Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

World-renowned forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the death of Michael Jackson, ‘The King of Pop’.

He was the biggest-selling recording artist of all time, but when he suddenly died at just 50 years old, he left 400 million dollars in debts and more questions than answers.

This film was first broadcast: 07 Jan 2014.

the singer  michael  jackson is reported to have died from a heartattack.

 but it appeared  it was  already to late .He arrived  in hospital  in  a deep coma and he died.

2. 26 pm on june the 25th 2009 michael jackson controversial mega star.

entertainer and pop icon

is pronounced dead in Los Angeles. brother jermaine says no one gave up . jackson is just 50 years old

the sidewalk outside the hospital quickly  became a strange mix of grieving for a loss and celebrating a unique brand of music.

his sudden and unexplained death.

sparks a police  investigation.

that questions every detail of his passing.

Robbery homicide was assigned to this because of the high profile nature of it.

jackson’s body was choppered to USC

But his  lifeless body  thar reveals the most telling   answers.

was unceremoniously loaded into a van .

and driven to LA county coroner’s office. his corpse was poured over by a team of medical experts.

 ”  it is believed he suffered  cardiac arrest in his home , however the cause of his death was unknown until results of the  autopsy are known.”

world -renowned forensic pathologist dr richard shepard has been  performing high-profile autopsies for more than 25  years . he was  the expert witness at inquests into the death of princess Diana.Gil dando  and victims of the 9/11 attacks

” the fascinating thing about  an  autopsy  is it doesn’t just tell you how a person died ,it can tell you even more about how they  lived, it is non-judgemental to the scientific acquisition of facts and a fact that an individual is a celebrity makes no difference at all  there are no celebrities on  a mortuary’s lab”

Now richard shepard will forensically unpick jackson’s autopsy and piece together what happened in the final hours of his life.

this is the coroner’s report  into the death of michael jackson, this hard  cold medical facts tell us who  he was and what he was doing , but more than that  they give us a timeline of the events leading up to his death.

 june 24  2009, jackson is renting a mansion in beverly hills, in just 19 days time he will embark on a sellout 50 -day residency at London’s 02  arena.

forty years previously michael jackson had burst onto the music scene.

as the lead singer with the jackson five  , he was propelled to international megastardom.

” michael  was the king of pop. he was a king of entertaining.he did things that no one else could do .he was untouchable

jackson was the most successful entertainer the world has ever  seen .combined song and concert sales netted him an  estimated 750  million dollars.

but by june 2009 his personal fortune had all be gone. high -profile court cases and reckless spending had left him on the brink of bankruptcy

michael jackson had essentially been a recluse for 12 years not touring, not really having any huges record releases  like his past. he was around 400 million dollars in debt, he also had over  30 lawsuits lined u against him. 

for jackson there was  only one way out to ease his debt , he must  perform a grueling schedule of concerts in london.

and to ensure his health and fitness, he’s depending on his personal physician ,dr conrad murray.

but jackson would never make opening night.

“so looking at the autopsy ,the first  thing we see is its a male of  approximately 50 years, thereare no significant injuries, but there are some grazes and  abrasions to the center of the chest. i don’t think these are significant in causing his death. but i do know that he’s had  quite prolonged and extensive rescuscitation and these injuries are typical of that  type of resuscitation.”

jackson’s life was dogged with moments that were both contrersial and bizzare

and the secrets revealed by his autopsy are no different.

 the autopsy report states that he’s black and that is of course  correct. but if you looked at the body objectively, not knowin it was michael jackson , it wouldn’t be that clear -cut.

millions of column of  inches have been devoted to the subject of michael’s skin. was he black , was he turning white, was he turning himself white.

 these are  the questions that everyone wanted to know.

jackson always claimed that his pallid of appearance was due to a rare skin  disease.nut few believed him.

 you can see from the autopsy that just  as jackson maintained ,he did have  a skin condition, in the darer  areas  there are lighter blotches and it appears in these lighter blotches the skin has stopped  producing pigment.

cells called melanocytes, produce a dark pigment

melanin that  colours the skin

but these cells are absent in the autopsy.and without these the skin is pale  and that explains jackson’s appearance.and it’s consistent with the disease called vitiligo.

just as  jackson had always insisted he did had a rare skin problem.but he also made other claims about his  appearance.

