The source of the ketamine that contributed to Matthew Perry’s death is part of an “open investigation,” the Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed.
The “Friends” star died in October 2023 at age 54 from acute effects of ketamine. Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades, California, home.
The LAPD told NBC News in a statement May 21 that it was working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service in its continued investigation into Perry’s death.
TMZ first reported that investigators were now focusing on the source of the ketamine that killed Perry.
Perry was candid about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life in the hopes of helping others dealing with the same issues.
The actor detailed his multiple rehab stints in his bestselling 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“I’ve been in a mental institution, gone to therapy twice a week for 30 years, been to death’s door,” he wrote in the book.
Perry also described using ketamine therapy to help with mental illness in his memoir.
Ketamine has been approved by the FDA as an anesthetic, although it can be used as a therapy for depression and anxiety as well as for pain management.
Perry’s autopsy report indicated that he had been reportedly clean of drugs for 19 months at the time of his death. It also noted that his last ketamine treatment took place a week and a half prior to his death.
The report noted that the amount of ketamine found in Perry’s system could not have been from that treatment because the drug has a half-life of three to four hours at most.
Perry’s “Friends” costar Jennifer Aniston previously revealed that she and Perry texted each other on the morning of his death.
“He was happy. He was healthy. He had quit smoking. He was getting in shape. He was happy — that’s all I know,” Aniston told her “Morning Show” costar Reese Witherspoon in a Q&A published by Variety in December 2023.
“I was literally texting with him that morning, funny Matty,” added Aniston. “He was not in pain. He wasn’t struggling. He was happy.”