Documents made public on Monday suggest Prince was addicted to prescription opioids but don’t reveal how the music icon got the fentanyl that killed him a year ago this week.
Search warrants and affidavits related to the investigation into Prince’s death were unsealed in Carver County District Court.
The singer was found unresponsive in his Paisley Park estate on April 21, 2016. He was 57.
A week earlier, Prince collapsed of an opioid overdose on a private jet and had to receive emergency medical treatment.
Search warrants indicate that pills in various containers were found throughout Prince’s home. Some were marked “Watson 853” — a label used for an acetaminophen-hydrocodone mix. Some of the pills were found in a suitcase with the name "Peter Bravestrong" – believed to be the alias Prince used when he travelled.
According to documents, Prince’s associates told investigators that the star was “going through withdrawals.” Employees at Paisley Park said they had contacted an addiction recovery centre in California in hopes of getting help for Prince.
They also allege Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg prescribed oxycodone to Prince but used the name of the singer’s bodyguard Kirk Johnson “for Prince’s privacy.”
Schulenberg’s lawyer said in a statement that the doctor “never directly prescribed opioids to Prince, nor did he ever prescribe opioids to any other person with the intent that they would be given to Prince.”
In a statement, Johnson’s lawyer said “Kirk Johnson did not secure nor supply the drugs which caused Prince’s death.”
The investigation into Prince’s death is ongoing.