The Los Angeles County Coroner has asked for more time to determine Lisa Marie Presley’s cause of death following the first autopsy.
In a statement shared with CNN, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office said, “Presley was examined on Jan. 14, and the cause of death was deferred. Deferred means that after an autopsy, a cause of death has not been determined, and the medical examiner is requesting more investigation into the death, including additional studies. Once the tests/studies come back, the doctor evaluates the case again and makes the cause of death determination.”
Presley died last Thursday, Jan. 12, at the age of 54. She was rushed to a local hospital earlier in the day after suffering cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California. Several hours after her hospitalization was made public, Priscilla confirmed that the musician had died. “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla told People.
“She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known,” Presley added. “We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”
Just days before her death, Presley attended the Golden Globes alongside her mother on Tuesday night, where Austin Butler, who portrayed Elvis in the biopic about the musician, was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. “Lisa Marie, Priscilla, I love you forever,” Butler said during his acceptance speech. Presley is Elvis’ only child.
Presley had been open about her health struggles in the past, including her sobriety journey after suffering from an addiction to opioids.
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“You may read this and wonder how, after losing people close to me, I also fell prey to opioids,” she wrote in The United States of Opioids, referring to her father and ex-husband Michael Jackson, according to Yahoo. “I was recovering after the [2008] birth of my daughters, Vivienne and Finley, when a doctor prescribed me opioids for pain. It only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel the need to keep taking them.”
On Sunday, Jan. 22, a public memorial for Presley will take place on the lawn in front of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. It was previously announced that Presley would be buried at Graceland next to her son Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020. Graceland’s Meditation Garden is also the resting place of Elvis Presley, as well as his parents, Vernon and Gladys, and grandmother Minnie Mae.
