It was around 8:00 a.m. on December 20th, 2009, when Brittany Murphy collapsed on her bathroom floor. Emergency responders rushed the 32 year old actress to Cedars Sinai Hospital, and yet she was pronounced dead two hours later.

Her mother, Sharon, was devastated. Brittany was her only child and only source of financial income.

As for Britney's father, Sharon listed him as unknown when she signed her daughter's death certificate. But that was hardly the case. Britney knew the man well.

Angelo Bortolotti was a retired mobster with a sordid past. He'd met Sharon after she began working at one of his nightclubs in Miami, Florida. The two fell in love and Britney was born in 1977.

But their relationship was rocky. Thanks to Angelo's shady dealings. He'd been arrested more than once and spent 12 years behind bars for racketeering. So Sharon divorced him and moved to New Jersey with two year old Brittany.

After that point, Sharon cut Angelo out of Britney's life entirely, but she couldn't keep them apart forever. Over the years, Britney met with her father in secret, and right before her death, she confided in Angelo, telling him that she was tangled up in some questionable affairs.

According to Angelo, Brittny believed she was being monitored by government agents. They'd tapped her phone, stationed themselves outside of her house and were watching her and her husband, Simon's every move.

So when Simon's autopsy revealed the same cause of death as Britney's, Angelo knew something wasn't right on a quest for the truth. He told reporters they were murdered. No doubt in my mind.

But Angelo had a few different theories about who was to blame. 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 Park for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This is our second episode on the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy. In December 2009, the Hollywood actress passed away from pneumonia and anemia aggravated by prescription medications. Her husband, Simon, died of the exact same complications just six months later.

Last episode, we covered Britney's rise to fame and her relationship with Hollywood con artist Simon Monjack. We followed the aftermath of her death and the strange bond that Simon and Britney's mother, Sharon, developed before he died.

This time, we'll explore a few theories surrounding the couple's demise. Some suggest that toxic mold in their Hollywood home may have played a part. Others say they were wrapped up in a government conspiracy. While some believe that someone close to Britney and Simon may be guilty of their murder. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. There's something about the untimely death of a public figure that always seems a bit surreal. Maybe it's because we feel like we know them personally.

But the truth is, we rarely know what's happening off the silver screen.

So when an unexpected circumstance claims their life, it's only natural for us to want answers, which was probably why America grew so obsessed with the mystery surrounding Brittany Murphy after Simon and Britney's autopsies revealed the same cause of death, pneumonia and anemia.

The press went wild. They didn't believe the couple's identical symptoms could possibly be a coincidence, since L.A. Coroner Ed Winter had ruled out illegal drugs. Many wondered if there were other suspicious details that had been overlooked.

There had to be someone or something responsible for their deaths. Which leads us to conspiracy theory number one. The couple was killed by their own home after an infestation of toxic mold.

The first person to suggest this theory was actually Brittany's mother, Sharon Murphy. She shared a home with a late couple. This meant she lived in the same house where Brittany and Simon took their last breaths.

In 2003, years before she died, Brittany bought the five bedroom, five bath home for three point eighty five million dollars. The house formerly belonged to pop artist Britney Spears. But not long after she purchased it. Brittany Murphy started having issues with the estate.

These problems were so bothersome that in 2006, Britney filed a lawsuit against the builders, claiming that the house had been poorly constructed. She alleged that water was constantly seeping in through the foundation. This was problematic because when a home suffers from water damage, mold is more likely to grow inside the drywall.

Making matters worse, according to psychiatrist Dr. Judy, superior homes that are built to be more energy efficient like Brittany's typically have less ventilation. This meant that toxic mold gases are more likely to circulate and enter the body. If the problem goes untreated, the exposure could lead to serious health issues.

Black mold is one of the deadliest forms of fungus because it releases mycotoxins. Exposure can lead to things like headaches, depression, anxiety, insomnia and other neurological problems, including hallucinations.

Britney was taking prescription medications for both depression and anxiety at the time of her death, and the home's previous owner, Britney Spears, had suffered from similar symptoms. This indicated that mold may have been present long before the actress even bought the home.

In addition, a specific type of fungus called Aspergillus Mold can also be found in homes with water damage and poor ventilation. This mold can cause lung infections, sore throat and weaken the body's immune system.

These symptoms could have been easily confused with pneumonia. In addition, there was a more telling sign in Britney's autopsy that suggested an exposure to toxic mold.

