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The sister of a man who investigators say died after taking drugs bought from the so-called “Ketamine Queen” has spoken out for the first time after the alleged dealer was charged in connection to Matthew Perry’s death.
Cody McLaury, 33, an aspiring personal trainer, had purchased drugs from Jasveen Sangha — the alleged Hollywood who goes by the moniker the “Ketamine Queen” — in August 2019, according to prosecutors.
Hours later, McLaury died from an overdose.
Now, fives year later, Sangha is one of five people who have been arrested and charged over the Friends star’s death.
McLaury's sister Kimberly told CNN that, following her brother’s death, she went through her brother’s phone and found texts between him and someone she believed to be his dealer.
The chat suggested that McLaury used Venmo to pay the dealer for ketamine.
Kimberly sent the dealer a text telling her that her drugs had killed her brother.
“After his death certificate came out, I texted back and said ‘just so you know the ketamine that you sold my brother was listed as his cause of death,’” she told the network.
She said she never heard back. “I just assumed that she didn’t care,” she said.
Kimberly told CNN that her brother had been living in Los Angeles for four years before he died.
Earlier this year, she said she received a surprise visit at her Washington home from Los Angeles Police Department officers.
That's when she became suspicious that her brother's death may have been connected to Perry's.
Kimberly learned from the LAPD that the text message she sent Sangha may have indirectly given prosecutors the evidence they needed to file charges against her, she said.
After Sangha received Kimberly's text, she carried out a Google search asking “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death,” according to prosecutors.
Investigators said the search proved that Sangha knew that “unsupervised and improper use of ketamine can be deadly.”
Sangha had continued to sell ketamine from her stash house after McLaury’s death, prosecutors allege.
Kimberly said that seeing the dealer who sold her brother a fatal dose of ketamine being charged has left her with some mixed emotions – both sadness and “vindication.”
“I just assumed that she didn’t care, that she was an uncaring person and selling drugs is what she did. And she was just going to move on with her life,” Kimberly added.
Sangha, 41, and four others were arrested and charged in August with providing Perry with the ketamine that killed him on October 28 last year, authorities said on Thursday.
The other suspects include Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s acquaintance Erik Fleming and two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez.
According to an indictment unsealed in Los Angeles federal court, Iwamasa and Erik Fleming worked with the two doctors to procure large quantities of ketamine for Perry in the period leading up to his death.
Sangha, meanwhile, is accused of supplying Perry with the ketamine doses that ultimately killed him, US Attorney E. Martin Estrada said at a press conference.
Sangha began supplying Perry with ketamine in mid-October – just days before he died, according to prosecutors.
She is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.
She was not charged directly with McLaury’s death.
Sangha has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
