now, the news was spreading that there was something seriously wrong with Michael Jackson. While TMZ.com continued to monitor and update its story, the Los Angeles Times became the first ‘mainstream’ news organisation to reveal the drama happening by claiming that, when the paramedics entered his Carolwood home, Michael Jackson was not breathing. But at the Staples Center, where rehearsals were continuing for the forthcoming London shows, nobody had any idea of what was happening to Michael Jackson. All the dancers were onstage rehearsing with the band and Kenny Ortega was getting Jackson’s disappearing illusion ready in preparation for the singer turning up later. As far as all those in attendance at the studios were concerned, Michael Jackson would be arriving later that evening to join them for rehearsal.
Back at UCLA, one of the team working alongside Dr Cooper was Dr Thao Nguyen. She was a Cardiology Fellow, a physician-in-training, at UCLA. She was then in her fourth year and doing post-doctoral research. Nguyen was elsewhere in the hospital when Jackson arrived but she was called to the ER when she received a page saying help was needed with a VIP patient. When she arrived in the ER, Dr Cooper introduced Nguyen to Dr Murray, whom Nguyen described as appearing ‘devastated’. Nguyen began by asking Murray, who was giving her his full attention throughout, about the situation and the patient, and Murray explained to her that he was Jackson’s physician and that the singer had been preparing for a concert tour in England but had been tired and had been having trouble sleeping, which required some medications for sleep. When Nguyen asked what medications Murray had given to Jackson to help him sleep he told her he had administered 4mg of Ativan (a brand name for Lorazepam) to the singer. Nguyen asked Murray if he had attempted to reverse the effects of the Ativan, but his reply was ‘No’.
Continuing her questioning of Murray while the rest of the team worked on reviving Jackson, Nguyen asked Murray what had happened after he had administered Ativan to the singer. Murray’s response was that he, ‘… later found the patient not breathing’. But when Nguyen asked Murray when he found the patient not breathing, Dr Murray was unable to give her a proper answer, simply saying he ‘… did not know the time’. She grilled him further to get an estimate of the time he’d found Jackson not breathing in relation to the 911 call, but Murray simply replied that he ‘… had no concept of time’. As he had earlier done with Dr Cooper, Dr Murray never mentioned to Dr Nguyen any medications other than Ativan (Lorazepam) that he had given to Jackson.
Murray did, however, continue to plead with Nguyen to not give up on Jackson and to make sure everybody tried their best to save him. In his interview with LAPD, Murray made sure he told Detectives Martinez and Smith that ‘I think they may have given up earlier [if I] hadn’t been insisting and giving him every opportunity.’
While in ER, Jackson was given Epinephrine, sodium bicarbonate and Vasopressin.6 In addition to which, a Dopamine drip was started. He was continuously ventilated and chest compressions were being constantly done from the moment he arrived at the hospital. The team was also monitoring his cardiac output at all times. During this period, the team would occasionally stop compressions to see if Jackson’s body was spontaneously creating a pulse but at no time did Dr Cooper feel or observe a pulse that was independent from either CPR or chest compressions.