In  february 1993,michael goes on the Oprah Winfrey show and tells 62 million americans that he doesn’t bleach his skin , he dosen’t  use products to do that .

but evidence found at the crime scene,shows this wasn’t true.jackson spent large of money on a skin bleaching drug called benoQuin. 

it turns out that micheal had been getting treatment for his citiligo from a doctor called arnold klein  for about  25 years. based in beverly  hills  klein was the dermatologist to the stars. his  other clients included elisabeth taylor, carrie fisher and sharon stone.

klein recommended this lotion to jackson when they first met.it prevents dark pigment being made in areas unaffected by vitiligo. for half of his life ,jackson had been bleaching his skin.

and the king of pop was fixated with his appearance.

” there were several scars on his face and neck that are typical of previous plastic surgery and he had  a cleft inserted into his chin which  would certainly have changed his appearancethe nose shows extensive science of modification it’s caved in on one side and the bridge is entirely missing, and this  is one of the signs of extensive plastic surgery”

-shepard.

his brothers used to tease him about the size of his nose. calling him big nose. it really left an emotional scar on him and the minute he found out about plastic surgery he began  to have  work on his nose.

over the years jackson 

visited the surgeon’s table again and again.

changing not only his nose.

but almost  his entire face.

in the press he became known as wacko jacko and was public property.

but the autopsy reveals, he did manage to keep one secret from the media for 25 years.jackson’s hair is not his own. he’s wearing a wig it’s held on by semi-permanent glue and thee’s some sparse areas of his own hair on the sides and  the back of his head.

other than these patches,the king of pop was almost entirely bald, despite being a tabloid target he kept this hidden for over a quarter of a century.

his  scalp reveals the reason for his baldness, there’s an area of scarring on the top of the back of his head. and this scarring is consistent with the burn .

 in  january 27th 1984, jackson was at the height of his powers.his album thriller had become the biggest selling of all time.but filming a pepsi commercial with his brothers  would mark the start of his decline

when a pyrotechnic device set fire to his hair.

he suffered servere second and  third degree burns to his scalp, which  left him needing to wear wigs for the rest of his life.

“michael never recovered from that .the pepsi incident changed michael’s career forever. michael became extremely self -conscious about his appearance, he became  extremely paranoid about the people around him, he felt damaged ,he felt hurt ,he felt betrayed “

 the accident also triggered a habit that would eventually claim his life.

recovering from his injuries he became hooked on painkillers.these were gateway drugs that led to multiple drug addictions.

“a gateway  drug is something you can  bye over the counter and  because  they’re so  hugely available  it means that people who may be susceptible to wanting to take harder drugs can  get involved in that  process , so you may start on paracetamol and you may lead up onto much more dangerous drugs.”

over the years jackson also became  dependent on sedatives, alcohol , anti – anxiety drugs and  even morphine.

without prescription drugs he could not  function, sing , dance,or perform .

but six months before his death,jackson announced a punishing schedule of 50 concerts .

“before rehearsals began, michael jackson was telling everyone how exited he was about coming out and reclaiming his crown as the king of pop and also showing his kids what he could do on the  global stage”

but behind closed doors, the promtors AEG were concerned that  jackson wasn’t up to  performing his trademark high energy routines.

they began to question health  scares publishe by the press: urgent attention ,hospitalized, cancer, bleeding , anorexia .

his personal doctor  conrad murrary assured them  that apart from bouts of insomnia,jackson was in good physical  condition .

but not everyone was so convinced, terry harvey is a music promoter with close links to the jackson family.

” do i think michael did n’t have the energy of the stamina for 50 nights, he did not have the stamina  to do 30 minutes.”

