01x08 - Brittney Murphy

[bunniefuu]

In the late '90s
and early 2000s,

Brittany Murphy
was kind of everywhere,

doing all of the perfect roles.

She was in "Sin City,"
"Girl, Interrupted,"

"8 Mile."

Then she fell out
of the spotlight.

And then she died.

I was shocked.

Most people in their 30s
don't just drop dead.

When I heard the news
that Brittany had passed,

I just fell to my knees
and started sobbing.

- Immediately it was like, "Okay.
- What's going on here?"

What's being said
on social media?

What are the allegations
being made online

about what really happened?

"Her death was so bizarre,

and there are so many twists
and turns."

But it's so mysterious.

Of course people want to know
what happened.

- Who wanted her dead?
- Who benefited from her dying?

Well, that's where things
start to get really confusing,

and there's a lot
of conflicting reports online.

So from a sleuthing perspective,

this case is really difficult.

Brittany Murphy's father
concluded

that it was the Department
of Homeland Security

that had her assassinated.

Brittany's original autopsy

did show the presence of lead
in her blood.

The lead level in her hair
was 1,000 times that amount.

Brittany Murphy's father
concluded

that she was likely poisoned.

I do believe he "k*lled her"...

...but not on purpose.

911 emergency.

The official narrative
doesn't tell the whole story.

You really have to look
at everything.

You still have to go down
that rabbit hole.

You still have to go down
that path.

When a celebrity dies, the
search for answers moves online,

and the truth may be
one click away.

Fire Department 917.

What was the address
of the emergency?

1895 Rising Glen Road.

- Tell me exactly what happened.
- My daughter's passed out!

- Please get here quick! Please!
- Okay. Okay.

All right.
We're going to.

Can you feel or hear
any breathing?

Can you hear anything, Simon?

- Yes or no?
- Yes or no?

- No?!
- Okay.

Oh, my God.

Brittany, please come back!

Ma'am?

At 8:00 a.m.,
December 20, 2009,

actress Brittany Murphy
collapses

in her Hollywood Hills home.

She is rushed
to Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

An hour later,
she is pronounced dead.

Actress Brittany Murphy,

who began her career
in the early 1990s

and became well known for her
roles in "Girl, Interrupted,"

""Clueless,"" and "8 Mile,
has died at the age of 32.

The news of actress
Brittany Murphy's death

shocks Hollywood and her fans.

I'm Sara Hammel,

and at the time
that Brittany Murphy died,

I was a reporter in People
magazine's Los Angeles bureau.

I will never forget where I was

when I heard Brittany Murphy
died.

Someone called and said,
"Get to the office.

Make some phone calls."

No one really knew
what was going on,

but they were all crowding
to get to her house,

and everyone was like, "This is
too young for someone to die."

Brittany Murphy's tragic passing

captures everyone's imagination,

just like she did
when she took Hollywood by storm

at a very young age.

Brittany Murphy was
a lifelong performer.

She... It was almost like
she was born to perform.

In the spring of 1991,

Brittany moved to Hollywood
with her mother, Sharon.

It was just Sharon and Brittany.

I mean, her father was out
of the picture.

It was a single mother
and her daughter,

just them against the world.

But it is her role in the 1995
blockbuster "Clueless"

that catapults Brittany
into official celebrity status.

I am Trista Jordan.

I am a celebrity makeup artist

for feature films
and television.

I remember Brittany Murphy
from "Girl, Interrupted"

and "Clueless."

Just perky and at the start
of her career

and she's gonna win awards.

You know, that's how good
she is.

After "Clueless,"
Brittany Murphy becomes

the quintessential millennium
movie star,

in films like "8 Mile"
and "Don't Say a Word."

Brittany Murphy was chosen
to star in a movie

with Michael Douglas
called "Don't Say a Word."

And this was a movie where she
really got people's attention.

But it is her love life that
catches everyone's attention.

She dated an eclectic array
of heartthrobs,

like Ashton Kutcher and Eminem.

But in 2006,

she marries the relatively
unknown Simon Monjack,

a match that catches many people
off guard.

When Brittany started getting
together with Simon Monjack

for the first time,

alarm bells went off
very quickly

with those around her.