Dr Murray was keen to assist wherever he could and, initially, he put on some medical gloves and was making attempts to feel a pulse. But before long, Dr Cooper instructed Murray that he was not allowed to provide medical care in the ER, although he was expected to remain in discussion with her as treatment progressed. Despite their discussions, throughout the time that Dr Murray was in the ER with Dr Cooper, he failed to tell anyone that he had administered Propofol to Jackson.78
At 1:21pm, however, a nurse in the room said they felt a weak femoral pulse in Jackson, which had been noticed without CPR. Dr Cooper looked at the monitor and saw a slow, wide rhythm, essentially indicating no activity and a ‘dying heart’.9 She put the ultrasound on Jackson’s heart and saw the same lack of cardiac activity and was unable to detect a pulse when she felt for one. Nevertheless, at 1:22pm she ordered CPR to be continued.10
Meanwhile, back at the Staples Center, while rehearsals were continuing, news was beginning to filter through that something had happened to Jackson. Stacy Walker was on stage with the dancers when, at around 2pm, her colleague Travis Payne called her on her mobile phone to talk about the news he was hearing on the radio in his car. Payne was travelling to Carolwood for his home rehearsal with Jackson as planned, and had received a call a few minutes earlier, first from his cousin in Atlanta and then from his mother to tell him that she had seen news reports about the singer. Payne had told his mother that he was sure everything was fine, but as he got closer to Jackson’s home, he heard further reports on his car radio concerning the singer. Becoming anxious at what might be happening, he called Stacy Walker to ask if anything was up or if anyone at the Staples Center knew what was going on. Stacy went to find Kenny Ortega who told her that he was aware that Jackson had been taken to hospital, but that was as far as it went11 and Walker went back to her rehearsals while Travis Payne continued his drive to Jackson’s home. Jackson’s musical director for the tour, Michael Bearden, remembers hearing the first snippets of news coming through: ‘My mother called me. I hadn’t spoken to her in a while and she said, “Well, I heard something about Michael”. She heard it on a gossip channel,’ he said. ‘I said, “Don’t believe that. I just left Michael. I just saw him. He’s fine.” And then I started getting call after call.’12
At UCLA, the medical team was continuing to do all they could. But when further efforts at CPR appeared to be fruitless, they decided the next course of action would be to place an intra-aortic balloon pump directly into Jackson.13 This decision was partly reached following the requests by Murray to the team ‘… to not give up easily’, and the fact that Murray was convinced he could feel a pulse in Jackson. Dr Nguyen couldn’t feel a pulse and neither could another of the medical team in attendance, Dr Cruz. Both felt using the balloon-pump was a futile attempt at reviving Jackson and as far as Nguyen was concerned, this was a ‘last ditch effort’. She was far from optimistic that it would work based on the observations and readings that were available to her.
In his police interview, Murray said of the decision to use a balloon-pump, ‘I asked the cardiologist. I said, “Do you think that it will be effective?” He said he had done it before and he had good results. I said, “Then fine.” It’s not something I would do, because I don’t think balloon-pumps help you if there’s no blood pressure. But he wanted to try, and I was willing to give him any effort that was necessary. So I said, “Proceed.”’ Despite this statement, Dr Murray had no authority in the medical treatment of Jackson once he arrived at UCLA, so it wasn’t up to him to make the decision to proceed or not.
A balloon-pump can be extremely effective for drug-induced cardiovascular failure as it decreases the effort required by the heart by increasing the oxygen supplied directly to the heart.14 Before inserting the balloon-pump, an understanding was reached between the medical team and Dr Murray that if this method should fail to revive and resuscitate Jackson successfully then all further efforts at reviving him would stop immediately. Despite the balloon-pump being inserted successfully, it had no effect on the singer, therefore Michael Jackson was pronounced dead in the ER at 2:46pm. ‘We wanted Mr Jackson to depart with dignity and respect, so we decided to end our efforts,’ recalled Dr Nguyen.
Outside the ER, Michael Amir Williams was pacing up and down in a corridor. Frank Dileo had just arrived at UCLA and he sat down beside Randy Phillips on a gurney that was in a hallway beside a wall. Amir Williams joined them there and they were all asking each other what was going on.
At that moment a nurse emerged from the ER, saying nothing but shaking her head disconsolately. Amir Williams and Dileo feared the worst. The nurse looked at them sitting on the gurney before saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ Frank and Randy got up to hear her continue, ‘I’m sorry to tell you Mr Jackson has passed away.’ Upon hearing the news, Frank Dileo collapsed, only being held up by Phillips who had managed to grab him. They were all totally devastated and barely believed what they had been told until it was confirmed to them a few moments later when a sombre Dr Murray emerged from the ER and simply said to them, ‘He’s dead.’
With Jackson pronounced dead, the issue of who was going to sign the death certificate arose. Almost immediately, Dr Murray refused to do so. ‘I wouldn’t want to sign the death certificate on Mr Jackson when I don’t understand the cause of his death,’ Murray told the LAPD.
