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Matthew Perry’s step-father has released a touching statement following the arrests of five people in relation to the death of the beloved Friends star.
Five individuals were arrested and charged with providing Perry with the ketamine that killed him last October, authorities said on Thursday (15 August).
At a press conference, US Attorney E Martin Estrada said the suspects include Perry’s personal assistant, two doctors, and a North Hollywood woman known as “the Ketamine Queen.”
The star, who struggled with depression and anxiety, had been using the drug in therapy to treat his mental health, but appears to have moved to using the substance outside of treatment sessions.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” one doctor who allegedly supplied Perry said, in a text to another, according to the investigation. “Let’s find out.”
Keith Morrison, Perry’s step-father and Dateline host, released a statement to NBC News along with other members of the star’s family.
“We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew’s death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously. We look forward to justice taking its course,” they said.
Morrison, 77, was identified as “informant” on Perry’s death certificate, meaning that the TV personality was responsible for identifying Perry’s body for authorities following his death.
“As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn’t go away,” he told Hoda Kotb on her Making Space podcast in March.
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“It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time, and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain. It’s not easy, especially for his mom.”
Morrison married Perry’s mother Suzanne Perry in 1981. When asked if the death was surprising he had previously said: “Yes and no”.
After a medical examiner ruled his death an accident last year, Perry’s passing was considered a closed case.
But almost seven months later an investigation, at both federal and local level, had been opened into who supplied the Friends actor with the ketamine that caused his death.
The investigation into how Perry came to have so much ketamine involved the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the LAPD confirmed in May.
The showbiz world was plunged into sadness when Perry’s death was revealed last year. The star had played Chandler Bing in Friends, a character known for his dry and witty retorts.
Following the news, his five co-stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow – released a joint statement asking for time to “process this unfathomable loss”.
