At around 8:00 a.m. on December 20th, 2009, a Los Angeles nine one one operator received a chilling call.

The caller was in hysterics. She gave her address 1895 Rising Glen Road. Then she screamed, My daughters passed out. Please get here quick.

When the caller said her 32 year old daughter was no longer breathing. The operator instructed her on how to perform CPR. The caller relayed the information to a man in the background, but nothing they did seemed to work.

A few minutes later, when paramedics arrived at the mansion in the Hollywood Hills, they found a 115 pound woman lying on her bathroom floor.

She was surrounded by a sea of hair products and cosmetics. Her hair was freshly wet from the shower. Her pulse was weak and she was covered in vomit. Paramedics lifted her onto a gurney and into their ambulance, then they rushed her to Los Angeles's Cedar Sinai Hospital.

The patient's husband and mother raced behind the sirens an hour past as they comforted one another in the hospital waiting room, praying for good news. But it never came. At 10 a.m., five a.m., doctors gave up on trying to restart the young woman's heart. And with that, Brittany Murphy, Hollywood's sweetheart, was dead.

A Los Angeles coroner suggested Britney's death was due to natural causes, but the media had other ideas about the actress's untimely demise. The press had called Brittny many names in the past, drug addict, diva, anorexic. Now they were eager to add murder victim to the list.

Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify original from past every Monday and Wednesday, we dig into the complicated stories behind the world's most controversial events and search for the truth. I'm Carter Roy. And I'm Molly Brandenberg. And neither of us are conspiracy theorists, but we are open minded, skeptical and curious. Don't get us wrong. Sometimes the official version is the truth, but sometimes it's not.

You can find episodes of conspiracy theories and all other Spotify originals from Parkhurst for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This is our first episode on the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy, the Hollywood actress best known for her role in the blockbuster hit Clueless, died unexpectedly at the age of 32.

This episode will cover the slippery slope that was Britney's career, her relationship with Hollywood villain Simon Monjack and the bizarre circumstances surrounding her death.

Next time, we'll explore a few theories about Britney's untimely demise. Some suggest that toxic mold in the actress's home may have played a part. Others say she was wrapped up in a government conspiracy, while some believe her own family may be guilty of murder.

We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us.

When 13 year old Brittany Murphy moved to Los Angeles in 1991, she had no idea that Hollywood would one day devour her home.

The doe eyed actress had begged her mom for years to move to California so she could star on television as a single mother.

Sharon was willing to go to the ends of the earth for her little girl, so she agreed to leave her advertising job in New Jersey and travel across the country. She believed that her daughter had what it took to become a star, and she was right. Almost immediately, Britney landed a role on the television series Drexel's Class. From there, Britney's career escalated with small roles on sitcoms like Blossom and Sister Sister.

And then in 1995, she struck gold. Brittany was cast in the sleeper hit of the Year, a cult teen flick titled Clueless, loosely based on Jane Austen's novel Emma.

The movie centers around a popular, albeit shallow high school girl named Cher, played by Alicia Silverstone. Cher takes a new student named Tai under her wing, introducing her to the Beverly Hills lifestyle as soon as Britney entered the audition room.

Writer director Amy Heckerling knew she was there to buy Britney's chemistry with Silverstone was undeniable.

Heckerling had read dozens of girls for the part, but no one compared to Britney. In fact, critics later claimed that she was the real breakout star of the film.

Instead of Silverstone after being cast, 17 year old Britney was the youngest, most unseasoned person on set. And since she was still a minor, production required her mother, Sharon, to be with her every day she filmed. The experience was probably polarising for Britney, who likely wanted her independence. In addition, she and Sharon were battling with even bigger issues at home.

While Britney was filming Clueless, Sharon was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, Britney's dynamic with her mother was flipped on its head. Britney became the caretaker and breadwinner of the family. Despite these adult pressures, Heckerling later said that Britney never let them affect her performance. She always remained levelheaded and professional on set, and it paid off.

When Clueless was released in 1995, it became this summer's breakout hit. It made over 56 million dollars at the box office, which would be around 95 million today.