Murray left the ER, devastated at the death of Jackson. He talked with a Detective Porche from LAPD, gave him his mobile phone number and then felt it his duty to console Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother, who had arrived at the hospital within the past hour. Murray was concerned about how they would break the news to her, especially as she had a heart condition of her own.15 Accompanied by an ER doctor, Murray went into a room further down the hall where Katherine Jackson was waiting. According to Murray, the ER doctor began explaining to the elderly Katherine Jackson that her son had been brought in to UCLA while he was having difficulty breathing and that they had done everything in their power to revive him. Katherine Jackson apparently said, ‘Well, how is he? He’s not dead, is he?’ When the doctor replied that her son was dead, Katherine Jackson broke down. Dr Murray said that he stayed with Katherine, holding her hand, after the ER doctor had left them. Concerned for Katherine’s welfare, he supposedly asked for the social workers to come in or a hospital psychologist, whichever was available at the time. When a social team and the hospital’s Head of Security arrived, Murray apparently asked them to take care of Mrs Jackson.
Then, according to his LAPD interview, Murray became concerned about Jackson’s three children. He was unsure whether they had been brought to the hospital or not. Discovering that they were in another room, he decided that the children had to know what had happened. But what was the best way to tell three young children that their father had died? Murray decided to speak with Frank Dileo. Dileo agreed that he would go in with Dr Murray to inform the children of their father’s death, but Murray suggested that someone else should accompany the two of them, someone who had a good relationship with the children. The ideal candidate was Michael Amir Williams and so the three of them went into the room where Prince, Paris and Blanket had been kept under supervision. When they entered the room, the children were just sitting there, having something to eat, knowing something was going on with their father but unsure what. Amir Williams recalled that Prince said to them as they entered, ‘Make sure you tell the doctor that Daddy is allergic to this and that’. The children were then told that their father had passed away by Frank Dileo, who blurted out the news, ‘Your daddy had a heart attack and died.’
All three children burst into tears at the news and Dr Murray was horrified by Dileo’s insensitivity. ‘No, no, no,’ Murray said, ‘Don’t tell them that. We don’t know what happened.’ Dr Murray said that he stayed there to comfort them all, especially Blanket, whom he referred to as the ‘little guy’. According to Murray’s LAPD interview, he said Paris Jackson was particularly affected by the news. She was crying and saying that she didn’t want to be an orphan and Murray, empathetically tapping into his own experience of fatherhood, told her that they would take care of her. Frank Dileo also reassured her, committing himself to looking after her and her brothers, too.
Murray then said to the LAPD detectives, perhaps in an effort to depict himself as a caring and trustworthy doctor that the whole family had relied upon, that Paris had said to him, ‘Dr Murray, you said you save a lot of patients. You know, you save people with heart attacks, and you couldn’t save my dad.’ I said, ‘I tried my best.’ And she said, ‘I know that, Dr Murray. At least I know. I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad. You know, I will wake up in the morning and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’
Paris then asked to see her father. Upon hearing this, Murray said that he ‘pulled a psychology team together’ and informed them that some help was needed and asked whether the psychological team thought that the children seeing their father’s body was a good idea. According to Murray, someone within the psychological team said it probably would be a good idea and suggested that it may well bring closure to the tragedy. Murray questioned whether the children were mature enough to understand the situation, but the psychological team apparently reassured him that they would be able to cope with viewing the body.
By now the news was beginning to spread rapidly, on the Internet and through global media, that Jackson was in hospital suffering, it was suggested, from a cardiac arrest. Nobody, outside of the hospital, was yet aware of the tragic truth. Travis Payne, who had been on his way to Carolwood to see Jackson, had been diverted from his journey and told to drive instead to the Staples Center immediately as he had been informed that there had been an emergency at Jackson’s house. When he arrived at the rehearsal venue, Travis and the rest of the dancers and musicians continued with their day, rehearsing ‘Smooth Criminal’, as though nothing had happened, but some of them were beginning to sense all was not right.