He moved into her house
very quickly,

and her friends and those
who cared about her in Hollywood

were immediately alarmed.

Once married,
Brittany fades from the tabloids

and things seem to settle down,
until her tragic death.

She had a very bright career
ahead of her.

She just died too soon.

Los Angeles police have opened
an investigation into her death.

Detectives and coroner's
officials were at the home

Sunday afternoon.

We're conducting
an investigation

into the death
of Brittany Murphy.

It appears to be natural
at this time.

In a report issued
February 2010,

the official cause of Brittany
Murphy's death is pneumonia,

complicated with anemia
and multiple drug intoxication.

It is ruled an accidental death.

But some family and friends

aren't buying
the official report.

The fact that Brittany Murphy
died so young

and died
with people in the house

who were supposed to be
looking out for her,

it really got people
wondering...

"How could this have happened?"

And people just were
never satisfied

with any of the answers
that came out officially

because it made no sense.

I think there's
so many conspiracies

around Brittany Murphy's death
because it is a mystery.

Here's a woman that we watched
rise to stardom,

and she was in her 30s,

and she's an incredibly
talented actress.

Crazy.

As Brittany's death
captures headlines,

the Internet explodes

with posts picking apart
the official story.

Many loud voices speculate

that Murphy did not die
of natural causes.

Even now, each passing day
seems to bring

more online conspiracy theorists
out of the woodwork,

from allegations of elaborate
m*rder plots on Reddit

to online crowdsourcing sites

dedicated to disproving
the coroner's findings.

I do feel like this passing
of Brittany Murphy...

I don't feel good about it.

I don't think that the autopsy
does it for me.

I think there's more
to the story.

So, right before she died,
she didn't go to the hospital

because her husband was scared
of the paparazzi.

So they didn't go.

What?

I don't understand
Sharon Murphy, and I...

There are so many
unanswered questions that I have

that you probably can't answer.

Nobody can answer, right?

Actually, her father
went onto an interview

and claims that he believes
that she was poisoned.

Oddly enough, it turns out
that Brittany Murphy

and Simon Monjack were on the
Homeland Security's watch list.

The cyber world can't shake off
the sense

that Brittany Murphy died
in some nefarious way.

And they are in disbelief

that it is actually possible
that Homeland Security

had something to do
with Brittany Murphy's death.

My name is Deanna Thompson.

I have a Bachelor
of Science degree

in information technology.

I have been in the tech
industry for almost 30 years.

On the weekends and at nights,

I basically Web-sleuth
for crimes

and try to find the perpetrators
behind those crimes.

Known as Baudi Moovan,

Deanna Thompson is one
of the most famous

and passionate Internet sleuths
there is.

My Web-sleuthing work
was turned into a documentary

called "Don't F With Cats"
at the end of 2019.

Deanna helped catch
serial k*ller Luka Magnotta

by watching his YouTube videos

and tracking
his digital movements.

I don't like people
getting away with things.

This thirst for justice
can make me sick physically.

I can stay up all night
looking into things.

Deanna's success
as an armchair detective

has since made her the
most sought-after cybersleuth.

Sleuthing involves
thinking critically

and asking critical questions.

So when it comes
to Brittany Murphy,

the questions I ask myself
are...

Did she have any enemies?
Who wanted her dead?

Who benefited from her dying?
And then how did she die?

The investigation treats
her death as a tragic accident.

But as online investigators
start poring over the details,

more conspiracy theories counter
this conclusion.

My name is Justin Ling, and I
am an investigative journalist.

Investigative journalism,
at the end of the day,

is really just about
diving deeper,

you know, spending more time
with the story,

talking to more sources,
trying to find information.

When it comes
to Brittany Murphy,

there's a lot of big claims
being made here,

and I want to see
if any of them hold up.

But there is certainly a lot
of bullshit noise

that went with it, too.

One particularly outlandish
claim that popped up

alleges that disgraced Hollywood
mogul Harvey Weinstein

hired former Israeli
military operatives

to k*ll Brittany Murphy.

So in trying to put together
a picture of what happened

and what the Internet
alleges happened,

we've assigned
professional investigators

to take on the case.

I'm currently
a criminal investigator

with my sheriff's department,

and I've attended
countless death scenes,

and I am always just intrigued

with the ones
that are less than obvious.