Areas of her lungs appeared denser than average in Brittany had developed a severe inflammation in her tissue called granulomas.

The most common cause of these swollen tissues happens to be fungal infections. This means that breathing mold spores could have been a major factor in the couple's demise, although it's unclear if Simon's autopsy also showed granulomas in his lungs.

There were even a few sources from outside the home that believed mold was to blame.

For example, reporters from Inside Edition were welcomed in by Simon in 2010, just a few months after Brittany's death.

Shortly after entering, the journalists noticed that the windows and doors had been covered in plastic sheeting from a mold removal company.

Simon's mother, Linda Monjack, confirmed this claim. She said that her son had found and treated fungus in the home before his death, but it may have been too late. Simon also told his mother that he was experiencing bizarre hallucinations around the same time as The Inside Edition interview. These tactile visions caused him to believe things were crawling under his skin.

As we mentioned, hallucinations and neurological conditions are another indicator that mold is present, perhaps driven.

By these same fears of toxic mold in 2010, right after Simon's passing, Sharon decided to put the home up for sale. But Sharon's mildew theory and quite a few plot holes. For starters, Sharon initially told L.A. Coroner Ed Winter back in 2009 that she did not believe toxic fungus led to Brittany's death. When Winter asked Sharon if he could send in professionals to inspect the home as a precaution. She vehemently denied the request.

Still, Winter did report the situation to the Department of Public Health. But when he later received Brittany's toxicology records, there was no physical presence of mold in her system.

Brittany's publicist, Roger Neil, also claimed that the home had been tested for mold two months before the actress died. But he insisted that the results had come back negative.

Even Angelo Bortolotti, Britney's father, found the fungus, claims a bit preposterous. He pointed out the fact that Sharon was a two time cancer survivor. If toxic mold was dangerous to those with weakened immune systems, then it's odd that Sharon was the only one not affected.

You're absolutely right. The whole thing seems to fall apart once you learn that the L.A. coroner found no mold in Britney or Simon's toxicology reports. While the symptoms do line up with fungal poisoning, all the other surrounding evidence doesn't support this claim. So on a scale of believability, with 10 being the highest, I have to give this theory a three out of 10 I to find this to be a bit of a stretch. Even if we look at the previous homeowner, Britney Spears, we have no indication that she was affected by mold.

Anxiety, depression and insomnia are more likely symptoms of fame than fungus. Not to mention we all remember Spears infamous head shaving incident. However, that didn't occur until 2007, four years after she'd moved out of the estate.

So the connection doesn't hold water, which is why I am also giving this theory a three out of 10.

But the speculation doesn't end there. While there was no indication of mold, it appeared there was something else hiding in the walls of 1895. Rising Glen Road government secrets. Coming up, Brittany Murphy's purported attempts to expose a conspiracy. 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. A year after Brittany Murphy was laid to rest, her mother, Sharon, suspected that toxic mold led to her premature death.

However, L.A. Coroner Ed Winter found no evidence of the fungus in her toxicology report, but that didn't keep fans from speculating there was something suspect about Brittany in Simon's death. The couple was known to act withdrawn, even paranoid at times, as if someone was keeping an eye on them.

So, like every other mysterious, famous death, this case comes freshly baked with its own government conspiracy.

Which leads us to theory number two. Britney and Simon were targeted by government spooks.

This conjecture requires a bit of a back story. It all started with Julia Davis, a self-proclaimed close friend of the Hollywood couple, according to Julia. Her husband, PJ Davis, was a film producer who had worked with Britney and Simon in the past.

However, unlike her husband, Julia didn't work in the entertainment industry. Instead, she was a Department of Homeland Security officer who monitored the border between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico.

Julia's job was pretty straightforward.

She was tasked with preventing criminals and terrorists from crossing the U.S. border. And in 2004, on the Fourth of July, she was doing exactly that. Since it was a national holiday, the staff was already short handed and told to be on high alert.

At the time, intelligence agencies reportedly believe that members of al-Qaida were planning to infiltrate the United States through the Mexico California border.

These fears seemed especially plausible that evening. Julia discovered that 23 different people, each marked by the DHS as special interest, had been processed at the border. This was an incredibly high amount for any night, let alone on an evening.

They were warned to be extra careful, so Julia decided to do a little investigating of her own.

After reading late into the night, she allegedly uncovered many discrepancies in the papers filed against these 23 immigrants.

Julia also noticed that one of the assistant port directors had falsified the nationalities of the immigrants with her superiors off for the holiday. Julia filed a report with the higher ups at the Department of Homeland Security and waited for further instruction.

