Initial tests performed on a substance found in packages in Philip Seymour Hoffman’s apartment in Manhattan confirmed it to be heroin, though no trace was found of a powerful additive linked to 22 fatal overdoses in Pennsylvania last month, the New York Police Department said on Tuesday.
The tests did not find any trace of fentanyl, which had recently been seen in heroin confiscated by the police in New York City and which had been tied to the deaths in Pennsylvania.
The tests gave further support to the notion, pursued by detectives from the start of the death investigation on Sunday, that Mr. Hoffman had died of a drug overdose.
He was found dead with a needle in his arm in a West Village apartment he had been renting. Dozens of packages of heroin, some used and in the trash, were discovered by the police.Preliminary tests of the heroin found “no traces of fentanyl,” said Stephen Davis, the department’s top spokesman, adding that investigators had taken a representative sample of the substances found in the apartment in reaching that conclusion.
The city medical examiner on Tuesday was awaiting results of a toxicology test and had yet to reach a definitive cause of death.
As the investigation into the actor’s death continued, Mr. Hoffman’s family released a statement outlining their plans for a private funeral service for “the family and close friends.”
The statement said “plans were also underway for a memorial service later in the month also to be held in New York,” though no details were provided.
NEWS SOURCE:http://www.nytimes.com/
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