We just don't have all
the answers to the questions

of exactly what happened
minute to minute

leading up to her death.

So I did a lot of research
on Reddit

and watched a bunch
of YouTube videos,

and I pieced together
her last 24 hours.

I made a Freedom of Information
request for the police report

and the autopsy report.

That's how I found out
what happened to Brittany Murphy

the day she died.

Cybersleuths hope the answers
are somewhere in the details

of her last moments.

So, Brittany went
into the bathroom

at approximately 7:30 a.m.

And about 30 minutes later,
Sharon went looking for her

and found her
in the master bathroom

on the floor next to her
dog bed, and she was passed out.

Brittany's mom apparently
lets out a scream.

Brittany's husband hears
the scream,

and he goes running
to the bathroom

and also observes Brittany
laying on the floor.

At this point,
Brittany's mother calls 911,

reports that her daughter's
unresponsive.

- All right.
- Listen to me carefully.

I'm gonna tell you
how to do compressions, okay?

Until help can take over.

During the 911 call,

the dispatcher is giving
Sharon instructions,

and Simon can be heard in the
background giving Brittany CPR.

Count out loud so I can...
I can count with you, okay?

- Count out loud.
- I want to hear it.

It's got to be at this rate...
like one, two, three,

four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine.

Keep going at that rate.

- ...eight, nine...
- That's too slow.

So it's kind of surreal
listening to the 911 call

because you can hear Simon
trying to save Brittany's life.

But the dispatcher's like,
"It's too slow,"

and you get the real sense that
Simon has no sense of urgency.

And then Sharon cries out,
"Brittany, wake up!

Wake up!
Please come back!"

And it's heartbreaking.

It's heartbreaking to listen
to this 911 call.

Oh, my God.

Brittany, please come back!

Ma'am?

The paramedics are on the scene
by 8:08,

and by 8:11, she is flatlining.

And so the paramedics worked
on her for a good nine minutes.

So once they got her
sort of stabilized,

they rushed her to
Cedars-Sinai Medical Hospital.

But, unfortunately, was
pronounced dead by 10:05 a.m.

Hollywood is left haunted
by her sudden death,

and crime chat rooms light up,
trying to dissect

what may have really happened
to Brittany Murphy.

There's a whole bunch of things
in Brittany Murphy's death

that individually
might not mean all that much,

but taken together
do kind of paint a picture

of something being amiss.

It was hard for all of us
covering it

and watching this unfold

to understand how a 32-year-old
woman could die of pneumonia

when she lives how far

from one of the best hospitals
on the planet.

So immediately it was like,
"Okay. What's going on here?"

Who dies of pneumonia in L.A.
in the 21st century?

I don't think Sharon or Simon
can be ruled out

as a suspect
in Brittany's death.

The mom literally shared a bed

with her dead daughter's
husband.

Something's up here.

And my immediate gut reaction
was, like, cringe,

like, "Ooh.

Ooh.
This is not good for them."

Brittany Murphy was sort of
that quintessential

late-'90s/millennium era
film star.

The role that would absolutely
catapult Brittany Murphy

into being a bona fide celebrity

was opposite Alicia Silverstone
in 1995's "Clueless."

I loved that movie,

and she played kind of, like,
a dorky character,

so I, like, immediately related.

It was like the perfect role
for her.

When Brittany Murphy
suddenly dies

in her Hollywood Hills home,

the Internet kicks into
overdrive to make sense of it.

Right away,
Brittany's erratic behavior

in the weeks and months
before her death

spark immediate speculation.

So, I met Brittany just
a few months before she passed,

on the set
of "Something Wicked."

When I met her, I was shocked.

She was sickly thin.

The first thing that went
through my head was,

"What was the cause
of her demise?"

What was it
that was making her sick

on the set
of "Something Wicked"?

Was Brittany anorexic?
Did she have an illness?

Headlines about an eating
disorder and cocaine abuse

become widespread fodder for
gossip rags and online bullies.

The fact remained

that Brittany Murphy did
sometimes act a little bit off.

That drew attention to her
and made you wonder...

Was she taking illicit drugs?

