Brittany Murphy And Six Other Celebs Whose Deaths Are Still Bafflingly Unexplained

If you thought they were too famous for this to happen, you'd be wrong.

Warning: this post includes mentions of addiction, depression, and suicide.

1. Brittany Murphy

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Murphy rose to fame playing Tai in Clueless, then appeared in acclaimed films like 8 Mile and Girl, Interrupted. She later became a leading lady in hits like Just Married and Uptown Girls. In her private life, she dated Eminem and Ashton Kutcher before marrying Simon Monjack.

WHAT HAPPENED: The 32-year-old star was sick with pneumonia (to the point where her lips were blue and she was gasping for air) when she collapsed in the bathroom of her three-level Mediterranean home in the Hollywood Hills. Fire fighters attempted to resuscitate her before she was transported to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. At 10:04 a.m., two hours after the initial 911 call, Murphy died at the hospital from cardiac arrest.

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Despite being so sick, Murphy didn't go to the emergency room the night before and hadn't seen a doctor in six weeks. She and her husband (who had his own health issues) were proponents of their own form of holistic medicine, and also were wary of gaining a reputation in Hollywood as sickly. 

An autopsy determined that Murphy died of pneumonia exacerbated by anemia and multiple-drug intoxication. The drugs — over-the-counter cold medications and prescription medications — were all legal, but in elevated levels. Assistant L.A. Coroner Ed Winter said, “She had been sick at least two weeks. Had they taken her to a doctor or hospital, it would have been treatable.”

HERE'S WHY IT IS SO MYSTERIOUS: Murphy's husband Simon Monjack raised suspicions by initially refusing an autopsy to understand exactly what happened to his wife. He cited religious reasons, but also told Larry King, "This pristine body that was curvy in all the right places with skin like silk. How could I say in front of her mother, 'cut her up?'" What happened next only confused things further. Shockingly, just five months later, a 40-year-old Monjack died in the same bedroom of eerily similar causes: pneumonia and anemia. He, like Murphy, also had an elevated level of prescription drugs in his system.

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Considering Murphy and Monjack died at young ages in the same room only months apart, many conjectured that the home had toxic mold in it. Murphy's mother dismissed this idea — as did the coroner — but she later became convinced toxic mold was the cause of the deaths when trying to sell the home.

While Murphy's mother believed toxic mold killed her daughter, Murphy's father had a different theory: that she was murdered. 

“I have a feeling that there was definitely a murder situation here," he told Good Morning America. “Yeah, it’s poison. Yes, yes, I know that.”

The basis for this claim was the results of an independent toxicology report he had done on a sample of Murphy's hair. The report detailed the presence of 10 heavy metals in the hair, which, the report claimed, suggested the possibility of foul play. Murphy's father later filed suit against the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office and the Los Angeles Police Department hoping in vain to have his daughter's body re-examined and the case re-opened.  

Who would want Murphy dead? A documentary entitled Top Priority: The Terror Within alleged a conspiracy theory that shady government agencies may have been involved, and claimed Murphy and Monjack were on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security watch list after allegedly supporting Julia Davis, a former Customs and Border Protection agent turned government whistleblower. 

Murphy's mother fought back against the allegations in an open letter to The Hollywood Reporter. First, she refuted the findings of the independent toxicology report, writing,"This report conveniently ignores what any good scientist will tell you: A hair sample can be affected by many outside factors, including hair dye, hair spray, prescription medications, foods, smoking the occasional cigarette and environmental factors." She also asked why, if Murphy was poisoned, the original autopsy report found no trace of it.

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As for the alleged government conspiracy, she wrote, "I am quite confident Brittany never cooperated with Julia Davis, never signed any statement in support of her, never met with her and barely knew she existed...Davis’ grievances with the government agency she worked for may be real — and if so, I feel bad for her — but she has no right to drag my daughter’s memory into it to serve her agenda."

An HBO documentary What Happened to Brittany Murphy? took a deep dive into Murphy's life and the mysterious circumstances of her death. Here's the trailer.

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2. Richey Edwards

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Edwards was a driver and roadie for the British alternative band The Manic Street Preachers before becoming a full-time member of the group. He wrote the majority of the lyrics for the band's The Holy Bible, which is often cited as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

WHAT HAPPENED: Just one day before he was scheduled to fly to the United States to go on a promotional tour for The Holy Bible, the 27-year-old Edwards went missing. There were sightings of him over the next two weeks — by a fan in Newport and a taxi driver who claimed to have driven an erratically-behaving Edwards to Bristol — but then the trail went cold. Edwards' car was later discovered near the Severn Bridge, a known suicide spot, leading many to believe he jumped off the bridge.