Suddenly, teenage girls all over the country flocked to the malls, many of them searching for plaid skirts and knee high stockings, hoping to resemble the cult hits characters. Heckerling signed a deal to turn the film into a television series, and the movie soundtrack went platinum.

As for Britney, her iconic lines were repeated all over the nation, and soon everyone in America wanted to be rollin with the homies in another stroke of good fortune.

Sharon's cancer went into remission shortly after the film premiered. But with her daughter's career skyrocketing, Sharon had no reason to search for a job or a backup plan of her own. As a result, Britney continued to feel the pressure to provide for them, both following her breakout role.

Britney lost weight and dyed her hair blonde. She landed a few dramatic roles in films like Girl Interrupted with Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.

She also starred across from Eminem in his 2002 film Eight Mile.

With these small but significant parts, Britney proved that she was a versatile actress, excelling in both comedy and drama. It's no surprise that studios started to believe that she had the chops to star as a leading lady.

In 2002, Britney landed a role that changed the course of her career. She was cast alongside Hollywood heartthrob Ashton Kutcher in the romantic comedy Just Married at the time, he, too, was at the height of his stardom playing opposite. Koocher had the potential to make Britney an A-list celebrity.

From the minute the two were introduced on set, their chemistry was undeniable. Soon, Britney wasn't just playing opposite Hollywood's biggest hunk. She was dating him.

It was an all out war between the paparazzi, each dying to get an exclusive shot of the industry's hottest couple. Britney was on top of the world.

In 2003, she starred in. The film Uptown Girls and bought her first house in the Hollywood Hills for three point eighty five million, the home had formerly belonged to pop star Britney Spears.

And then just seven months after their relationship began, Britney and Ashton called it quits. Friends of the couple said that the two had different lifestyles.

He was a party boy who enjoyed the nightlife scene.

Britney was a homebody. Little did she know this breakup would be the beginning of a downward spiral.

Later that year, Sharon's cancer returned. Britney told People magazine that she dropped everything for her mother. She attended every doctor's appointment and chemo session, but she remained optimistic, telling reporters, My mom taught me there's always a way to channel your fears into love.

Following Sharon's double mastectomy, their bond grew stronger. Britney saw how fragile and dependent her mother was on her, and she had to take that into consideration.

As new relationships started to blossom in 2004, Britney's talent manager, Jeffrey Kwatinetz, proposed after a few months of dating. However, just four months into the engagement, Britney felt the pairing wasn't right, so she called it quits.

Less than a year later, Britney was engaged again, this time to a production assistant from her film Little Black Book. However, again, doubts struck. And by the summer of 2006, the couple had amicably ended their engagement as fiances came and went.

Sharon was a constant, she continued living with Britney even as her daughter turned 28. Their close quarters might have added to the strain of Britney's fraying relationships. Soon, there were rumors that Britney was dealing with more controversial issues outside of her strained family life.

In 2005, Britney was inexplicably dropped by her agents and manager of 12 years, a pretty big snub for anyone working in the industry. Radar Online, a gossip website, picked up on the story and reported that Britney was canned for, quote, vague but foreboding personal reasons. Allegedly before getting dropped by her representatives. Britney had been seen at a party high on heroin and cocaine.

In the past, Britney was questioned about her relationship with drugs and alcohol in regards to cocaine. She told Jane magazine no. Just for the record, I have never tried it in my entire life. I have never even seen it. And I don't leave the house too much except to go to work.

Despite these denials, everyone wondered if America's sweetheart was telling the truth. Fans thought she looked devastatingly thin. And rapper and former co-star Eminem claimed that during filming, Britney regularly took prescription drugs like Xanax and Valium while smoking weed after being dropped by her manager and agent, Britney had a hard time getting new work.

As a result, she resorted to doing low budget movies for half her rate just to keep a roof over her insurance head.

Then, in April of 2006, Britney reconnected with a British writer director who promised to turn her career around. 37 year old Simon Monjack had written a script called The White Hotel after meeting to discuss the film over a romantic meal at the Hotel Bel Air, Britney found herself transfixed by both the script and the storyteller. By the end of the night, the two left the restaurant smitten with one another.