” michael knew deeep down, there was  no way he’d be able to perfom 50 shows,michael told people close to him, he didn’t know if he could do two shows.”

 so what was the truth about  jackson’s fitness.was he really up to  the tour.

the report  says that he’s 136 pounds in weight and he’s five foot nine  inches. tall .

  “which gives a BMI of 20.1  which is  normal , sop  although he appears slightly thin he is wtihin the acceptable range. you might  expecdt some furring up of the arteries in a man  age 50, but michael jackson had no evidence of this  and his heart was  in good condition too.so  for a man of his  age  he was  in good shape.”

yet   jackson was clearly in trouble at the rehearsals,he seemed short of breath stiff and  unable  to perform the routines he was famous for. in the  autopsy richard shepard has found a reason for jackson’s lackluster performance

several x-rays were taken of michael  jackson ,they showed he had osteoarthritis in one of  his fingers. and his  spine.

the vertebrae in the spine are  cushioned by areas of cartilage .

in osteoarthris the cartilage degenerates

and  the bones are left  unprotected.

this  places pressure on the joint and in  extreme circumstances the bones   can grind together.

this is a condition that would cause him some  paine and stiffness and might limit his movement” 

-richard shepherd

osteoarthritis could explain why he was struggling with movement, but it couldn’t explain why he was struggling to breathe.

  ” most of his organs are in good condition for his age, the exceptions is his lungs and they were like a battlefield the lining of the airways showed a lot of damage and both lungs showed widespread inflammation and quite extensive scarring. for michael  jackson it would made it harder for him to exert himself and he would fatigued more easily. the next question i would want to ask  is what’s caused all this damage?” 

–Richard shepherd

a possible ecplanation is written all over jackson’s face

in his mid- twenties he developed a symmetrical red rash around his cheeks,a classic symptom of another rare skin disease.  discoid lupus.which  causes  he’s hair to fall out  anywhere on the body and can damage thelips.

we cansee  fro mthe autopsy  that jackson had dark tattoos onhis eyeebrows and there were tattoos on the eyelids like eyeliner and it also got tattoos in pink around his lips .

lupus would also explain jackson’s habit of using umbrellas, the disease leaves skin sensitive to sunlight and it doesn’t  only affect the skin ,it can wreak havoc across the whole body .

” lupus is an autoimmune disease and these diseases occur when the body attacks

parts of itself “

-Richard shepherd

white blood cells usually attack foreign invaders

but in lupus these cells strike at the body itself,including the lungs.

leaving them heavily damaged.

” chronic diseases  with episodes of remission and recurrence and their  occurrence can be triggered by a  number of things , stress , exertion and lack of sleep.” 

-Richard shepherd

but is there an  alternative explanation for jackson’s lung damage.for 25 years an increasingly unstable and drug dependent jackson had  been visiting  the clinig of dermatologist dr arnold klein.

according to those who worked there these visits had become less and less about his skin 

“he would be in the office a couple  times  a week., have  very   minor procedures  done ,when he got to the office i would take him  in the back door and put him in the procedure room and  at that point i’d go get uh.. dr klein’s nurse ellen and say” michael’s here and he wants a shot.”

on every visit he’d receive at least one injection, the syringe was full of demerol a powerful medical version of heroin.

” usually the effects were pretty quick, he might  pass out , he might  be just tired , he might be loopy “

-Jason

 and jackson didn’t always come to see dr klein alone .

” if he was  with the kids, that would be a little bit of a distraction for him , the kids would usually  sit in dr klein’s office. they’d be runningand screaming and joking and it would just..it would just be a lot of fun.um… until michael got really out of it.  

-Jason

 as the tour approached jackson’s request for these  injections became more and more frequent.

” he would come in and he would demand to see dr klein quickly, he would want his shot of demerol as quickly as possible and uh… you could tell that there was  something  going on.