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Sadly, if Edwards did die by suicide, it followed a difficult period in his life. He was suffering from severe depression and often self harmed (cutting and burning himself with cigarettes). He'd also been hospitalized for anorexia and struggled with alcohol dependence. 

Edwards' family refused to believe he was dead, especially as his body was never found. However, in 2008, 13 years after his disappearance, they were granted a court order to have him legally presumed dead.

HERE'S WHY IT IS SO MYSTERIOUS: Since Edwards' disappearance, a number of people have claimed to have seen him in far-flung places around the globe. In 1996, two years after his disappearance, a college lecturer named Vyvyan Morris says she crossed paths with Edwards in Goa, India, where he was going by the name Rick. And then, in 1998, people at an underground club in The Canary Islands claimed to have also spotted Edwards. When they asked him if he was Richey Edwards, he allegedly raced out the door.

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These sightings were unsubstantiated, of course, and music fans have also made dubious claims of spotting dead musicians like Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur. But there are other reasons one might puzzle over Edwards' disappearance. 

Edwards, before vanishing, reportedly gave the book Novel with Cocaine to a friend and asked them to read the introduction, where the author wrote about vanishing from society. And a recent book on Edwards entitled Withdrawn Traces, written with the cooperation of his sister Rachel Edwards, says that he'd shown interest in the idea of faking one's death in the years before he was last seen.

"Nobody knows where he is," Rachel Edwards told GQ when asked why people are still captivated with his case. "We know no more now than we did 25 years ago. I think that does fascinate people. I can understand that, because no matter how much attention we’ve drawn to the case, we're still no further forward."

3. Natalie Wood

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Wood was the three-time Academy Award nominated star of Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, West Side Story, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. She is often cited as the first child star to successfully transition into box-office stardom as an adult.

WHAT HAPPENED: On Nov. 28, 1981, the 43-year-old Wood went on a weekend boating trip to Catalina Island with her husband actor Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken, and ship captain Dennis Davern. That night at 11:05 p.m., the other passengers realized Wood was no longer on the yacht. The yacht’s dinghy was missing too.

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At 8 a.m. the next morning, Wood’s body was found a mile away from the yacht in an isolated cove. The dinghy was beached nearby. An investigation by the Los Angeles County coroner, Thomas Noguchi, determined that Wood died by accidental drowning and hypothermia. Noguchi theorized that Wood, who had been drinking, fell into the water while attempting to get back into the dinghy.

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HERE'S WHY IT IS SO MYSTERIOUS: For starters, Wood's sister Lana refuted the coroner's conjecture, saying that Wood was petrified of water and never would have tried to get back in the dinghy by herself at night. Not only that, but there were bruises on Wood's body that suggested she had been thrown off a boat according to Dr. Michael Franco, an intern at the coroner's office at the time. Franco says he brought his concerns about Wood's bruises to Noguchi who indicated to him that "some things are best left unsaid."

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Wood and her husband Wagner also had an argument on the yacht before she went missing, a fact Wagner initially denied but finally admitted to in his 2008 autobiography Pieces of My Heart: A Life. 

Further arousing suspicions is the fact that four hours elapsed between the time Wagner, Walken, and Davern realized Wood was missing and when they called the Coast Guard.

Most concerning, though, were statements that Lana Wood alleges the boat captain Dennis Davern made to her on a drunken phone call. According to Lana Wood, Davern said that after the star couple quarreled "it appeared to him as though RJ (Robert Wagner) shoved her away and she went overboard. Dennis panicked and RJ said, ‘Leave her there. Teach her a lesson.’" Wood added that Davern didn't think Wagner intender for her sister to drown, "but he didn’t run to her aid.”

Much later, in 2011, Davern went public with his version of the events, revealing that he'd initially lied to investigators, but believed that Wagner was responsible for her death. He added, "We didn't take any steps to see if we could locate her. I think it was a matter of, 'We're not going to look too hard, we're not going to turn on the searchlight, we're not going to notify anybody right now.'"

Davern's comments played a role in the Sheriff's Department reopening the case in 2011 and the coroner's department amending Wood's death certificate in 2013, changing the cause of death from "accidental drowning" to "drowning and other undetermined factors." Then, in February, 2018, L.A. county Sheriff investigators held a press conference to announce Wagner was now a person of interest in the case. As of February, 2022, however, there have been no further updates from law enforcement.

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In 2020, Wood's daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner produced a documentary about her mother and her death entitled Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. In it, she confronts Wagner on camera and asks him if he was responsible for her mother's death. He says he's not, and she says she believes him.