Simon was known for dating other celebrities prior to Murphy. He'd just broken off a relationship with Senator John Kerry's daughter, Alexandra. But Simon didn't strike Britney's friends as her type. He was much older and not at all like the charming pretty boys Britney had dated in the past.

At first, Sharon was also hesitant about Simon. She saw the pattern of her daughter throwing herself into yet another fast paced relationship. And although the couple kept their romance out of the spotlight, Sharon believed that Simon had ulterior motives.

In February of 2007, Sharon's doubts were seemingly validated. Simon was arrested and facing deportation after authorities discovered that his visa had expired. Unfortunately, this event only pushed Britney further into his arms.

In April of that year, the two got hitched in a private ceremony. Their nuptials appeared sudden and. Considering they'd never even announced they were engaged after learning about their secret relationship, the Hollywood rumor mill began to churn. Did they get married for Simon citizenship? Were they actually in love? And did Britney know about Simon's sordid past?

Director friend of Britney's named George Hickenlooper called the actress after he heard the news.

He told her to reconsider her relationship with Simon, asking, quote, Do you know this guy? Do you know what you are doing by marrying him? Britney grew angry with Hickenlooper and told him that she knew Simon better than anyone else. Then she hung up. And despite Hickenlooper efforts, the two hardly spoke again. It was just one of the many relationships Britney would jeopardize for Simon.

Meanwhile, the couple told reporters they were on cloud nine. Journalists agreed in interviews. They really did seem head over heels for each other. But for Simon Monjack, being in love meant having complete ownership over the Hollywood starlet. And it was only a matter of time before his dark past came back to haunt them both.

Coming up, the downward spiral of Britney's career leads to her untimely death. Listeners, this month marks 60 years since John F. Kennedy became the 35th president of the United States, ushering his already prominent family into the highest enclaves of political power. But behind their storied successes lies, secrets and scandals so severe, if it were any other lineage, they would have been left in ruin this January. To commemorate this iconic milestone, dig into the dramas of a Real-Life American dynasty in the Spotify original from Cast the Kennedys.

This exclusive series from Spotify features your favorite part cast hosts, including me, covering every angle of the Kennedys from shows like Today in True Crime, Conspiracy Theories, Crime Countdown and Others, assassinations and conspiracies, corruption and cover ups, international affairs and extramarital ones to examine all of the Kennedy family's most controversial moments. All in one place you can binge all 12 episodes of this limited series starting on Tuesday, January 19th. Follow the Kennedys free and exclusively on Spotify.

Now back to the story. When Brittany Murphy fell in love with screenwriter Simon Monjack in 2007, her career was already in murky waters. Her agents had dumped her. She was only offered low budget films and many suspected that she was abusing both prescription and illegal drugs. Britney also constantly battled rumors about her weight, although she was five foot three and weighed 115 pounds, not unhealthy for someone her size. She was badgered by the press, frustrated, she finally told Cosmopolitan, No, I've never had an eating disorder and I don't do drugs.

I have a glass of champagne now and then.

Despite these words, after marrying Simon, Britney's behavior grew odd and erratic. Those close to the actress said Simon dictated everyone she spoke to from who to be friends with, to what agents, managers and producers she could meet with. Simon allegedly even decided what role she could take.

If true, Simon's actions weren't uncharacteristic. On the contrary, many Hollywood players knew him as a con artist. Long before he'd married Britney in 2001, Simon had a whirlwind romance with British TV presenter Simone Bienne. He told Simon that he was an heir to a steel mill and an art collector, neither of which was true. And as soon as the couple got hitched in Vegas, Simon's demeanour changed.

He moved into Simmons' million dollar home and nearly trashed the place. He hardly left the couch and barely touched the laptop that was meant to be his screenwriting tool.

By April of 2002, Simon had had enough. She separated from Simon and spent the next four years trying to get him to sign off on a divorce. She eventually sued Simon for fifty thousand dollars in settlement fees, which he wouldn't pay for another three years.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg. In 2006, Simon sued the production of Factory Girl, a film based on the life of Andy Warhol's muse, Edie Sedgwick. He claimed that the movie's director, Britney's former friend George Hickenlooper, had stolen his screenplay.

