Pop star Darius Campbell Danesh looked happy and healthy only days before his death during a night out in the US with pal Gerard Butler. In the last pictures of the Scots singer in public, he is seen going on rides and speaking to fans at a fair in Minnesota.
Ten days after his trip to the Olmstead Country Fair in Rochester, Darius, 41, was found dead in a hotel apartment. Netti Phang, who bumped into him and Hollywood star Butler at the fair, said: “I still can’t believe I was one of the last people to talk to him or see him alive.
“It’s hard to understand how something like this happened. Darius could not have been a nicer human being. Even though they were in a hurry and it was late at night, Darius stayed and took pictures and was patient while everyone swarmed Gerard.
“I was very sad when I learned he had passed such a short while after meeting him.”
Darius, from Bearsden, near Glasgow, was found unresponsive in an apartment opposite the medical facility The Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, which is just a short drive from the fair.
He died from “inhalation of chloroethane”, according to the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office and his death was ruled an accident by the medical examiner.
Chloroethane is a pain relief spray but also has a history of being inhaled as a recreational drug.
His family said he was using it for chronic neck pain caused by a 2010 car crash when he was a passenger in a Porsche which skidded and hit a wall at 70mph in Spain.
As well as Paisley-born Butler, the singer was with a mum and her three children and another female friend at the fair. Netti was working there to help with crowd control when she recognised the two stars.
She said: “While getting pics with Gerard was cool and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was super-excited to talk to Darius and have him meet my friend LaSonya, who is a local celebrity. She was performing that night at the fair.
“She is an amazing singer and we had made plans for Darius to join her on stage to sing at some point.
“They both asked us about our organisation and even took our contact info so they could stay in touch with us and learn more about what our organisation does.”
Netti said she didn’t recognise the rest of the group.
In a video obtained by the Sunday Mail, taken the same night, the Colourblind singer looks the picture of health as he sports a baseball cap, white floral shirt, trainers and casual trousers.
He is seen laughing and joking and even filmed sitting on a stool in front of an arcade game.
At one point he swivels round and takes out his phone to record Butler talking to a little girl. Darius and Butler were firm pals and would visit Scotland together from the US.
They attended a Scotland rugby match together last year and also popped into the Taylor Ferguson hair salon.
Following Darius’s death, Butler was spotted and posed with fans in Minnesota before heading back to work.
The actor revealed how he was devastated by the sudden death and described Darius as his “true brother in arms”.
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