Then, abruptly, the rehearsals were halted. Kenny Ortega received a phone call from Paul Gongaware of AEG Live. Gongaware had remained at home while Jackson was in hospital but was becoming increasingly anxious about what might be happening with the singer. After he hadn’t heard from Randy Phillips for a while, Gongaware took it upon himself to call Phillips’ mobile phone to find out what was going on. Randy Phillips simply told him that Michael Jackson had died. After he had spoken to Phillips, Gongaware was in shock, and couldn’t understand how it had happened as Randy had given no explanation. Gongaware then immediately called Kenny Ortega at the Staples Center. His words to Ortega were simple and straightforward, ‘Our boy is gone’, he said. At first Ortega didn’t believe him, and wasn’t even convinced it was Gongaware on the other end of the phone. ‘I’m not trusting that this is really Paul Gongaware,’ Ortega said, ‘Tell me something that only you would know that can prove to me that this is really Paul Gongaware telling me this.’ Ortega was in a state of total shock and denial as Gongaware responded, ‘You have to sit down and get a hold of yourself and listen to me. Michael has gone.’ Ortega couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. ‘I wanted to believe it was some weirdo on the phone calling me and telling me something and I … I think I made him call me back, or I think I made him … I don’t even remember. I just remember that it was a very awkward telephone call, and I … and I didn’t want to believe what he was saying as the truth.’
Ortega went into the hallway and found Karen Faye, Jackson’s hair and make-up artist. He went up to her, put his arms around her and told her that Michael Jackson had passed away. Stacy Walker went into what she described as a motherly mode. She consoled all the dancers, telling them not to worry and saying that everything would be okay. Just like Ortega, Walker didn’t want to believe the news coming through. ‘It’s not that I didn’t believe that he wasn’t in hospital. I just thought that he would be okay,’ she said. ‘We were just all there the last two nights and it had been great and we just did ‘Thriller’ and ‘Beat It’ and then he was just gone.’
Travis Payne recalled the moment the call came through: ‘I remember Kenny saying: “Tell me something that will make me know it’s you and that this is true.” Well, apparently he got recognitions on the phone. I remember him collapsing in his seat and crying.’ After Ortega broke the news to everyone gathered together, Payne recalled they became silent, ‘We prayed and then we ultimately got the call. They said he had passed, and that was very hard.’16
While this was going on at the Staples Center, Dr Murray approached Michael Amir Williams in the hallway at UCLA Medical Center and made a discreet request that Amir Williams found odd. Murray said to Amir Williams, ‘Brother Michael, Mr Jackson has some cream in his room that I know he wouldn’t want the world to know about. Can you have one of the guys give me a ride back to the house to get the cream?’
It was a strange request, especially in such distressing circumstances. Amir Williams suspected that it was impossible to go back to the house17 but told Murray he would check. Amir Williams went to find Faheem Muhammad and said to him, ‘Faheem, Dr Murray said something about a cream and wants to get back to the house. You know, we can’t give him a ride back to the house.’ Faheem replied in agreement, ‘No, we can’t give him a ride back to the house. I’m not giving him a ride.’ Between the two of them, they agreed to tell Murray that the police had taken their keys. Upon hearing this, Murray simply said, ‘Oh, okay.’
Meanwhile, after a social worker had talked to Jackson’s children again, they joined their grandmother, Katherine, in a larger room at the hospital, one that resembled a conference room. Murray witnessed this occurring and said he noticed that, of the three children, only Paris ‘went to the grandmother’. Murray told the LAPD that, ‘I’m not sure how close they are, because the two boys [Prince and Blanket] are still kind of running away from a distance. And Paris was more comforted by a [another] relative versus the grandmother.’ While the family was together and in the same room, Dr Murray made arrangements for Michael Jackson’s body to be made as presentable as possible so that the children would be able to view it and say goodbye to their father.
During this period, Dr Murray also said he noticed that Michael Jackson’s family started to trickle in to the hospital. He noticed Jermaine and La Toya and some other cousins that he was less familiar with come into the room, and Murray stayed to hold hands with Katherine and La Toya. He asked them if they had any questions. Naturally, they were desperate to have an explanation for Michael’s death. Murray said he had no idea. Because of this, Murray recommended that the family request an autopsy, not only for their own piece of mind but also for his. Murray claimed that he too wanted to know why the singer had died.