Hickenlooper, a Yale graduate with dozens of credits under his belt, claim the lawsuit was preposterous. He insisted that Simon had nothing to do with the film. According to Hickenlooper, Simon just wanted a screenwriter credit so he could scam more money out of future investors.

Ultimately, however, Simon's lawsuit held production over a barrel, and Hickenlooper claimed that the only way to finish the production was to concede and give Simon a writer's credit on the film.

Simon's unsavory activity didn't end there. Throughout the 2000s, he'd been court filing for fraudulent credit card charges. Eventually, he owed 400000 pounds to Kootz, a private English banking company. In addition, Simon removed producer and writer Susan Potter's name from the White Hotel's script, the same story that won over Britney, turning the film's investors against her.

Even Simon's own lawyer couldn't trust him. New York attorney Richard Ghaleb confronted Simon about the dozens of trust funds and inheritances he had conned people out of. Then he told Simon that he didn't want to be in business with someone who was flimflamming people. In response, Simon surprised him by admitting to making mistakes in the past.

Then he allegedly told his lawyer that he was turning over a new leaf.

But if Simon was truly contrite about his past actions, he certainly never told his new wife. In fact, Britney refused to believe the rumors flying around about her husband. She even called Hickenlooper and begged him to end his crusade against Simon. She told him that by ruining Simon's career, he was also ruining hers.

In a way, Britney was right. Instead of being seen as Simon's victim, the media portrayed her as the Bonnie to his Clyde. Suddenly, everyone in Los Angeles had a story to prove that Britney was never the sweet, innocent starlet she'd claim to be.

In 2009, on the set of a neo noir thriller across the hall, the cast and crew complained of issues with Britney from day one.

For starters, she didn't attend the table read, which was the first time the cast gathered to voice the script aloud.

Making matters worse on the first day in front of cameras. Britney disappeared for four hours, setting back production. In addition, she was constantly late to set, but never bothered to offer an excuse or a reason why. Crew members also reported her seeming hot, then cold.

They were always unsure what Britney they'd be getting on any given day.

However, the worst allegation cast members leveled against Britney was that she had a hard time focusing and couldn't remember her lines. Her co-star on Across the hall, Brad Green, qu'est recalled shooting an elevator scene with her. He said Britney had a hard time staying in frame and kept wandering off her mark after each take.

Except Green Quest wasn't convinced drugs were to blame. He believed, quote, she was resentful that she was making such a small, low budget movie after having been such a big star.

Others beg to differ. A crew member on Britney's film Something Wicked, said the actress would fall asleep in between takes. Her colleague suspected that a cocktail of prescription drugs was to blame, especially because her behavior seemed to be consistent offset as well.

In October 2009, Britney's neighbors heard her yelling outside her home around 2:00, 3:00 a.m., she was screaming that someone had fired a gun in front of her house.

Neighbors called the police. The authorities arrived to find a frantic Britney still shouting from her balcony. They searched the property, but despite Britney's claims, they found no evidence of trespassing or bullet casings outside the home.

Instead, they suspected that Britney may have heard a bang from a power generator at the location. As a result, her outsized reaction to the innocuous event only fed into the rumors.

Brittany Murphy was unhinged during an interview on the Adjaye in the Morning show, gossip columnist Perez Hilton added fuel to the fire when asked who he thought the next big Hollywood death would be.

Perez claimed Brittany Murphy.

Maybe things got darker for the actress. In November 2009, she traveled to Puerto Rico to film a low budget thriller titled The Color.

Aside from her usual tardiness and the speculation that she was abusing prescription drugs, the crew had a bigger issue with Britney.

Simon Monjack, her colleague, said that her behavior while filming was upbeat and flirtatious. But the second Dan Simon came around, Britney acted withdrawn, as if locked under some sort of spell. More often than not, Simon showed up to Britney's set drunk. Eventually, producers felt his behavior had gotten so intrusive that they called a meeting to address the issue. They even spoke with Britney and asked if she would discuss it with him. Britney refused.

Producers were left with no choice but to fire Britney from the film to cap off the disastrous trip just before leaving Puerto Rico. Simon got into a drunken fight with locals and nearly got arrested.