You know, all of Molly's ideos...

you know, all of her little
idiosyncraties...

or idiosyncrasies are...

Idiosyncra-ta-bees.

When they run
the toxicology report,

they find no ill*gal
or illicit drugs

in Brittany Murphy's system.

With the overdose rumors
put to bed,

a leading theory online
is about her husband.

There's no doubt in my mind

that her husband, Simon,
is involved in some way.

As Internet investigators
take a deep dive

into Brittany Murphy and
Simon Monjack's relationship,

they notice a pattern
of a controlling husband.

And even after she dies,

he is seen trying to control
the narrative.

So when a 32-year-old,
relatively healthy woman dies,

there's going to be
an autopsy performed

because, you know, the coroner
has to rule out foul play.

And I don't think
it was completely proved

that Brittany did not die
from homicide.

A short time after his wife's
passing, Simon Monjack

and Brittany Murphy's mom,
Sharon, are interviewed on TV.

During the Larry King interview
that I watched,

Simon mentioned that when
the police told him

there was going to be an autopsy
performed, he protested.

So Simon did not want
the autopsy done.

And then Simon says, "I don't
want them cutting into her..."

you know, "my beautiful,
curvy-bodied wife

with this very, you know,
silky skin."

It was very odd.

Simon is objectifying
her dead body,

and, like, he needs to give the
police permission to touch it.

It did get a lot of people
talking,

because that's when you start
to wonder...

"Well, why doesn't he want
an autopsy?"

In my opinion,
it felt much more to me

like he didn't want
certain things exposed.

Sleuths analyze the behavior
between mother and son-in-law,

searching for clues
of a cover-up.

I'm hearing Simon call
his mother-in-law "baby."

And she replies with,
"Oh, sweetheart, you're right."

And my immediate gut reaction
was, like, cringe,

like, "Ooh.

Ooh.
This is not good for them."

I found their interview
very educational

because I am skilled
at studying behavior

and analyzing language,
and it made me wonder,

"What's actually going on
between these two?"

It's... strange,
and it's suspicious.

So after she died,

these are the pictures
of her mother and her husband.

Mind you, they all lived
in the house together.

You can't tell me
that's not weird.

He's literally holding her.

Why is she laying on his h...
Like, what?

And they looked like
grieving parents.

They didn't look like
mother-in-law and son-in-law.

The mom literally shared a bed
with her dead daughter's husband

in the house
that her daughter owned.

Something's up here.

And there's a big rumor
on the Internet,

specifically on Reddit
and YouTube...

Simon married Brittany

although he was really dating
Sharon.

So it does make you
ask questions like,

"What is their relationship?"

And it takes you back
to the question

of who would have benefited
from Brittany's death.

Then Simon gives Radar Online
an exclusive tour of the house.

He's, like, kind of showing
things off a little bit.

A little bit braggadocious.

You're the first people to
ever see the infamous bathroom.

You know, "This is the bathroom
where everything happened."

And he seemed like...

"Nobody has seen this before."

Like, "I'm granting you
exclusive access

to where Brittany died."

And just you can see my wife
had a penchant for cosmetics.

- It was very strange.
- It was very macabre.

The autopsy calls Brittany
Murphy's death an accident,

but for many watching,
despite his denials,

it just doesn't add up.

I don't think Simon can be
ruled out

as a suspect
in Brittany's death.

The top motive
probably would have been money.

According to my research
and investigation,

Brittany did have a will
upon her death

and that will designated
$10 million go to her mother

and the rest go to her husband,
Simon.

As journalists
and Internet detectives

dig into Simon's story,

they discover that he's been
hiding some things.

Simon Monjack invented
large aspects of his biography,

including having cancer

and being fabulously wealthy
on top of dating Madonna.

It wasn't really
till after Brittany Murphy died

that we started to get
a full picture

of who Simon Monjack really was,

and it's not
a terribly flattering picture.

It really reveals a guy who
doesn't have a lot of scruples.

Her husband, Simon,
was a pathological liar.

They found several instances

where he blatantly lied to
not only Brittany but the public

about certain things
that he had done.

Simon Monjack wasn't just
telling white lies.

He was siphoning

millions of dollars
from Brittany's accounts.