Once the body was ready for viewing, the social workers accompanied the children and other members of the family to see Jackson’s body. Dr Murray watched the procession of people coming in and weeping from behind a glass partition but one person who didn’t view the body was Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother. Somewhat surprised, Dr Murray went back into the large conference room to check with her whether she wanted to see her son, but she was adamant that she didn’t. Someone perhaps conspicuous by his absence from the hospital that day was Jackson’s father, Joe. But the 81-year-old was almost 300 miles away in Las Vegas, unable to rush to Los Angeles, and was restricted to providing TMZ.com earlier in the day with the quote that his son was ‘not doing too well’.18
Meanwhile, Dr Murray persisted in his efforts to get back to Jackson’s Carolwood home. He tracked down Michael Amir Williams again, and this time asked about getting some food, as he told Amir Williams he hadn’t eaten all day. Amir Williams simply told Murray that they couldn’t take him anywhere. Suspicious of Murray’s motives once again, Amir Williams went to Faheem Muhammad and asked him to call security at the house and tell them to lock it down. ‘No one in. No one out,’ was the instructions. That day, 25 June 2009, was the last time Amir Williams saw Dr Murray.
There was only a two-hour window for Jackson’s body to be viewed before it was taken to the coroner, yet still members of Jackson’s family were arriving at the hospital. Dr Murray was concerned about what would happen to Jackson’s children for the remainder of the day. After being turned down by Amir Williams in his efforts to get back to the house, Dr Murray apparently asked a security guard if they could be taken home. The guard informed Murray that Jackson’s house was in lockdown now, and that nobody could enter it as detectives and forensics experts from the LAPD were expected there soon.
Murray continued to wait in the hospital. It was difficult for anybody to leave owing to the huge crowds of concerned fans and legions of expectant paparazzi that had joined the burgeoning news crews who were, by now, broadcasting whatever they knew about the situation to a global audience. Murray sought out Randy Phillips, who had arrived at the hospital some time earlier and then spoke with Frank Dileo and Michael Amir Williams about what to do next. Murray wanted to know from them if there was anything else he could do at the hospital. They told him there was nothing to be done but said they now may all have to be airlifted out of the hospital because of the crowds gathering outside.
Moving to another area within UCLA, Dr Murray found himself introduced to the Jackson family’s lawyers, who were keen for the family to release a statement to the press. According to Murray, Randy Phillips and Jermaine Jackson were eager for Murray to review the proposed press release to make sure he was happy with it. Murray scanned it and made a few small changes, adding that the cause of death will not be known until an autopsy is performed. Around this time, Dr Murray and Jermaine found themselves sitting together in the corner of the room. A brief conversation ensued, during which Jermaine asked Dr Murray where he was from as he was curious about his accent. After telling Jermaine he was from Trinidad in the Caribbean, Murray asked him if there was, ‘Anything else I can do for you?’ Jermaine said that there wasn’t so Murray told him he was tired and that he was going to try to make his way home, despite the furore outside the hospital.
Meanwhile, at 5:20pm, Elissa Fleak, the coroner investigator for the Los Angeles County Coroner, arrived at UCLA to perform an external body examination on Michael Jackson. This is a standard procedure to look for wounds and obvious trauma, but she found no such evidence on Jackson’s body. She preserved the vials of blood taken from Jackson for future toxicology testing and then began making her way to Jackson’s home to investigate the scene where Jackson lost consciousness to try and determine what the details and circumstances surrounding this tragic event were.
At this time, 5:30pm, the celebrity website TMZ.com was the first media outlet to break the news of Jackson’s death when they updated their earlier story about his hospitalisation after suffering a cardiac arrest. On their webpage they said ‘Update – Michael Jackson passed away today at the age of 50.’ The news, released online, was at first met with disbelief by many. A lot of people felt that the singer’s death couldn’t possibly be verified until a more established and mainstream news organisation confirmed it. Just minutes before the nightly network news began, the story was finally verified by the Los Angeles Times and, shortly afterwards, The Associated Press. Very quickly, social media networks exploded with the news. Twitter had over twice the normal amount of tweets per second and the internet saw web traffic to news sites increase by about 50 per cent. The Google news section saw such an increase in ‘Michael Jackson’ enquiries within 20 minutes of TMZ.com announcing his death that it thought the network was under some sort of malware attack. By the end of the day, Jackson’s Wikipedia page had almost 2 million visits, as well as 650 edits being made.
