The cause of death of Nick Gordon, the former boyfriend of late pop icon Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, has been revealed.
According to an autopsy report, Gordon’s cause of death was heroin toxicity.
Gordon died from a heroin overdose on Jan. 1 at the age of 30, and the autopsy was performed the next day.
Morphine, caffeine and naloxone, which is used to reverse opioid overdoses, were also found in his system, according to the toxicology results.
Gordon was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. He was administered Narcan and hospitalized prior to being declared dead.
Gordon’s lawyer Joe Habachy said his client had tried to stay away from drugs in recent years.
“My heart is heavy today after learning that my longtime client Nick Gordon died at the young age of 30. While I cannot speak to the specific circumstances of his death, I can say that it’s been truly heartbreaking to have witnessed first-hand the total devastation that drug addiction has wreaked upon a group of young friends, all of whom were loved and had immense potential,” Habachy said at the time.
“He worked hard to hold his head up and stay sober and … he genuinely wanted a happy, healthy life with his family more than anything else,” Habachy said. “My heart goes out to the family and friends Nick leaves behind and to any other families dealing with the losses and heartache caused by drugs.”
Gordon’s death occurred nearly five years after Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of Houston and Bobby Brown, was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in January 2015. The 22-year-old died after six months in a coma.
Investigators with the medical examiner’s office were not able to determine exactly how Bobbi Kristina Brown died. An autopsy showed she had morphine, cocaine, alcohol and prescription drugs in her body, but the medical examiner couldn’t determine if she killed herself, if someone else killed her or if her death was accidental.
Her family blamed Gordon, accusing him in a lawsuit of giving her a “toxic cocktail” before putting her face down in the water.
Gordon was never charged in the case, but he was found responsible in a wrongful death lawsuit. An Atlanta judge ordered him to pay US$36 million to Brown’s estate.
— With files from the Associated Press