He had debt racked up
all across the country

under a series of pseudonyms,

and he had fathered multiple
children with another woman

that Brittany Murphy didn't know
anything about.

So Simon Monjack, by the time
he met Brittany Murphy,

he had a long history
of conning people...

women, men, businesspeople,
you name it.

So if this guy is willing
to lie about these major things

that can actually be
easily debunked,

what else has he lied about?

Is he lying about something
surrounding Brittany's death?

Cybersleuths hunt for
more clues into Simon Monjack

and think they figured him out
when a major twist occurs.

Immediately you go
to the mother,

because who benefited
from Brittany's death?

There were 10 different
heavy metals

that were way above
the normal range.

The lab report concludes that
she was deliberately poisoned.

Simon Monjack became
a household name

when he married young actress
Brittany Murphy.

After his wife's death,

he was infamously deemed
suspect number one

by online detectives...

until Sharon Murphy is heard
on the other end

of yet another 911 call.

My son-in-law...
He stopped breathing!

On May 23, 2010,

paramedics arrive at Simon
Monjack's Hollywood Hills home

and pronounce him dead
on arrival.

To some online sleuths and fans,

this twist raises
sinister suspicions.

They wonder...
Could it be that Sharon Murphy

may have been hiding the truth
all along?

Immediately you go
to the mother,

because who benefited
from Brittany's death?

The mother, because she was the
only one who was in the will.

Five months after
Brittany Murphy died,

Simon became ill,

and he was experiencing the same
symptoms as Brittany Murphy.

And he died... of the same thing
that Brittany Murphy died of.

He died from pneumonia.

And when that happened,
it was like, "Whoa."

The uncanny similarities
of their deaths raise suspicion.

No one believes that they both
died of the same natural causes.

I've never seen a case
where a young wife dies

and five months later
a youngish husband dies,

basically from the same
underlying factors.

Not only the same
underlying factors,

but even the couple's final
hours alive are eerily similar.

The night Brittany died,
she passed out twice.

Eventually it got to the point

where she had told
her mother, Sharon,

"Mommy, I'm dying.
I'm going to die."

To me, that is alarming

that a mother would ignore
those requests for help,

those cries for help
from her own daughter.

Then Simon's mother,
Linda Monjack, comes forward

and reveals
a shocking coincidence.

That leads to more
social-media speculation.

Simon had a phone.

Mm-hmm.

And he called her for help.

And that clearly stated,
"Help me, Sharon. Help me."

And she didn't.

In the court of public opinion,

Sharon Murphy isn't looking
too good right now.

And Brittany Murphy's father,
Angelo Bertolotti,

also comes forward
with his own allegations.

In an interview
with The Examiner,

Brittany Murphy's father
is asked,

"Do you think there's a person
of interest?"

And he responded and said
that Sharon Murphy

should be interviewed and
investigated first and foremost.

And he sues
the Los Angeles coroner's office

for failure
to properly investigate

his daughter's death,

which he believes was a result
of poisoning.

So Murphy's father submits
her hair, saliva, and blood

for a second toxicology report.

And it comes back with some
pretty out-there findings.

My name's Lisa Scheinin.

I am a retired
deputy medical examiner,

formerly from the Los Angeles
County coroner's office.

I have read several articles
about the results,

and they reportedly said

that there were 10
different heavy metals

that were way above
the normal range.

Levels of certain rodenticide
and insecticides

that are somewhere between two
and nine times

over the safe limit.

The lab report concludes that
the only plausible explanation

for this level of these poisons

is a third party
with criminal intent.

In other words,
she was deliberately poisoned.

Her father claims
it's incredibly suspicious,

and he feels
that she was poisoned.

There is no question about it.

I'm not really sure how
Brittany's father made the leap

from Sharon being
suspect number one

to the U.S. government.

But Simon and Brittany
both believed

that they were being followed,
so I think her dad concluded

that whoever was following them
around had them both k*lled.

And that's when
the ultimate villain

of every great conspiracy theory

enters chat rooms
and discussion boards online.

I came across
an hour-long YouTube video

that posited the question
"m*rder*d by the deep state?"

So naturally,
that piqued my interest.

Now, the father, Angelo,
comes back into the picture

in order to insert themselves

with some wild,
QAnon-like theories

as to what happened with
Brittany and her husband, Simon.