Inside the hospital, cut off from global news outlets but obviously aware of the worldwide significance of the story and the gathering of news crews outside, Dr Murray then approached Faheem Muhammad and told him that he was tired and had to leave. Faheem said to Murray that he was unable to leave himself and then could only watch as Dr Murray walked out through the large glass doors of UCLA. That was the last conversation Faheem Muhammad had with Murray, and the last time he saw him.
Almost four hours after Michael Jackson’s death, at 6:18pm, Jermaine Jackson appeared in front of a gathering of news crews at a hastily arranged press conference to confirm to the world that his brother had died. ‘This is hard,’ Jermaine Jackson told the world,
My brother, the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June 25th 2009. It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of death is unknown until the results of the autopsy are known. His personal physician, who was with him at the time, attempted to resuscitate my brother, as did the paramedics who transported him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Upon arriving at the hospital at approximately 1:14pm, a team of doctors, including emergency physicians and cardiologists, attempted to resuscitate him for a period of more than one hour. They were unsuccessful. Our family requests that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time. May Allah be with you, Michael, always. Love you.
Jermaine Jackson then left the room.19
Within two minutes of Jermaine confirming the news to the press, TMZ.com were also able to have verification of the story they had led with an hour earlier. At 6:20pm they published confirmation: ‘We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50. Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived, Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back. A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. A cardiologist at UCLA tells TMZ Jackson died of cardiac arrest. Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive. A source inside the hospital told us there was “absolute chaos” after Jackson arrived. People who were with the singer were screaming, “You’ve got to save him! You’ve got to save him!” We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911. La Toya ran into the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead. Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.’
The news that the King of Pop had died flared throughout the world. Within six minutes of Jermaine Jackson’s press conference, the entire Top 15 albums on Amazon.com were Michael Jackson albums. Nine out of ten trending topics on Twitter were Michael Jackson-related; the TMZ website went down at multiple points, as did the blog of Perez Hilton.20 Within a few more minutes, USA tennis star Serena Williams, competing at Wimbledon at the time, posted this on Twitter: ‘My heart goes out to the entire Jackson family.’ An hour later, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, released a statement saying that, ‘This is very sad news for the millions of Michael Jackson fans around the world. The Prime Minster’s thoughts are with Michael Jackson’s family at this time.’ Sir Paul McCartney, who had recorded and performed with Jackson, and also lost his stake in his Beatles catalogue to him, said, ‘It’s so sad and shocking. I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever and my memories of our time together will be happy ones.’ Madonna expressed her condolences by saying, ‘I can’t stop crying over the news,’21 while Elizabeth Taylor was said to be ‘too devastated’ to issue a statement. Quincy Jones, the producer who had done so much with Jackson to shape the Thriller album, said, ‘I’m absolutely devastated. I just don’t have the words. I’ve lost my little brother today and part of my soul is gone.’
Ben Evenstad, a huge Jackson fan, was equally distraught. Evenstad headed back to the offices of his photo agency with the memory cards he had collected from all his paparazzi photographers who were outside Jackson’s home as the ambulance pulled away. Not only was Evenstad personally devastated at the news coming out about Jackson’s death, but he was also depressed that his agency had missed the opportunity to capture a shot of Jackson in the ambulance as it left his home. But as he started scanning and editing the images, Evenstad quickly realised that his boyhood friend, Christopher Weiss, one of the men he had sent to Carolwood, had in fact captured the one and only shot of Jackson in the back of the ambulance with his face in profile as paramedics worked to save his life. As Evenstad looked at the photo, he realised he had the last ever picture of Michael Jackson, a picture that was soon to be worth over a million dollars.22
Now that the news of Jackson’s death had been confirmed, it didn’t take long for people to speculate about the cause. Within hours of Jermaine Jackson announcing his brother’s death, the Showbusiness Editor of The Telegraph, Anita Singh, published an article, which reported that, ‘… the 50-year-old singer had been given a painkilling injection shortly before his death.’ The report continued by quoting the Jackson family’s lawyer, Brian Oxman, who said, ‘I do not know the extent of the medications that he was taking, but the reports that we have been receiving in the family is that it was extensive and this is something which I feared and something which I warned about. I don’t know the cause of all this so I can’t tell you what the ultimate result of it is going to be, but I can tell you for sure when you warn people that this is what’s going to happen and then it happens, where there is smoke there is fire.’23 ABC News quoted a senior law enforcement official who had been briefed on the initial investigation and who suggested drugs played a part, referring to Jackson being ‘heavily addicted’ to Oxycontin and receiving daily doses of Demerol.24 And Fox News reported that the pop icon was ‘… taking a cocktail of prescription drugs including antidepressants.’25
But the true cause of death remained unknown as dusk fell on 25 June 2009. Later that evening, Detective Martinez, one of the LAPD detectives on the case, tried several times to call Dr Murray but his efforts would go straight to voicemail. He even tried texting Murray a couple of times but received no reply. Murray, however, was seemingly already under instruction from his own lawyer to leave his phone off until they met.
