--- title: "Coroner Defers Naming Aaron Carter Cause of Death Until Toxicology Report" description: "Ex-child star and pop singer Aaron Carter was only 34 when he died last weekend — and now, newly-released details suggest that he may have overdosed. " date: "2022-11-08" modified: "2022-11-09" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/new-details-aaron-carter" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "aaron carter" - "celebrities" - "drugs" - "overdose" --- # Coroner Defers Naming Aaron Carter Cause of Death Until Toxicology Report ![Ex-child star and pop singer Aaron Carter was only 34 when he died last weekend — and now, newly-released details suggest that he may have overdosed. ]() *\Image: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images\* Former child star and late 90s pop singer Aaron Carter was only 34 when he [passed away last weekend](). Now, newly-released details may shed light on his final hours. As [*TMZ* reports](), police who arrived at the scene of Carter's Lancaster, California home said they found bottles of prescription pills and canisters of compressed air around the residence. The nature of the pill bottles isn't yet clear, but huffing aerosols to get high — which Carter had been [candid about in the past]() — constitutes a particularly grave addiction that can lead to an [expansive list of serious symptoms]() ranging from liver and kidney damage to hearing loss, brain damage, and death. On November 5, Carter was found dead in his bathtub and was last seen around 2am the day prior by his live-in housekeeper, *TMZ* reports, when someone reportedly called the police to do a welfare check. When the former child star became aware of what was happening, he told the cops to leave and told his housekeeper not to bother him. She didn't see him the rest of the day or the next, and the tabloid's sources suggest that the housekeeper was the one to find him and that she reported that the tub's jets were still running and that his body was an unnatural color and emitting a smell. "I went to his bedroom, the bedroom was normal," a friend who visited the house shortly after Carter's death [told *Entertainment Tonight*](). "I went to the bathroom where the bathtub was full of water, like, yellowish color." Beyond the gruesome details from the scene described by [*TMZ*'s storied law enforcement sources]() as "chaotic," the LA County Coroner's Office has deferred a cause of death until the results of a toxicology report. Carter's actual cause of death remains unknown, though reports indicate that police were called because of a "drowning." Until we get more details, it'll remain unclear exactly what happened the night Carter died. What is clear is that his final years represented a grim downward spiral of addiction, financial issues, and mental health challenges — not just a personal tragedy, but a searing indictment of the way child stars are treated by an industry that treats them as disposable. **More celebrity death:** [*Famed Director Dies by Assisted Suicide*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()