He said also
that there was, like,

the U.S. government
might have taken them out too.

In the years after Brittany
Murphy's father concluded

that she was likely poisoned,

probably with heavy metals
or arsenic,

he turned to the idea

that it was the Department
of Homeland Security

that had her assassinated.

Suddenly, Angelo is making
media appearances

with a former employee

of the United States Department
of Homeland Security.

Together,
Brittany Murphy's father

and this whistleblower,
Julia Davis,

went to the media to point the
finger at the U.S. government

as being the culprit
for Brittany Murphy's m*rder.

When total outsider Julia Davis,

a former Customs
and Border Protections officer,

enters the Brittany Murphy
death saga,

the Internet uncovers
a bizarre allegation.

In my research,
I came across a name

of a woman named Julia Davis,

who appears to have
some sort of loose connection

to Brittany Murphy
and possibly her father.

So there is an allegation
out there

that Brittany Murphy was tied up

with a Department of
Homeland Security whistleblower

who blew the lid
off of government inaction

in fighting an al-Qaeda
terror plot.

Reportedly, somehow Julia
and Brittany Murphy

came to know each other

and Brittany at least verbally
supported Julia's efforts

to be a whistleblower.

According to this whistleblower,

she was targeted by the
Department of Homeland Security,

including a raid on her house

that included
a Black Hawk helicopter.

And because Brittany Murphy
came to her defense,

the government had her
and her husband k*lled.

The theories swirling around
Brittany Murphy's death

seem to get stranger
and stranger,

with rumors about a potential
poisoning and the deep state,

words you would never associate
with Brittany Murphy.

But then the rumors turned
to a seemingly deadly k*ller

inside the Hollywood Hills home.

So Britney Spears sold
Brittany Murphy

this $3.5 million house
in West Hollywood,

fully furnished, in 2003.

One of the things that I found
really remarkable

was the fact
that both of these women

intuitively just didn't want to
be in this house.

It could be evidence
for something else.

As online investigators
sift through

all the potential death theories
and gather clues and research,

yet another red flag
is raised...

a belief
that the Murphy-Monjack home

was infested with deadly mold.

It's so sketchy that they both
passed in such a similar way

and everyone's so unsure
of what really happened.

Investigators found
that the home was suffering

from a pack-rat
and hoarding situation.

There was also a ton of mold
and dust supposedly in the home.

As sleuths look into the house,

they discover an interesting
history behind its walls.

So Britney Spears sold
Brittany Murphy

this $3.5 million house
in West Hollywood,

fully furnished, in 2003,

according to her
former makeup artist.

Supposedly, though,
Britney Spears hated this place,

and part of the explanation
for why she despised it so much

is because apparently
she had been seeing spirits.

There were some bad spirits

trying to push Britney Spears
down the stairs,

so Britney left immediately.

Sold the house
to Brittany Murphy.

My name is Michael Rubino,
founder of HomeCleanse.

So, I have a certification
called

council-certified microbial
remediation supervisor,

which is the highest
certification in my field

that you can get

and requires at least 10 years
of experience in the field.

One of the things that I found
really remarkable

was the fact
that both of these women

intuitively just didn't want to
be in this house.

Certain species of mold
are known as to be toxigenic.

But an interesting toxic effect
that one can have

is hallucinations.

Skin-crawling hallucinations
in the fungus world

is not uncommon.

Just ask anyone who's ever taken
magic mushrooms.

It is very plausible

that they were having
hallucination effects

from the levels of mold
that were inside the home.

In Brittany's case,
she moved into the home in 2003,

passed away in 2009.

That's a potential six years
of exposure

to whatever water damage,
bacteria, mold,

et cetera that was going on
in her environment.

They call mold
the silent k*ller,

mainly because we don't have
X-ray vision

and oftentimes we can't see
the mold

that's actually growing
behind our walls.

So it's silent,
but it can be deadly.

Initially, Sharon Murphy calls
the toxic-mold theory absurd,

only to recant that statement
years later,

when she says she discovered
evidence of it inside the walls.

But here's the problem
with that,

and it boils down to this...
Why is she okay?