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4. Thelma Todd

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Known as "The Ice Cream Blonde," Todd was a famous comedic actor of the '20s and '30s who starred opposite The Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy.

WHAT HAPPENED: Todd was just 29, and at the height of her fame, when she was found in her garage by her maid. The movie star was dead behind the wheel of her 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible, wearing a high-priced evening gown, mink coat, and expensive jewelry.

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A police investigation concluded her death was accidental, and that she died of carbon monoxide poisoning — perhaps after getting locked out of her home and turning on her car engine to keep warm. The coroner agreed, saying there were no signs of violence (save for a small bruise on her lower lip).

Later, a grand jury probe was held to determine if she was murdered. After four weeks they found there was no foul play and concluded her death was "accidental with possible suicide tendencies."

HERE'S WHY IT IS SO MYSTERIOUS: Thelma had a lot of people who might've wanted her dead, including the notorious and ruthless mobster Lucky Luciano, with whom she had an affair. Luciano was abusive to her and had a motive — he wanted to take control of her Hollywood roadhouse and use it as an illegal gambling den.

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It wasn't just Luciano, though. The night before Todd's death she had a run-in at a Hollywood party with her ex-husband, powerful Hollywood film producer Pat DiCicco, who had been abusive to her during their marriage and had his own mob ties. Oh, and less than two years later he was rumored to have played a role in the death of comedian Ted Healy. There was also her current boyfriend Roland West — who was angry with how much socializing she did with other men  — and West's ex-wife Jewel Carmen who was said to be jealous of her. Whether any of these people had a role in her death is impossible to know now, but suspicion nevertheless swirled around all of them over the years. 

Another factor — it was rumored she had greater injuries than a bruised lip, despite what the autopsy determined. Todd died at a time when powerful mobsters and Hollywood big shots could make a crime like this go away, and maybe, just maybe they did.

5. Brian Jones

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Jones was a multi-instrumentalist who founded The Rolling Stones (and even came up with their name). He was a member of the group until he was let go in 1969 shortly before his death. Jones also recorded with Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles.

WHAT HAPPENED: Around midnight on July 2, 1969, Jones' body was discovered at the bottom of the swimming pool at his estate in East Sussex. The 27-year-old was pulled from the pool and had CPR performed on him, but was pronounced dead upon arriving at the hospital.

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Jones' death came just six weeks after Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts informed him he was out of the band. Jones' leaving the band had been a long time coming. He'd grown estranged from his bandmates over the years, especially as he became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol.

Contemporaneous accounts of the night Jones died say that, prior to Jones' going for a swim, he'd been drinking brandy and taking sleeping pills, and as a result was "unsteady on his feet" and his speech was "garbled." 

An autopsy declared his death was due to drowning, later clarified as "death by misadventure." 

HERE'S WHY IT IS SO MYSTERIOUS: Jones' daughter, Barbara Marion, contends that her father may have been murdered, and believes that his death was never properly investigated by the authorities. Rumors have alleged for years that Frank Thorogood — a builder working on Jones' house who was the last person to see Jones alive — may have killed him after a dispute over money.

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A 2020 documentary claims that Thorogood and his construction crew were leaching off of Jones, and that he'd fired them the day before the incident. The documentary theorizes that Thorogood and Jones got into an argument that ended with Thorogood holding Jones's head down in a trough until he drowned. He then moved the body to the pool to make it look like an accidental drowning.

Thorogood's friend Tom Keylock alleges that Thorogood confessed to the murder on his deathbed, saying, "He said to me 'I’ll tell you something after all these years, but you gotta promise not to say anything until after I die...It was me who done Brian.”

However, though the police work done at the time of Jones' death has been criticized, the Sussex Police has reviewed the case three times over the years, including as recently as 2009, and still stands by their original determination.

A documentary now streaming entitled Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones digs deeper into Jones' story. Here's the trailer.

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6. Divya Bharti

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Bharti was only a teenager when she rose to fame in both Tollywood and Bollywood cinema thanks to her effortless charisma and movie star looks. Her acclaimed performance in the smash hit Deewana won her a Filmfare Award, Bollywood's equivalent to the Academy Awards.

WHAT HAPPENED: On April 5, 1993, the young star was enjoying an evening socializing with her husband and friends when she fell off the balcony of her fifth-floor Mumbai apartment. She was rushed to the hospital — and reported to still be alive upon arrival — but soon succumbed to her head injuries.

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WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Speculation about what exactly happened to Bharti has continued to grow over the years, with all kinds of conspiracy theories.

