Los Angeles, Dec 21 (IANS): Brittany Murphy's half-brother Tony Bertolotti claims the actress was murdered, adding that sometimes an actress is worth more dead than alive.
Bertolotti has been investigating Brittany's death for 10 years after she collapsed at her home here on December 20, 2009. It was reported that she died from pneumonia and drug intoxication at an age of 32.
Bertolotti, a sibling from their father Angelo's first marriage, feels her death is connected to her husband and screenwriter Simon Monjack, who died just five months later, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The Los Angeles coroner Ed Winter ruled the deaths were due to pneumonia, anaemia and drug intoxication, which was supported by the presence of dozens of prescription pills in their systems.
"If you look at it from a distance, it's like here's this young lady, a fairly healthy girl, she's home with her supposed husband and mother, and she died. How absurd is it? It's only in Hollywood that it's considered another day at the zoo. No one takes her to a hospital, which is just four miles away," Bertolotti said.
"I spent years looking at this, suppressing my own anger. I think Brittany was taken out. Who killed Brittany? She didn't die of natural causes," he added.
Monjack failed in Hollywood and had business debts. Bertolotti believes that their deaths are connected to Monjack's business dealings.
"I don't know what business decisions they were making at that time, but it (the deaths) sound business-related to me. I've heard all sorts of cr*p, so what is true? I don't believe the drugs line that much, I don't buy it. I'm sure there was experimentation. But Brittany was conservative with that stuff, she was a bright girl. Then there's the fan club that something nasty happened to Brittany and I believe it with all my heart. You have to go back to the money. Jimmy Hendrix died, but the money kept flowing for many, many years afterwards. Sometimes an actress is worth more dead than alive.
"You've got to look at who's collecting the money now? I don't know. Every time the movie comes on, someone is getting paid. Whoever's got the money knows the truth. There was a group of at least 15 to 30 people around Brittany, and you tell me that no one knows nothing? Are you kidding? If I had the money to properly investigate her death, I'd go round all of them, but they wouldn't speak to me," he said.
Bertolotti continued: "My father was up to it like a hound dog, but then got sick and had a stroke. Til his dying day he was obsessed with finding out what happened. He went up to a bunch of these people, but no one would talk to him. We couldn't find out anything. What's it all tell you? The thing is locked down."
"All of them who had personal contact with her in the last two, three weeks of her life could speak out, so I could understand this, but you'll find that no one wants to talk. I think it's one of the biggest conspiracies in Hollywood like Hendrix. Some day someone might find something, but it won't be me or my other brother Jeff, we're too old for that now," added the 70-year-old.