By the following day, Julia still hadn't heard from her supervisors, and she was getting anxious.

So in line with the instructions in her employee manual, Julia alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigations in her letter to the FBI.

Julia claimed that the port had not been properly secure under the current administration. Naturally, she was worried and thought the authorities would be as well. After all, the bureau's joint terrorism task force is designed to follow up on these kinds of leads and respond to potential threats.

However, they didn't help Julia at all. Something strange was clearly happening between the FBI and the DHS. It didn't make sense that the United States was turning a blind eye to potential terrorists crossing the border. And shortly after Julia began asking questions, things got decidedly weirder around the office.

Before the incident, Julia was seen as an exemplary employee. She'd reportedly received outstanding achievement certificates and was trusted to write the department's training manuals.

But after Julia notified the FBI about discrepancies in DHS reports, the port manager began targeting her. She was also bullied and sexually harassed by other DHS employees. Over time, these retaliation tactics escalated, ending and Julia being deemed a domestic terrorist by the government.

In a bid to ward off further attacks on her character in person, Julia resigned from her position. But threats from the Department of Homeland Security allegedly followed her home. She claims she was subjected to visual and audio surveillance.

And on August 10th, 2005, the DHS staged a raid on her house.

That afternoon, 10 Internal Affairs agents, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE officers, arrived in unmarked cars. They stormed Julia's residence at. Her neighbor, a man named Matthew Judd, caught the event on camera. He even documented a Black Hawk helicopter trying to land in the yard.

Officials used a battering ram to get into the home. Julia and her husband weren't there, but her elderly parents weren't so lucky. Court records prove that agents handcuffed Julia's mother and father while they raided the property. Her father's finger was broken in the scuffle and her mother was bruised.

According to Julia, the ICE officers confiscated a shotgun and ammunition from the master bedroom. Julia's husband, B.J., had recently had his right to possess firearms revoked. So this gave the authorities something to arrest him over.

Agents also took photos of the home's interior searching for evidence that BJ was paid to marry Julia, a Ukrainian born citizen, for a green card.

If they could charge Juliar for unlawful procurement of citizenship and a marriage fraud, then all her allegations against them would likely be dismissed outright.

I'm sure you're wondering how Brittany Murphy factors into Julia's government conspiracy. Well, if you remember from part one, many people speculated that Simon had conned the actress into marrying him for citizenship, too.

According to Julia, once Britney learned that they were in similar situations. The star spoke out publicly in her defense regarding the matter.

Julia also claimed that Britney and Simon offered to be witnesses in her court case. If that were true, it could have made them government targets. After all, a Hollywood celebrity would have a pretty huge platform for exposing DHS secrets. Angelo, Britney's father, seemed to echo Julia's claims. He said his daughter believed someone was surveilling her home as a result.

According to Angelo, Britney had 50 security cameras placed both inside and outside her residence. She and Simon also installed scrambling devices on their landlines so no one could listen in on their calls.

Cast and crew members always felt that Britney's odd behavior was due to drugs. But if Angelo and Julia's claims are to be believed that maybe government spooks were to blame for Britney's tardiness, nervous behavior and inability to focus on set. Maybe that's why the couple rarely left their Hollywood home.

Maybe, but it seems preposterous to think the government would kill Britney and Simon just to keep them from airing Julia's allegations. Sure.

Until you learn what happened to Julia's neighbor, Matthew Judd, the same guy who caught the raid on tape a few weeks after Judd captured that footage and gave it to the Davis family as evidence he was found dead in his home at the young age of 25. The details surrounding Judd's death or a bit murky, but unlike Britney and Simon, he wasn't a high profile celebrity, meaning his death would have been much easier to cover up if it was indeed murder.

Still, it's hard to believe the government would murder someone just for defending Julia, especially when you hear other sides of the story.

According to investigative researcher Brinn Kurt James Hammond, Britney and Simon's increase in security had nothing to do with Julia Davis. But they were concerned with a variety of legal charges that Simon was facing, like credit card fraud and deportation for an expired visa.

In fact, Brittany's mother, Sharon, claims that Julia Davis was never part of the couple's life. She said, I am quite confident Britney never cooperated with Julia Davis, never signed any statement in support of her, never met with her and barely knew she existed.

Sharon says that Julia had reached out to Britney's agents, but her daughters representatives responded, claiming that the actress didn't know anything about Julia's allegations. Furthermore, Britney's agents made it clear that she had no intention of ever meeting with the former DHS officer.