However, if Britney was considering leaving Simon, she likely changed her mind after he had a terrifying health scare on November 28th, 2009, Britney, Simon and Sharon flew back to Los Angeles during the flight.

Simon experienced symptoms of an asthma attack, followed by a seizure when the plane landed at LAX Airport. Simon was rushed to the hospital.

A few hours later, Simon was discharged, although it's not clear what his diagnosis was. However, mixing alcohol with prescription medications can lead to seizures.

It may have also been due to withdrawal, which can begin two hours after the last pill or drink since their flight was seven hours.

It provided more than enough time for potential withdrawal symptoms to begin kicking in.

There were also rumors that Sharon and Simon had caught a staph infection while in Puerto Rico. However, it couldn't have been that serious if doctors sent Simon home hours after he'd been admitted.

Whatever the reason, after Simon's health scare, he and Britney remained a committed couple. But on December 3rd, 2009, he wasn't at her side on the red carpet for a small fashion pop up store.

The photo call had unintended consequences. One gossip columnists saw the pictures. They again questioned Britney about her plummeting weight. For the first time in her career. Britney admitted, quote, I am a bit thinner now than I would like to be.

She also shared her New Year's resolution, telling journalists that she planned to move to New York with Simon so the two of them could start a family.

According to anonymous party attendees at the December 2009 fashion event, Britney was clumsy and appeared dazed. Some allegedly made snide comments suggesting she was heading towards a similar fate as Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith. Little did they know those accusations were about to come to pass.

A few days after the pop up party, Britney began feeling sick. She had similar symptoms as Simon and Sharon, which led them to believe she'd caught their bug from Puerto Rico, perhaps off of their advice. Britney took some migraine pills, cough medicine and over-the-counter nasal spray, but the cold eventually developed into a case of laryngitis.

By this time, Britney was on antidepressants. She'd also started taking anti inflammatories and painkiller.

To dilute her menstrual cycles, however, when her symptoms hadn't improved by Friday, December 18th, Britney finally made an appointment with her doctor for Monday morning. However, the day before her appointment, around three a.m. on Sunday morning, Britney woke up in excruciating pain. She went out to the master bedroom balcony for some fresh air.

Her pain only seemed to get worse. So Britney finally asked Simon to go get her mother. But when Sharon got to the balcony, she found her daughter lying there gasping for air. Throughout, Britney kept saying, Mommy, I can't catch my breath. I'm dying. I'm going to die. Mommy, I love you.

Despite these terrifying words, neither Simon nor Sharon called an ambulance.

They later claimed it was because Britney was a hypochondriac. They said she had amped up health scares so much in the past that neither Simon nor Sharon had taken the moment seriously. So instead of fetching professional help, Sharon made Britney a cup of tea and sent her back to bed.

At around seven, 30 in the morning, Britney got up and told her mother she still wasn't feeling well. She said she was going to take a shower in the master suite when she didn't come back downstairs. Sharon went up to check on her.

That's when Sharon found the 115 pound actress lying on her back in a pool of her own vomit. Sharon made the 911 one call and waited for emergency responders. Meanwhile, Simon performed CPR in his vomit stained pajamas.

By the time the EMT had arrived, Brittany's pulse was dulled and she'd stopped breathing. The paramedics rushed her to Cedars Sinai Medical Center just a couple miles from their home.

But it was too late. Perez Hilton's prophecy had come to pass.

Brittany Murphy was dead.

Coming up, Britney's death sparks a frenzy of accusations now back to the story.

On December 20th, 2009, Brittany Murphy was found unconscious in her Hollywood home. Paramedics rushed her to the hospital despite their efforts. At 10 a.m., Brittany was pronounced dead.

Around four p.m. that afternoon, the Los Angeles Police Department arrived at the home to investigate. Well, no malicious intent was suspected. High profile deaths always received extra scrutiny.

Sharon was hesitant to let the police into their home without a search warrant. But Simon complied.

He felt he had nothing to hide.

Simon told authorities that Brittany had been feeling ill the day before and spent most of the day in bed. They watched movies and ordered Thai food. He insisted that Britney did not use illegal drugs. She'd only taken cough syrup and a prescription medication for her period.

However, the police found more than 90 different prescription bottles on Simon's nightstand and a dozen more on Britney's pills for depression, anxiety and many habit forming painkillers.