If you look at
where Brittany Murphy

and Monjack and Sharon
were located inside this home,

one person's upstairs, right?

That's Sharon.

Brittany and Monjack
are downstairs.

They're obviously far apart.

They're not breathing
the exact same air.

When the Los Angeles County
Department of Health

go into the house
to check for mold,

cybersleuths go into overdrive,

cross-referencing the signs
and symptoms of deadly mold

against the finding in Brittany
Murphy's coroner's report.

Well, some of the most common
symptoms that people experience

are things like brain fog
and chronic fatigue.

But it also can cause
hormonal disruption,

which can obviously cause
disruption to your thyroid,

create things like
irregular menstrual cycles.

One of the primary
contributing factors

in Brittany Murphy's death
was iron deficiency anemia.

I found it
very, very interesting

that the two of them both had
iron deficiency anemia.

The most common cause of
iron deficiency anemia in women

is especially heavy periods.

She had that history.

What's really interesting
about all of this, too,

is we're talking about mold,

but we're not talking about
what mold creates,

and that could be mycotoxins.

It has the ability to cause
something like anemia,

which then could, you know,
create a weakened immune system

and where you can die

from even something as simple
as the common cold.

So if this theory holds true,
it means this black mold

was hiding in the bones
of the house,

that Brittany and Simon
were inhaling it every day.

If this is the case,

it could have contributed
to their respiratory health,

it could have led
to their pneumonia,

and it could have ultimately
caused their deaths.

Two seemingly healthy people
dying inside the same house,

having the same
underlying symptoms,

only five months apart.

It's no wonder
that justice-seekers

can't just blindly accept
the official reports.

It's their role to question
and find truth and closure.

I don't know if her husband
didn't believe in doctors

or he convinced her not to go.

Brittany Murphy would be here
today if she hadn't met Simon.

I would characterize
the relationship as a*usive.

The speculation
over Brittany Murphy's death

stems from one feeling...

the disbelief that a vibrant,
32-year-old, beloved actress

would die from pneumonia.

And it left a lot of people

seeking a different explanation
online,

including her family,

wanting to be sure no stone
was left unturned.

I think there was a feeling
that Brittany Murphy

was really screwed over at every
step of her career, right?

By studio executives who didn't
think she had the right look,

by the media, by paparazzi,
maybe even by her own partner.

So while the cause of death
was called an accident

and the official prognosis
was pneumonia,

the question still remains...
why and how?

Cybersleuths do their digging,

their gathering,
and their analysis

and believe the answer
can be found in the events

that precede that fatal morning
on December 20, 2009.

Anybody alive at this time
can tell you that Hollywood

was probably at its most toxic
in that era.

It was absolutely brutal.

There's even this one story
of an agent

who remarked that she was
"huggable but not..."

And it appears that that comment

led Brittany to try to
completely change her image.

She went from being
a dark brunette to blond,

and she dropped
a significant amount of weight.

And yet the coroner's
examination reports

that Brittany Murphy
was of normal body weight.

Although there was never
any medical diagnosis

that I uncovered that indicated
Brittany had an eating disorder,

I do think there are
some indicators

that she may have suffered
from one.

Losing all that weight
does make you vulnerable,

and that's the important part
of Brittany Murphy's death.

When you're vulnerable,
you're going to be vulnerable

to outside suggestion, right?

And it is during
this vulnerable time in her life

when she falls for
Simon Monjack.

When she married Simon,
he became everything to her.

He was her talent manager,
her makeup artist.

He took over her entire career,
and he isolated her.

And in order to access her,
you got to go through Simon.

And that changes a person.

My name is Cheryl Arutt.

I am a clinical
and forensic psychologist.

When we look at someone
like Simon Monjack,

the personality disorder
that we think of most often

is generally antisocial
personality disorders

and something that's referred to
as Machiavellianism,

where you just, by any means,
want to achieve

what you want to achieve.

So everything that Simon did
to isolate

and keep her away from friends
and family

was a way for him
to assert control.

Until the end,
he had that control.

There are online rumors
that he controlled her.

I don't know if her husband
didn't believe in doctors

or he convinced her not to go.

When I reviewed
the medical records,

she had at least three years
in a row of normal blood tests

without evidence of anemia,

and then these tests
just stopped.