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On one hand, Bharti's death is not so mysterious. She'd been drinking with her friends when she made the mistake of going out onto her balcony which lacked protective grilling and slipped, falling to her death. Indian authorities, responding to the outcry for more information about what happened, investigated and determined it was a tragic accident.

On the other hand, a large contingent of Bharti's fans still refuse to believe there could be such a simple explanation, and the internet is full of conspiracy theory discussions on message boards that go on for page after page. One reason for the rampant speculation? The last person to see Bharti alive was her long-time maid Amrita...who died just one month later. For those who suspect foul play, the timing is very suspicious. Could Amirita have been killed because she knew one of the guests at the apartment pushed Bharti? Or because she knew Indian gangsters — who have been connected to Bollywood — put a hit out on Bharti? 

Another debate online is whether Bharti fell or died by suicide, but Bharti's father has dismissed all of the speculation.

"There was no question of suicide or murder...she was not depressed. She was the kind to give you depression!" he said. "It was an accident. She sat on the ledge, lost her balance and fell. Sadly, all flats had grills except hers. Cars would always be parked below but that night there was not a single one. She fell directly on the ground. I was shocked and lost my senses. But eventually you have to face the truth."

7. Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G.

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The two artists were the biggest and most talented stars of the wildly popular early-to-mid '90s rap scene. Initially friends, they had a falling out and became key figures in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud.

WHAT HAPPENED: On Sept. 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight attended the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight in Las Vegas. Afterward, Shakur punched Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson of Los Angeles' Southside Crips gang, an enemy of some of Knight's associates. Later that evening, Shakur and Knight were driving down Las Vegas Boulevard when a Cadillac pulled alongside and fired into their car. Knight was injured, but Shakur — who was struck four times — died a week later in the hospital.

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Exactly six months later, Christopher "Biggie" Wallace and his producer Sean "Puffy" Combs had just left an after party for the 1997 Soul Train Awards when a Chevrolet Impala pulled alongside Biggie's SUV and fired into it, hitting him four times. The rap legend was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where doctors performed an emergency surgery, but he died at 1:15 a.m.

WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Despite Shakur and Wallace being massive stars who were gunned down in crowded areas, both murders remain unsolved today. In both cases many of the key witnesses refused to speak, or were killed themselves in subsequent years.

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An obvious suspect in Shakur's murder was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, the gang member Shakur tangled with after the Tyson fight. But Las Vegas police only interviewed him once, briefly, and he died two years later in an unrelated gang shooting. 

Rapper Yaki Kadafi could've provided information to the police, as he was in the car trailing Shakur's car at the time of the shooting, but he dodged the authorities' interview requests before being shot to death just two months later.  Like Kadafi, other potential witnesses — including members of Death Row Records'/Shakur's entourage — also refused to cooperate. Suge Knight himself later said that he didn't see the shooters, but wouldn't tell the police even if he had. Whether this silence was due to "street code" or something else, it made it impossible to confirm Anderson as the killer.

Anderson wasn't the only rumored killer, however. There was also the alleged theory that Suge Knight ordered the murder after Shakur threatened to leave Death Row Records, as discussed in the book LAbyrinth written by Randall Sullivan. And while Sullivan ultimately believed Anderson is the killer, he didn't discount the possibility of Knight being responsible even if he was hit in the shooting. "The shooter's car pulled up and shot at an angle that could really only hit Tupac," Sullivan told Vice. "No shot really came close to hitting Suge." (Knight was hit by fragments but survived.)

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Suge Knight presented his own theory as to what happened in 2017 when he said he believed the shooting was ordered by other Death Row Records executives who were attempting a coup to take over the label — and wanted to kill him, not Shakur.

Muddling things even further? The often suggested rumor that Shakur died as a result of the East Coast/West Coast rivalry. Greg Kading, a former LAPD detective who researched the case for his book Murder Rap, alleges that Sean "Puffy" Combs ordered the murder. Combs called this allegation "pure fiction and completely ridiculous."

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The murder of Christopher "Biggie" Wallace, less than five months after Shakur's, is equally mystifying.

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One theory espoused by retired FBI agent, Phil Carson, — who worked the case for multiple years  — claims that Suge Knight ordered a hit on Combs in retaliation for his alleged hit on Shakur, but Biggie was killed by accident. Carson further alleges that Los Angeles police department officers were involved in the killing, and that's why it was never solved. 

Wallace's family had similar thoughts, and filed suit against the LAPD claiming they covered up police involvement in the killing. The suit, after years of legal wrangling, was eventually dismissed.