More evidence soon arose to dismiss yet another one of Julie's claims. Julia had alleged that Brittany Murphy spoke publicly in her defense. And yet Hammond, the investigative reporter, combed through the legal documents regarding Julia's case. But no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find Britney or Simon's name within them. According to him, the Hollywood couple had never been approached or interviewed by any of the agencies in question.

In fact, the more Hamman dug, the more he realized that Julia was not a credible source.

However, it wasn't until he interviewed one of the Davis is alleged former friends, an actress named Kimberly Cates, that he realized he may be in over his head and the Daviss were more dangerous than they seemed.

Cates claimed, quote, Please be very careful around those two. They destroyed my soul for eight years and it cost me a million dollars in legal fees. She went on to say, quote, They still do stalker ish type things to me, super scary people.

In 2012, nearly three years after Brittany Murphy's death, Julia and Brooke Davis created a documentary about their experience with the government called Top Priority.

The terror within the film was the daviss last ditch effort to make a buck off of their while DHS allegations they were determined to profit, even if it meant dragging Brittany's memory into their gambit.

So, yes, it appears that the actress was never directly involved with the couple. But perhaps Julian B.J. saw her death as the only way to call attention to the corruption inside the DHS. According to a fringe article on Parents Advocates Dog, a whistleblower site, government documents outline the efforts of multiple agencies to silence Julia NBG. The files claim that as many as 19 different prosecutors helped Julia fight 54 allegations against her allegations launched by multiple organizations like the IRS, the FBI and the California Department of Justice, among others.

That same whistleblower site also claims that a California Superior Court judge named Margaret Woods allegedly issued a restraining order to protect Julia.

Judge Wood's recognized that Julia had been unlawfully harassed and forced to resign by the Department of Homeland Security. Whether or not that is true, there still has been zero evidence that Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack were at all involved.

If that's the case, then there's no reason why the government would have wanted the couple dead. Not to mention Julia seems like an elaborate storyteller. She appeared frequently as a guest on the radio show of Alex Jones, a far right conspiracy theorist who has been proven to spread misinformation. Which is why I have to give this theory a one out of ten. I'll read it a little bit higher with a two out of ten only because Julia's case does seem to be rooted in some truth, especially if she was granted a restraining order from the Superior Court in the murder of her neighbor.

Matthew Judd feels so ominous that it makes you wonder how much these agencies are capable of so well.

It's not likely that Britney and Simon were part of a government conspiracy. It doesn't make their deaths any less suspicious. In fact, Britney's father suggests they may have been murdered by someone close to the couple, someone who lived in their home.

Coming up, we'll investigate if Sharon Murphy played a role in her daughter's death. Now back to the story.

After blowing the whistle on the DHS in 2004, a former officer named Julia Davis claimed that Britney and Simon were murdered by the government.

Julia claimed that Britney publicly stood up for her after she was harassed by agents for exposing a terrorist plot.

When you decided that the theory simply doesn't hold water, but that doesn't mean that foul play is off the table. Angelo Bortolotti, Britney's estranged father, had a few theories about his daughter's death. But one of his most astonishing was the idea that she was killed by someone close to her.

This brings us to conspiracy theory number three. Sharon Murphy played a role in both Britney and Simon's eerily similar deaths.

In February 2010, L.A. Coroner Ed Winter officially ruled that the cause of the couple's death was pneumonia and anemia aggravated by prescription medications. Then the LAPD closed the case, believing there was no foul play to investigate.

But Angelo Bertinotti had a history with organized crime. This meant he'd likely been involved in cover ups in the past, so he knew that something wasn't right.

Angelo told The Hollywood Reporter, I'm not going to rest until my daughter's untimely demise is properly investigated, which hasn't happened so far. Her case deserves more than a superficial glance.

With this promise in mind, Angelo took matters into his own hands. He hired a forensic pathologist named Dr. Cyril Wecht to examine his daughter's death.

Dr. Wecht, whose merits include president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, agreed with Angelo. He wondered how a young woman could have gotten to such an advanced state of pneumonia and anemia, especially with her financial means.

And while living with her mother in 2012, Angelo filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles coroner's office and the LAPD. She did it in the hopes that it would force them to reopen Britney's case. Angelo knew the coroner had skipped an important step in the autopsy. They never ran a toxicology test on Britney's hair, which could offer crucial evidence for the case.