Ed Winter of the Los Angeles coroner arrived at the house later that evening. He claimed that Simon was acting strange. He paced around the room, rambled on and seemed confused about the situation. Then when Winter told him they'd be performing an autopsy on Britney. Simon refused.

Suddenly, the screenwriter flew off the handle. He claimed he didn't want his wife's body all cut up. Winter told Simon that any time there's a death, an autopsy is performed. Unless there's a religious objection or court order. Simon couldn't provide either.

Despite their odd behavior, Winter didn't suspect Sharon or Simon had played a role in Britney's death.

And after winter performed Britney's autopsy the following afternoon, he ruled that her death, quote, appeared to be natural. In addition, rumors of injectable drug use were put to rest, seeing as no track marks or needle punctures were found on Britney's body.

However, it would be another few months before the toxicology reports and lab results came back, meaning they still had to wait for an official cause of death to be determined.

Meanwhile, Simon and Sharon had no problem publicly discussing Britney's death.

The duo appeared on the Today show and the cover of US Weekly cuddled closely together, appearing more like a couple than mother and son in law.

This impression was bolstered in January 2010, when Sharon and Simon recorded an episode of Larry King during the broadcast.

Larry asked Simon about his future plans, and he said he would remain by Sharon side.

This seemed odd, to say the least.

Simon also stated that Hollywood had broken Britney's heart, and that's what led to her death.

He specifically pointed fingers at Warner Brothers and their movie Happy Feet two.

He claimed the studio had fired Britney from reprising her role as one of the voices in the franchise.

He mentioned that Britney was heartbroken over the situation and spent days crying about it.

However, Warner Brothers issued a follow up statement saying they'd never entered into any deal between themselves and Britney. For Happy Feet two, they claim there was not a contract to cancel.

But Simon was undeterred, forming plans to write a book about his late wife. The story's primary focus was allegedly the producers, agents and studios who had spread, defaming rumors about Britney causing her career to spiral. In other words. Simon was looking for someone to blame for his wife's death.

During the Larry King show, Simon and Sharon also told the hosts that they were creating a foundation in Britney's honor. The non-profit would raise money for everything from cancer research to the crisis in Haiti.

The launch of the foundation was set to coincide with Britney's memorial. In February 2010. Simon and Sharon asked those who RSVP to the service to donate 1000 dollars to the Brittany Murphy Foundation before their arrival.

Despite this request for donations, many A-list celebrities confirm their attendance. Eminem was even allegedly scheduled to perform. Then, on the morning of the memorial, guest received an email reading. So sorry, but the memorial has been cancelled due to an illness in the family shortly after the. Canceled memorial, it was discovered that the Brittany Murphy Foundation was never registered as a non-profit organization, perhaps as a response to being exposed, the charities Web site posted that they were no longer accepting donations.

It's unclear what happened to the thousands of dollars they had already received.

If this made the public suspicious of Simon and Sharon, their unease was put to rest by Brittany's autopsy findings.

On February 25th, 2010, the autopsy report concluded that Brittany had died of pneumonia and anemia, a condition in which the body does not produce enough red blood cells to disperse oxygen throughout the body.

The report also stated that her condition had worsened due to a mixture of medications.

Officials also concluded that Brittany was suffering from a severe iron deficiency, which made her more vulnerable to infections. Coroner Ed Winters stated that Brittany's death was indeed accidental, but it could have been prevented, he stated, had they taken her to a doctor or a hospital, it would have been treatable. With foul play ruled out by the coroner, Simon felt vindicated, but he refused to crawl back into Hollywood obscurity. Instead, in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, Symond opened its doors to Radar magazine.

Unshaven and unkempt, Simon greeted the gossip reporters while smoking a cigar. Then he led the camera crew through the 8000 square foot home, which appeared untouched since Brittany's death.

Deadpan, Simon gave a morbid tour picking through racks of his wife's clothes and showing off certain expensive pieces in the process.

Next, he led readers, reporters into the peach colored bathroom where Britney had collapsed. The counter was hardly visible under the piles of cosmetics and hair products that Simon had never bothered clearing.