-Jason

by taking the drug jackson risked severe lung damage, addiction and even death.

 so , could demerol be implicated in jackson’s sudden passing?

”  the autopsy shows there are no significant injuries on he body and there is no evidence ofany significant disease ,expept in the lungs.and so we  turn to the next stage . we look for the tell- tale chemical  clues in the body . the toxicology report.

-Richard shepherd

 jackson had well publicized problems with prescription drugs, he´d been  in rehab several times and  had admitted to addictopns to painkillers. in 2009 , he was also having  frequent injection of demerol, a pharmacological equivalent of heroin 

and by early june jackson was struggling at the rehearsals for his  ” this is it ” tour.

“demerol is an incredibly powerful drug .so if you were to turn up at rehearsals on it , the reality is you’d be disorientated , you’d be dissy, you’d also struggle with your breath it creates a shortness of breath , now this is literally the opposite of what is  required when you’re perfoming”

-emma kenny

 in just 19 days time,jackson was due to embark on his record- breaking 50 -date residency in london.

” michael jackson’s mind was not ready while publicly he was telling people ‘yes i can do this’ . it was  clear  by the way he was not  turning up to rehearsals,ignoring important  production meetings , this man was not  ready for ‘this is it’ come back.

-James desborough

the situation became so desperate that  the tour’s prducer kenny ortega sent an  impassioned email to the promoters

“my concern is he appeared  quite weak and fatigue this evening ,he had a terrible case of the chills, was trembing,rambling and obsessing, everything in me says  he should be psychologically evaluated and i believe  that he really wants this , it would shatter him ,break  his heart  if we pulled the plug .he´s terribly frightened. it brooke my  heart , he was  like a lost boy.there still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if we get him the help he needs”   sincerely kenny  ortega.

the  promoters issued jackson an ultimatum shape up or they would pull the plug. 400 million dollars in debt for jackson this was not an option.

it was clear that this was about the money being on the line. for michael   he didn’t  have a choice. he had to be there or  he would lose his home his kids would be homeless and he would be in financial ruin .

five days earlier at the staples center , jackson had been struggling  with the rehearsals, he seemed sluggish and not in control of his body, but the effect of the promoter’s  threat was stunning.his next performance was  described as electric by the members of the production team. he was agile  ,lively, and like  the michael jackson of old

suddenly he makes a miraculous recovery.he gets on  stage , he performs 3o to 4o minutes and his dancing he’s singing and  performing in a way which makes them a lot  happier.

 so how did a 50 year old man with osteoarthritis,lupus , scarred lungs and aan addiction to demerol managed to turn  it around?

 the clues lying in jackson’s body and yet another  narcotic

extensive toxiclogical testing was performed on numerous samples taken from jackson’s body. in the urin samlle it was noted that the drug called ephedrine was present. ephedrine is similar to the naturally occurring adrenaline in the body  and adrenaline is the hormone that  prepares the body for fight or flight.

 when jackson took ephedrine it would  have been to energize himself.

jackson had turned to yet another drug.

 in his house  ,police discover tablets of ECA. 

A  powerful stimulant made from caffeine ,aspirin and ephedrine.

at high levels this drug can trigger  cardiac failure.

the ultimate cause of jackson’s death.

because the ephedrine is only  present in the urine  and not in his blood it can’t  be having an effect on jackson’s body and so it can’t  contribute to his death.

but the autopsy throws up a further narcotic suprise. the toxicology analysis looked for  but  did not find demerol and  this shows that jackson hadn’t  been  takeing the druf for some  time.

jackson made it through his make or break rehearsal  by loading his body with stimulants and coming off the heroin-like drug demerol . but as he returned to his  mansion this  strategi would have deadly repercussions.

because suddenly coming off demerol is highly risky. the  effects of withdrawing from demerol can be  very  difficult.in fact if you try to do it on your own, it’ s downright  dangerous, you have issues  such a s fever,you’ll feel a sense of cold, aches and pains and one of the biggest  side effects is insomnia.