Instead of reaching a financial settlement, the LAPD agreed to ship specimens from Britney's autopsy files to an independent lab for testing.

After the samples were sent to the Carlson company in Colorado, Angelil claimed that his, quote, worst suspicions had been confirmed. Their assessment reported the presence of 10 different heavy metals in Britney's hair. Things like uranium, tin, copper, manganese, barium and sulfur were said to have showed up in the report and on the ingredients listed in several easily obtainable rat and insect poisons.

The Carlson Companies report concluded by saying, quote, The only logical explanation would be an exposure to these metals administered by a third party perpetrator with criminal intent. If Britney and Simon were poisoned, their symptoms would certainly make sense. Heavy metal exposure can cause fatigue, confusion, impaired consciousness, chills, fever and tightness in the chest that could be confused for respiratory problems.

Another telling symptom of poisoning is inflammation of the mucous membrane inside the throat. If you remember from part one, Sharon reported a black mucus coming from Simon's mouth when she dialed 911 when a poison like arsenic would be the perfect weapon.

If the killer wanted to be discreet, not only is it easy to procure, but arsenic is also an odorless and tasteless toxin that can be given in small doses, leading to a prolonged period of illness before death.

But in order for someone to slip it in a food or drink, they'd have to be pretty close to the victim. In other words, the perpetrator would have to be someone who was around all the time, like a caretaker or a mother. Angelo had already speculated that Sharon played a role in the couple's deaths. Now he felt he had proof Sharon was a two time cancer survivor. It didn't make sense that if both Brittany and. Simon had such deadly cases of pneumonia that she wouldn't get the bug as well, especially with a naturally depleted immune system.

Aside from her pre-existing conditions, there were a series of other suspicious details that didn't help her case. For starters, even after Brittany told her she felt like she was dying. Sharon waited hours to call nine one one. Also concerning, Sharon told operators on the emergency call that both she and Simon had performed CPR on Britney. However, on Larry King, she told the host that, quote, No one did mouth to mouth and, quote, further casting suspicion on her when the LAPD showed up to investigate the home.

Sharon initially didn't want to let them in without a search warrant. She and Simon also initially refused the idea of an autopsy.

It seemed as though she had something to hide and she followed the same pattern after Simon died.

In his case, Sharon again failed to call for help until hours after he'd lost consciousness. Then she again refused request for an inspection of the home. And finally she was evasive when asked whether she shared a bed with her son in law.

Even Simon's mother, Linda Monjack, noticed that there was something off about Sharon.

Linda agreed with Angelo that foul play factored into the couple's death. In an exclusive with The Daily Mail, she told reporters, I believe that lots of things were covered up that should not have been covered up. And I do know that my son died unnecessarily in circumstances that are very, very suspect.

Simon, who was in frequent contact with his mother back in England, confided in her in the weeks before his death. He claimed his mental health was suffering and he was experiencing hallucinations.

Like we mentioned earlier, Simon told Linda that he felt like things were crawling in and out of his skin. He also mentioned that he was gaining weight and felt severely bloated.

Confusion, hallucinations and bloating all happened to be symptoms of arsenic poisoning.

Linda also said that her son called her on May 23, 2010, hours before his death. He was slurring his words and slipping in and out of consciousness. Terrified, Linda spoke to Sharon and begged her to take Simon to the hospital. But Sharon ignored the request.

After Simon died, Linda flew to Los Angeles for the funeral. She was shocked to find that Sharon had hired a private security team to stay at the home while Linda was there.

When Simon's mother asked if she could have a moment alone in her son's room, Sharon refused to let her out of sight of the security team.

She also wouldn't let Linda take any of her son's belongings, no clothes or photos, not even his work portfolio. According to Linda, Sharon claims Simon was broke and didn't own anything in the home. It all belonged to Britney.

Sharon may have mismanaged her daughter and son in law's illness, and she may have been curt with Linda following Simon's death. But that doesn't necessarily mean she poisoned them.

After all, Britney was her pride and joy and she seemed to love her son in law is well enough to potentially have shared a bed with him once her daughter was gone.

But if you look closer, you'll see that Sharon did have a few motives. Both Simon and Britney had high value life insurance policies that she was entitled to.

In addition, Simon was suspiciously left out of his wife's will, which meant the majority of Britney's finances were left to her mother.

And yet, after Britney's death, Simon began draining what was left of the family's bank account, leaving less than 20 percent of their finances.

