What happened to Mark Blanco is an ongoing investigation - a documentary and interviews with those involved have failed to offer a full explanation.
On December 3, 2006, Mark Blanco visited the flat of Paul Roundhill in east London's Whitechapel, supposedly looking for musician Pete Doherty. Blanco sadly died that night, resulting in his family spending nearly two decades of their lives hunting for the truth behind his death. A Channel 4 documentary Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son took a fresh look at the Blanco family's plight recently, while Pete Doherty himself has appeared in a Louis Theroux interview and touched on that fateful night. Here is the information available about what happened to Blanco on the night of his death, and how he and Doherty knew each other.
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What happened to Mark Blanco?
Mark Blanco fell from a balcony at Paul Roundhill's flat, and later died of head injuries sustained during the fall.
Blanco was a 30-year-old actor, and putting on a play - it has been suggested he knew Roundhill was friends with musician Pete Doherty, and he was hoping to invite Doherty along to the performance. According to the Guardian, Roundhill had previously admitted to having problems with drugs at the time of the incident, with Naomi Stirk who was present at the flat that evening, referring to his property as "an environment of excess."
Stirk recalls a tense atmosphere when Blanco arrived, witnessing him being escorted out by Doherty’s bodyguard, Jonathan Jeannevol - known as Johnny Headlock. As outlined in the Channel 4 documentary, Johnny Headlock confessed to killing Blanco, but later retracted his statement, citing being on drugs at the time of issuing it as the reason for taking the statement back - he was later released without charge.
The documentary also calls on FBI instructor Grant Fredericks, to review CCTV footage of Blanco falling. After examining the footage and using modern techniques to recreate Blanco's movements on the balcony, Fredericks suggested foul play. Johnny Headlock, Doherty and his then girlfriend Kate Russell-Pavier, can also be seen leaving the scene after Blanco's fall in the images.
The case remains ongoing, and nobody has yet been charged in relation to Mark Blanco's death.
Why did Pete Doherty leave the scene?
Pete Doherty has said he ran away from the scene due to being in possession of drugs, and fears of being arrested.
According to MailOnline, the musician opened up to Louis Theroux about his reasons for fleeing. "I probably should have stood my ground, taken a deep breath and had the f***ing balls to stay there, flush everything down the toilet and be there when the police came," he said.
Doherty added "'But I didn't want to see the police. It was a f***ing inconvenience to me and that's an awful thing to say. He's lying dying in the street and I was concerned about getting nicked for possession." Having told the police he didn't see what happened, he concluded "I just remember feeling so much f***ing relief when I told the police what I knew and they believed me."
How did Mark Blanco know Pete Doherty?
It appears that Mark Blanco only knew Paul Roundhill when he attended his flat on the evening of his death, and didn't know Pete Doherty at the time.
Roundhill was known for hosting parties attended by intellectuals, and Cambridge graduate Blanco was among his circle of friends. Excited about an acting job he had in The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, it is thought Blanco attended Roundhill's party knowing Doherty would be in attendance, with the intention of persuading him to attend the play. It is believed that the two didn't have an existing friendship.
Allegedly becoming annoyed with Blanco's persistence, Doherty asked Johnny Headlock to have a word with him. After escorting him from the flat, the remaining party attendees maintain they were unaware Blanco had returned, when he was then found on the floor outside by someone leaving the party.
Blanco's mother Sheila was initially told her son had likely taken his own life, but she did not believe this to be the case, feeling police had not followed all lines of inquiry. A coroner later ruled the death not to be a suicide, recording an open verdict and requesting police reopen the investigation.
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