hoffman death Official: Tests confirm heroin in packets

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Tests have confirmed there was heroin in at least some of the scores of the plastic packets in the apartment where Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead, a law-enforcement official said Monday, and authorities are working to determine whether the drug was mixed or tainted with anything else.

Medical examiners have not made an official determination of the cause of the 46-year-old actor’s death, but police have been investigating it as a suspected overdose. Hoffman was found in a bathroom with a syringe in his arm, law-enforcement officials have said.

A few details have begun to sketch a picture of his final day and the circumstances in which he was found in his apartment in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village on Sunday. And questions have swirled about whether Hoffman’s death could be linked to a potent blend of heroin and synthetic morphine that has been tied to deaths elsewhere, though there are no official findings pointing to that scenario.

“The direction of the investigation is going to depend, in large part, on the findings of the medical examiner and the findings of the lab tests,” chief police spokesman Stephen Davis said.

An autopsy began Monday, but results weren’t expected until at least today, the city medical examiners’ office said.