Authorities reveal investigation into 'Friends' star Matthew Perry's tragic death is officially 'closed'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Police Department has officially concluded the investigation into Matthew Perry’s untimely death.

As per a report by People, the authorities have concluded their investigation into the ‘Friends’ actor’s tragic passing.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner has also marked the case as officially "closed" on their website.

The 54-year-old actor was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home on Saturday, October 28.

How did Matthew Perry die?

In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office released the toxicology report that determined that the 54-year-old star died from the “acute effects of ketamine”.

The causes of his death included drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder).

It was also ruled that the ‘Fools Rush In’ actor’s death was caused by an accident. 

Before his death, the star was going through ketamine infusion therapy for his addiction. The report stated, “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”

The toxicology report stated that his latest ketamine infusion therapy was "one and a half weeks before" his death. However, the coroner noted that "the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine's half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less."

Perry, who had long struggled with substance abuse, was also "reportedly clean for 19 months" before the tragedy.

Matthew Perry claimed ‘Ketamine was not for me’

Just one year before his demise, the ‘17 Again’ star opened up about his antipathy toward Ketamine in his memoir ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing’, released in November 2022.

In the book, Perry recalled the time he had daily infusions in the rehab in Switzerland during Covid.

He shared, “Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression.”

“Has my name written all over it -- they might as well have called it 'Matty'," Perry noted, before adding, "Ketamine felt like a giant exhale.”

He further shared his experience of the ordeal and said, “They'd bring me into a room, sit me down, put headphones on me so I could listen to music, blindfold me, and put an IV in."

He heartbreakingly shared he “often thought” that “he was dying during that hour.”

While he did not harbor many favorable feelings about the treatment, he accepted the treatment by saying, “Anything different is good,” per Toofab.

"Oh, I thought, this is what happens when you die. Yet I would continually sign up for this s**t because it was something different, and anything different is good,” wrote Perry, who was determined to turn his opioid addiction around.

He continued, "Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel. Ketamine was not for me."