Aaron Carter Drowned After Taking Xanax and Huffing: Coroner
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A cause of death for Y2K-era pop teen idol Aaron Carter has been determined. The singer, 34, drowned after inhaling difluoroethane, also known as huffing, and taking alprazolam (a generic form of Xanax), according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner. The death was ruled as an accident.
Carter died on Nov. 5, 2022, after being found unresponsive in the bathtub of his home in Lancaster, California. According to a police report obtained by the Associated Press, Carter was last seen alive the day before his death by Sheriff’s deputies, who visited his home to conduct a welfare check after the singer was seen huffing on an Instagram live video. According to the report, Carter sent authorities home. His body was discovered by his housekeeper the next morning.
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In March, Carter’s mother, Jane Schneck, called for a homicide investigation, insisting that her son did not overdose. Schneck, posted on Facebook at the time that she was “still trying to get a real investigation for the death of my son Aaron Carter,” adding that the coroner “wrote it off” as an accidental drug overdose. “They never investigated it as a possible crime scene because of his addiction past.” Schneck also shared disturbing “death scene photos” of the bathroom of Carter’s home; it’s unclear when the photos were taken and what evidence she believed the photographs revealed. “They allowed people to go in and out although a lot of potential homicide information was there for years,” Schneck wrote of the initial investigation. “Aaron had a lot of death threats and many many people who were making his life miserable.”
Authorities, however, maintained that no foul play was suspected. In a statement to Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said, “Homicide detectives are continuing their investigation into the death of Aaron Carter. To date, there has been no evidence of foul play found during the investigation. The results of Mr. Carter’s autopsy are still pending. The investigation remains ongoing.”
Following his brother’s death, Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter wrote on social media, “My heart has been broken today. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held onto the hope, that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss. But the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know.”
Aaron Carter became an immediate sensation in the late Nineties with the hit song “I Want Candy” and his appearances on Lizzie McGuire and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The late singer’s career was plagued by personal issues and following his death Nick and their sister Angel began a fund to raise money for children’s mental health wellness in his honor.
“Very grateful for the outpour of love and support for my brother,” Nick wrote in an Instagram story. “In his memory, a donation fund has been started to benefit @OnOurSleevesOfficial, an important children’s mental health organization helping families across America.” The post linked out to a donation form for On Our Sleeves, an organization that provides educational information about mental health to communities around the U.S. and helps connect families to local resources.
In January, Nick shared the musical tribute “Hurts to Love You” to his late brother. “We all have someone in our lives that no matter what they do and how bad it hurts you still love them,” Nick wrote of the song.
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