The couple's business manager, Jeffrey Morgenroth, said he witnessed the situation firsthand. He had access to the family's statements and could see that hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from Britney's aunt, rather, Sharon's account and pension plan.

In other words, if Sharon didn't put a stop to Simon's behavior, she risks being left with nothing.

While that may explain her motivation for taking out Simon, it doesn't explain why she would have ended her daughter's life too well.

In the weeks leading up to Brittany's death, the actress told her mother that she and Simon were thinking of moving to New York. The. You wanted to get their own place, settle in and start a family for Sharon, the idea of a future for her daughter that didn't include her could have been a prime motivator. It's possible that Britney's mother overreacted in a fit of jealousy.

But there's yet another potential reason for Britney's death at her mother's hand. Brinker James Hammond, author of A Case for Murder, the Brittany Murphy files, says that Britney may have been a victim of a mercy killing. Sharon publicly admitted that Britney was suffering from a downturn in her career. In fact, Sharon appeared to blame herself for Britney's floundering work.

Sharon mentioned to Larry King that Britney was by her side in the hospital as she underwent surgery and chemotherapy for her cancer. Britney slept there every day for five weeks.

The time and emotional commitment may have taken a toll on Britney's acting career.

Hammond believes that Sharon may have decided to end Britney's life to keep her from a bottomless pit of despair.

The actress was constantly ravaged by the press, often felt sick, depressed and unhappy with her job prospects, Hammond wrote.

The human brain is complex and is wired with empathy, compassion, guilt, kindness and Kodet to recognize and understand another person's pain. Perhaps in some way, Sharon thought that she was putting Britney out of her misery.

No matter what Sharon's motives might have been, it feels unlikely we'll ever get an answer. Angelo Bortolotti tried to take his investigation a step further by exhuming Brittanys body. Unfortunately, he was denied permission since he had no legal authority over his estranged daughter.

Over the years, Berthelot health started to decline. He died in 2019 at the age of 92, taking any remaining doubts he had about Sharon to his grave.

Despite Bortolotti suspicions in life. L.A. coroner Ed Winter believes that Sharon is innocent. He claimed that hair testing results are famously finicky. It's not an exact science.

For that reason, the report made by the Carlson company jumped to conclusions. If people dye their hair frequently like Britney did for each role, Winter says it could create a lot of issues when testing those follicles.

Despite his words, Sharon's evasive actions after both deaths certainly make her look suspicious. And she had motivations for wanting Simon out of the picture. But I think that accusations of murder might be a step too far.

The LAPD investigated the home not once but twice after Brittany's death and didn't find anything suspicious. Sharon was never even considered a suspect.

Perhaps that's why Ed Winter stands by his ruling that the cause of death was pneumonia aggravated by prescription medications. As we mentioned last week, there were reportedly dozens of pill bottles in the bedroom, many of which had aliases like Trevor Williams and Sharon Monjack on the label. This led the police to believe the couple was abusing these medications, unknowingly exacerbating their illnesses. Was Sharon enabling their addictions? Probably. Does that make her a murderer? I don't think so.

For that reason alone, I have to give this theory a two out of 10.

I wholeheartedly agree. Even Ed Winters said that while Britney and Simon's deaths were not purposefully committed by a third party, they could have been easily prevented. Sharon absolutely should have called for help long before either of them asked her to. In fact, she probably should have encouraged them to get help for their addictions years before their death.

But like you said, that hardly equates to criminal intent. I'll give this theory a one out of 10.

Ultimately, I don't think any of these theories are accurate. While Brittany Murphy was smiley on the red carpet on the inside, she was fighting her darkest demons. She was struggling with the pressure to stay beautiful, relevant and to be seen as talented and valuable in an industry that offered no room for a misstep.

In the end, it took Britney's tragic death for the world to recognize her kind heart, undeniable talent and deep seated pain.

If she'd lived through that December afternoon, would she have gone on to resuscitate her career, win an Oscar, start a family, or would she have continued to live with those demons, the lies, the pain and the depression that overshadowed what could have been a beautiful legacy?

Unfortunately, we'll never know. Thanks for tuning into conspiracy theories. We'll be back Monday with an all new episode of the many sources we used. We found a case for murder, the Brittany Murphy files by Brinn Kurt James Hannemann. 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 from Park Cast, it is executive produced by Max Cuddler 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 Ward and Obiageli 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 from podcast The Kennedys.

Remember, you can binge all 12 episodes starting on Tuesday, January 19th. Listen free and exclusively on Spotify.