 jackson had been plagued by this sleeping disorder throughout his adult life.now he is full of stimulants and  withdrawal from demerol.

but his doctor conrad murray had no idea  jacksonhad been taking this drug. let alone that  he’d suddenly stopped.

michael jackson hid his  drug habits well.

while at the location conducting one of several searches  ed winter   located a number of  bottles of prescription medication.

not only mr  jackson’s. name but in four or five aliases.

 although the majority of these drugs were   prescribed by murray

some were  recorded with  other doctors names.

terry saying jackson was not devious, he ‘s the king of manipulation, he was the puppet master  , he can tell you what you want to hear and look like it’s real and guess what , you go, okeay he’s alright . come on let’s go.

 and murray was ripe for manipulation, likei jackson  he was deep in debt.if the london shows didn’t go ahead, he too would be financially ruined.one of his roles was to ensure jackson could sleep but the autopsy reports  suggests, this would be problematic.

he does have an elarged prostate which is not at all unusual for a 50 year old man and t he has some difficulty in urination, he might  have to go to the toilet more often.

michael had a condom catheter that he used during  his sleep time so that he did not have to wake up or be  woken up to go in  and use the bathroom.

 but murrasmasterplan to get jackson to sleep also  had a more sinister pharmaceutical element.one drug really stands out in the toxicology and that’s  propofol

propofol is an  anesthetic medication which  is normally only  used in operating  theaters and  intensive care unit it’s very  powerful drug. due to its appearance and its effects it’s sometimes knwon as milk of amnesia

jackson had been using propofol as a sleep aid for nearly a decade.

ine arly 2000s, he was in the  hospital, one time they  administered michael propofol and he said he really liked the drug and became  dependent on it. and would get doctors to administer it to him

over the years this dependecy escalated.

he called jason  and said he needed an anesthesiologist  and  jasons said what  do you need an anesthesiologist for michael , and he  says well  i’ve got a  media spot in the morning and i need to be fresh for it .jason said this is crazy , he said he didn’t understand, he had never in his life heard of anything like this ever.jason was just  flabbergasted.

by june 2009 conrad murray was feeding jackson’s propofol addiction in the star’s own house. for jackson it was the ideal drug. 

propofol is a very usefuldrug because you get to sleep quickly and you wake up cleanly with no hangover but  the line between risk  and use can be very narrow. and too much drug can cause fatalities.

 murray has been giving jackson propofol for 60 night in a row. but awate of the promoter’s  ultimatum he has decided to wean jackson off the drug. for the last two nights he sent jackson off to sleep using drug called   benzodiazepines instead.

and he administered them in an unusual way.the autopsy report shows an intravenous injection site  below the knee. this is a very rare site for any medical resuscitation treatment  but it’s a common sight for intravenous drug abuse. 

 unlike the arms an injection site on the knew  is hidden away and keeps the drug abuse a secret.

when you’re actually in the press you have to consider the fact that people are watching you all the time, your being observed and your profile ‘s very important to you , so  its not actually unusual for people to inject in areas like the penis , the  groin, under the toenails for example , anything that would  distract people around them from seeing that they had an issue.

the reality is that this is  such a sad thing to see because we know that the user is aware of their problems and aware that  they don’t want other people  to know about  them . it means that the user recognizes that they have an issue.they just dont want to share that issue.

at  1 .30 am on the  25th of june 2009 conrad murray give  jackson a tablett he hopes will help  him sleep. there is valium in his system.valium is a benzodiazepine drug which  is used to treat anxiety, but commonly causes some sedation. it is an addictive drug. and long  -term use can lead to physical dependence.

but  30 minutes later jackson is still awake, murray turns to a faster acting. benzodiazepine sedative , lorazepam. after an hour  jackson still hasen’t fallen a sleep.

so murray tries a third benzodiazepine   midazolam

  may be  a little unusual to find three diferent types of benzodiazepine at the same time.but it seems likely if the intent  is to get someone to sleep  that one would start with a long- acting valium type drug move to the medium – acting lorazepam

and finally have to try the very short -acting  midazolam. so in this  situation.it does makes sense.