Michael Amir Williams went back to Jackson’s Carolwood home on the evening of 25 June. It hadn’t been his intention to return to the property but, as Katherine Jackson and the other members of his family were also getting ready to go to Jackson’s home, Amir Williams felt it his duty to create a diversion to allow the family to slip away. Amir Williams, along with Alberto Alvarez, Faheem Muhammad and Isaac Muhammad got in two cars at the hospital and started to drive away from the hospital to cause the necessary diversion. But during this drive, Michael Amir Williams received a phone call asking him to go back to Jackson’s Carolwood home, and so both cars made their way back to the property. When they arrived there, the Los Angeles Police Department and coroners were already present and beginning their investigation, part of which involved Amir Williams giving a statement to the police, recalling the events of the previous 24 hours. Amir Williams remembered it being frantic when he got back to Carolwood.
The coroner investigator, Elissa Fleak, had already been at the house for some time when Amir Williams returned. She had begun her on-scene investigation in Jackson’s bedroom by taking photographs to document items she felt relevant to the investigation, such as vials of prescription medicines and making an inventory of evidence she found which included several bottles of pills next to Jackson’s bed. Amongst the prescription medications she discovered scattered around the room were Flomax, Trazadone, Lorazepam, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Temazepam and Tizanidine. She also found 19 tubes of Lidocaine and a bottle of Benoquin. She noted from the prescription details on the bottles that the Clonazepam and Trazadone was prescribed by Dr Metzger, the Tizanidine was prescribed by Dr Klein, but all the remaining medications were prescribed by Dr Murray.
On the bedside table, Fleak found three prescription pill bottles, three prescription medicine bottles, a bottle of over-the-counter Aspirin and a couple of empty juice bottles. A number of prescription bottles also lay in a wastebasket nearby.
She also discovered a syringe on the table with the plunger completely depressed, while on the floor she discovered a needle on the left side, a couple of feet away from the bed, as well as an oxygen tank and an Ambu Bag. At the foot of the bed she saw an IV stand with an IV kit attached. She also found a jug that appeared to have urine in it and urine pads nearby.
Elissa Fleak also found, when looking on the floor, an empty vial of Flumazenil and an empty vial of Propofol. They were both found to the left of the bed, beneath the nightstand, which was adjacent to the bed. Fleak was looking mainly for pills as, in her work, many of her cases involved pills or tablets. She didn’t realise the significance of the Propofol and the use of the IV drip to possibly administer it until a couple of days later. As it was, Elissa Fleak seized these items and took them to the Coroner’s Office where they were logged to await further investigation. Continuing her search, Elissa Fleak only glanced into the other rooms, scanning them but not searching them.
A further search was to happen a few days later when Fleak returned to Carolwood. Detectives had informed her that additional information had been gathered following an interview with Dr Murray and there was now the possibility that medical evidence remained in the house, specifically in the closet.
And so it was on 29 June 2009 that Elissa Fleak returned to Carolwood and searched a wardrobe in Michael Jackson’s closet.
In it was a bag. And in the bag was the evidence later used to convict Dr Conrad Murray.