When singer/songwriter Elliott Smith was found with a stab wound to his chest on October 21, 2003, the Los Angels Police Department initially listed the death as a suicide. However, the LA coroner’s office is not so sure. “Despite a comprehensive and ongoing inquiry into the death by the LAPD detectives and coroner investigators together with a thorough examination by the coroner’s pathologist, the mode of death remains ‘Undetermined’ due to incomplete knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the death,” read a press statement from the coroner. As a result, the LAPD will continue its investigation of Smith’s death.
Though Smith had suffered from an ongoing battle with substance abuse and addiction, the coroner found no illegal drugs or controlled substances in his system at the time of death. This confirms claims by Smith’s friends that he had been sober for months before his death.
