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Carrie Fisher, also known as Princess Leia from Star Wars, had been abusing cocaine and other pharmaceuticals for many years, so when it was announced that she died from sleep apnea, I was skeptical. A more plausible explanation would have been that she died from a drug overdose. A review of the medical examiner's report revealed that the Fisher family refused to give permission for an autopsy and toxicology tests to be done. Constrained by these limitations, the coroner labeled the manner of death "undetermined". FORENSICS: The Science behind the Deaths of Famous People is an analysis and description of how coroners determine the cause and manner of death. An investigation of twenty-three deaths of famous people was conducted based on a review of publicly available autopsy and toxicology reports, as well as published scientific and lay articles. Drug use was implicated in 70 percent of the deaths. Four celebrity deaths were the result of suicide or homicide. Four others were from natural causes.
About the author
Harry A. Milman, PhD, is a consulting pharmacologist, toxicologist, and expert witness with over forty years of experience at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Health, and the US Public Health Service. Dr. Milman assisted in over three hundred civil, criminal, and high-profile legal cases and has testified at trials and depositions. He authored over seventy scientific articles and has edited five science books, including the highly acclaimed Handbook of Carcinogen Testing. Often quoted in newspapers and magazines, Dr. Milman appeared as a toxicology expert on the History Channel, the Oxygen Channel, TV and radio news programs, and in true-crime television shows. Dr. Milman is the author of two novels-A Death at Camp David, winner of the Best Mystery Novel in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards, and SOYUZ: The Final Flight, a finalist for Best Second Novel in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