Simon even showed off the leopard print dog bed that Britney fell on. He boasted to the cameras, You're the first people to ever see the infamous bathroom as payment for his ghoulish, insensitive candor, Simon received ten thousand dollars.

However, the interview was one of the last exclusives he would ever give.

By May 2010, 40 year old Simon was constantly complaining of a persistent numbness in his limbs. He had also started using a small oxygen machine because he was having trouble breathing. Then, on the 22nd of May, Simon's health issues worsened. He began coughing up thick, black mucus, and he was running a feverish temperature of 105 degrees.

The following day at around seven forty five pm, Sharon heard Simon gurgling and choking. He had a brown foam like substance coming from his mouth. And yet Sharon didn't call 911 one for another two hours. When she finally did call, it was to tell the operator that her son in law had stopped breathing. In response, they instructed Sharon to get Simon off of the bed and onto the floor.

She told the operator that she couldn't move him yelling into the receiver that Simon was, quote, gigantic.

For that reason, when the paramedics arrived a few minutes later, Simon was still in bed. When they checked his vitals, he had no pulse and rigor mortis had already set in. At nine forty five pm, Simon Monjack was pronounced dead.

Investigators arrived around midnight to question Sharon. She told them that Simon was having heart problems and was in the process of scheduling open heart surgery.

However, Simon's doctor later refuted this claim. He said he had recently examined Simon and found nothing wrong with his heart.

Even more curious, when police examined Simon's bedroom, they found a variety of pill bottles with the name Trevor Williams on the label, perhaps an alias used by Simon.

They also uncovered prescriptions with the name Sharon Monjack on the front.

Then, when officials opened the night stand on Brittany's side of the bed, they discovered a stack of Sharon's belongings. When questioned, Sharon told the police that this was her side of the bed. Now this, in addition to the pill bottle bearing her name with Simon's surname tacked on, indicated that Sharon and Simon had been sleeping together for some time.

Despite the evidence, Sharon later denied these allegations. She claimed that the investigators had misrepresented things, misconstruing her words.

Things got even stranger when Simon's autopsy report came back in August 2010. The results concluded that Simon had also died of pneumonia and anemia, the exact same cause of death as Brittany. Once again, media speculation ran wild, how is it possible that these two relatively young lovers could die several months apart from the exact same health issue, especially when drugs were ruled out as the leading cause of death in both?

As far as spectators were concerned, this was more than another Hollywood tragedy.

It was a massive conspiracy.

Next time, we'll dive into some of the theories surrounding Britney and Simon's suspicious demise.

First, we'll explore a conspiracy theory, No. One, to see if Britney's home was infested with a toxic mold that killed both her and Simon.

Then we'll look at conspiracy theory number two to see if it's possible that Britney and Simon were the targets of a government cover up after getting in with the wrong crowd.

Finally, we'll investigate conspiracy theory number three to see if the couple were murdered by Sharon Murphy herself.

Brittany Murphy could easily go down in Hollywood history as just another casualty of fame and pressure, a victim of an industry that devours people whole, spitting them out as a shell of their former selves.

But perhaps there's more to Britney's untimely demise. Maybe it was the people she trusted most who inevitably put the final nail in her proverbial coffin. Thanks for tuning into conspiracy theories. We'll be back Wednesday with part two of Brittany Murphy's death. Out of the many sources we used, we found a case for murder. The Brittany Murphy files by Brinn Kurt James Hammond. Useful to our research, you can find all episodes of conspiracy theories and all other Spotify originals from podcast for free on Spotify.

Until then, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth.

Conspiracy theories is a Spotify original forecast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler, Sound Design by Michael Motian with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Travis Clark. This episode of Conspiracy Theories was written by Lori Gottlieb with writing assistants by Nicholas Swart and Abia. Adhi Megu, fact checking by Cheyenne Lopez in research by Brad Klein and Brian Peatross. Conspiracy theory stars Molly Brandenberg and Carter Roy.

Fact, fiction, fame, discover the real story behind one of history's most formidable families in the Spotify original film podcast, The Kennedys. Remember, you can binge all 12 episodes starting on Tuesday, January 19th. Listen free and exclusively on Spotify.