throughout the early hours murray gives jackson more and more benzodiazepines but they have no effect.

by 10 am a desperate jackson asks forhis drug of choice.his milk.he wants propofol.but murray resists, jackson protests, he can’t function without sleep and will have to cancel the concerts. 

at 10. 50 am conrad murray finally relents and prepares a dose of propofol. as this drug burns when it enteres the body , murray  adds a local anesthetic lidocaine  to  numb the paine.

jackson is unconscious at last.

15  minutes later conrad  murray  re- enters the singer’s bedroom. jackson is not breathing  but murray thinks he can feel a pulse. he search for flumazenil , a  drug that reverses the effects of benzodiazepines.but there’s no antidote for propofol .

 by the time the paramedics arrive murray can no longer detect a pulse.

jackson’s body  is rushed to hospital .but it’s too late.

at 14. 26 , on the 25th of june 2009, michael joseph  jackson was decleared  dead at  the UC medical cente , Los Angeles.

” the autopsy report concludes that his  cause of  death was acute proprevol intoxication with a contributory factor in the death being benzodiazepines”

 –  richard shepherd.

intravenous injection site  below the knew

once in the bloodstream both theses drugs spread around the body.when they reach the lungs they have a profoundeffect

they slow the rate , the lungs inflate and deflate so critically decreasing their ability to oxygenate the body.

 “and you’ve got to remember that jackson had really  bad lungs. and these things combined of  course the oxygen in his bloodstream to get to such  a low  level that his heart  and his brain have stopped working and he ha  died. “

-richard shepherd.

two months after his death,the autopsy result were  announced.

” The L.A county coroner has ruled michael  jackson’sdeath a  homicide.”

The prime suspect was dr conrad murray.he was tried for involuntary manslaughter.

at the trial the smoking gun was  propofol.

” conrad murray states that he gave jackson 25  milligrams of propofol at 10 .40 .  am . the toxicology report shows there was far  more than that in jackson’s bloodstream when  he died. so the qeustion remains ,how are we  going to explain this discrepancy” 

-richard shepherd.

 in court murray claimed that this anomaly was not of his doing. he suggested  it was  all down to the other person in the room . jackson himself.

 “and dr murray left the room, michael jackson  self -administered  a dose an additional cose of propofol and it killed  him and it killed him like  that and there was no way to save him.”

 but the prosecutiion had a different  version of events.

“cconrad murray’s actions directly caused the death of michael  jackson death.

 they claimed thet murrah hadecobbled together a system that kept jackson continually topped up with propofol, whilst he slept. murray cut into the lid of the a bottle of the drug.

once in the saline bag. the propofol could infuse constantly into jackson’s bloodstream.

normally saline coming down from the bag mixes with drugs inected at a port  and washes them into the body .

the prosecution maintained the drug was alerady mixed with the saline

 so they  should be  traces of propofol in the tube above the injection port.despite testing, traces of the drug were never detected.the prosecution claimed there  must be a second tube

and murray  had hidden it in the pocket of  his combat  trousers.

but this missing pieces of piping was never recovered.casting doubts on  the prosecution’s version of events.

yet this didn´t sway the jury.

“we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant conrad robert murray  Guilty of the crime of involuntary manslaughter.”

and the  autopsy supports the court’s verdict.conrad murray failed in his duty as a doctor.

” propofol ‘s a very powerful anesthetic there’s i very  fine ine between its proper effects and causing death in hospital  an anesthesiologist would have the patient attached to numerouse machines which would monitor pulse and blood pressure and oxygen levels. “

-Richard  shepherd.

 but investigators found no evidence of any  medical monitors in the mansion .

murray was sent to four years in prison for killing the king of pop.

More details

Find out what drugs were found in Michael Jackson’s body.

Propofol is a fast-acting hospital sedative used before anaesthetics