So something happened
in that interval

between the last time
she got the blood test

and everything was normal
and the time she died.

But why?

The only thing I could think of
is she got married.

We know she booked
an appointment

to go see a doctor
not long before her death,

so clearly she knew
something was up.

The one thing
that's been really clear

by a number of experts
who have looked at her file

is that if she had sought
medical help earlier,

she could have survived.

This death
really was preventable.

So of all the theories
and speculation

surrounding the case
of Brittany Murphy,

the one that takes hold the most
online

and in some sleuths' opinions
is maybe the most confounding.

Although there is no evidence
of physical violence

by Simon Monjack
toward Brittany Murphy,

I would characterize
the relationship as a*usive.

I think Brittany Murphy
would be here today

if she hadn't met Simon.

I don't think
that he k*lled her,

but I can guarantee you
he didn't save her.

I do believe he "k*lled her,"
but not on purpose.

Brittany Murphy
should be remembered

as a super-talented actress,

and everyone liked
to be around her.

She had a great spirit
about her.

And my last time I saw her,

she was holding her dog
above her head

and kissing everyone goodbye.

And it's just... surreal
that that wasn't an award

and that she is getting
the accolades that she deserved

as a very talented soul.

Brittany Murphy left an imprint,

and sleuths who spend their
career investigating deaths

that don't quite sit well

can't let this one lie either
until every road

has been thoroughly traveled
and assessed.

Once a conspiracy theory
does gain that traction,

people won't let it go.

It's really easy to start
grabbing pieces of information

and wedging it to fit
into the explanation.

After a deep dive
into every rabbit hole,

the investigation re-examines
the online conspiracy theories.

As for a government
assassination hit

on Brittany Murphy...

There is a Department of
Homeland Security whistleblower

named Julia Davis.

There's really no evidence
that Julia Davis uncovered

an al-Qaeda terror plot.

There's just nothing
to back it up.

She never actually proves
that she knew Brittany Murphy.

Julia and Angelo's campaign

became so insufferable
to Sharon Murphy

that she eventually spoke out
against it.

In an open letter, she writes,
"Let me be clear.

I am confident Brittany
never signed any statement

in support of her,
never met with her,

and barely knew she existed."

As for heavy metals in her hair
suggesting poisoning...

There's a very easy
explanation... hair dye.

And if you look at pictures
of Brittany Murphy,

her hair color
constantly changed.

Online rumors still persist
to this day

that Brittany's mother,
Sharon Murphy,

had something to do with it.

On the set
of "Something Wicked,"

Sharon never showed up on set,

which was shocking to me
as well,

because if it was my daughter
and she wasn't feeling good,

I would just be
this little mother hen

and just be right there,
holding her hand.

I don't believe for one moment
that Sharon Murphy

had anything to do
with her daughter's death.

The death of Brittany Murphy
was shocking enough,

but when her husband,
Simon Monjack,

died five months later,

there was no end
to media speculation

that something nefarious
was behind it.

As human beings,
we're trained to believe

that there's no such thing
as coincidences.

So when two people die
in the same house

less than six months apart,

I think we're naturally
predisposed to assume

that maybe the house
had something to do with it.

This theory is certainly
plausible, but maybe not likely.

In both these cases,
they had something

that explained their death...
pneumonia.

There's really no reason

to keep searching
for an alternate explanation,

because that is almost certainly
what k*lled them.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean
that it's impossible

there's another explanation
for what k*lled them.

Brittany Murphy's dream
of making it big in Hollywood

came true,
only to be taken way too soon.

Brittany Murphy lit up a room.

She wasn't like the typical
Hollywood starlet.

She was genuine
and down to earth.

And she worked so hard for years
in Hollywood to make it.

And we can't forget
her breakout role in "Clueless,"

20 years later,

is still watched and beloved
by a lot of people.

I mean, she was a beautiful,
talented,

outwardly healthy young woman
who dies of pneumonia.

You don't die, like, laying
on a dog bed in your bathroom

when you have money
and resources.

What is this, like, the '40s?

You know, her death changed me.

It changed me
because I predicted her death.

I didn't want my premonition
to come true.

I didn't want my thoughts of...
the ending for her to be true.