A decade since his sudden death, Michael Jackson is still making headlines around the world.
After the documentary Leaving Neverland was released earlier this year, in which allegations of sexual abuse were aimed at the singer once again, a new documentary is focussing on Jackson’s death and autopsy.
Killing Michael Jackson features interviews with three US detectives who led the original investigation into the 50-year-old’s death in 2009.
Watch the trailer below:
The on-screen reunion of the three detectives marks the first time they’ve all been together since the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray – the doctor who was subsequently jailed for the involuntary manslaughter of Jackson.
The investigators – Orlando Martinez, Dan Myers, and Scott Smith – re-examine the details surrounding Jackson’s sudden death, revealing the strange circumstances surrounding the location of the singer’s body and condition of the body itself, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
The documentary reopens official Los Angeles Police Department case files, examining the details police found at the time, as well as offering new revelations and perspectives on the incident.
There are also exclusive audio interviews with Dr. Murray and other witnesses.
The documentary examines Jackson’s relationship with Dr. Murray (pictured above), the singer’s apparent dependence on the doctor and Murray’s role in Jackson’s death. It will also look at the moments leading up to and immediately after Jackson’s death.
Appearing in the film, detective Dan Myers describes Jackson’s autopsy, saying:
Blood is drawn and then that blood is sent to a toxicology unit. So the initial autopsy didn’t show much. Nothing much that you [would] be shocked a 50-year-old body would have.
[Jackson] was relatively healthy. This isn’t a man who should have died.
The detectives also mention the items found in Jackson’s bedroom at the time of his death, including a child’s doll, needles, and ‘post-it notes, or pieces of paper taped all over the room and mirrors and doors with little slogans or phrases’ according to Detective Martinez, The Sun reports. Martinez added: ‘It was a mess.’
Speaking about the room in Jackson’s house where Dr. Murray treated the singer, Martinez said:
In the room where he was being treated, it did not seem like a room fit for any type of medical treatment. I mean, it was like a home, makeshift medical suite. It was just bare bones.
Speaking about Jackson’s body, detective Scott Smith said:
The thing that was odd that I found myself periodically looking at was his head, his scalp. Because whenever he was out in public he was wearing a wig.
Looking at his scalp, the top of his head had been severely scarred, hardly any hair at all on the sides. To what he had looked like in public with the flowing hair, that was a bit different.
Jackson reportedly suffered second degree burns to his scalp in 1984 when his hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi advert. He ending up losing a substantial amount of his hair, and later became addicted to the painkillers he was prescribed.
Murray had apparently been trying to wean Jackson off the prescription drugs. In the trial however, he admitted to administering propofol to help the singer sleep, despite the drug not being approved as a sleep aid.
Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for administering anaesthetic drugs without being properly qualified to do so. He was given a four-year sentence, of which he served two years.
Killing Michael Jackson aired on Saturday 22 June on Quest Red and is available on the QuestOD app.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.