Robin Williams' death has been officially ruled a suicide.
The report from the coroner's office in Marin County, Calif., confirms what has been widely believed since that fateful day Williams' personal assistant found him dead inside a bedroom in the actor's home in Tiburon. He died on Aug. 11 from asphyxia due to hanging. There was no trace of illegal drugs or alcohol in his system, the coroner said on Friday.
Williams, who had entered a substance abuse rehabilitation program shortly before he died, was declared free of illegal substances and alcohol when he died, according to the report. The coroner also said he was suffering from depression and early-stage Parkinson's disease. In toxicology tests, the comedian's body was found with traces of prescription drugs, namely the antidepressant Mirtazapine and levodopa, a medication for Parkinson's disease, in his system. The report said (PDF) both drugs were in "therapeutic concentrations." The coroner also said Williams' system contained caffeine.
The coroner also examined the actor's brain tissue, which indicated that he suffered from a condition called diffuse Lewy body dementia, a common pre-cursor to Parkinson's disease. In a separate pathology report released on Nov. 7, medical records show that Williams started showing symptoms of the disease, including tremors in his left hand, as early as 2011 but was diagnosed in November 2013.
The Good Will Hunting Oscar winner also had shallow cuts on his left wrist, and police discovered a damp washcloth with reddish stains in it that were presumably from the wounds on his wrist.
During the days leading up to his death, the report said Williams had "a recent increase in paranoia." On the evening before his death, he was said to have placed several watches in a sock and gave them to an unnamed person for safekeeping because he was "worried about the watches and wanted to keep them 'safe'." Authorities who searched Williams' phone after his death said they found no indication of an impending suicide. The last call recorded on his phone was a 38-second call to his wife, Susan Schneider, about picking up some magazines at the bookstore. His iPad, which was found inside the bedroom where Williams died, showed several tabs on his web browser open on websites about medications for treating tremors, including Lyrica and propranolol. The report also mentioned that the actor, at some point, "had complained about not liking the way some of his medications made him feel."
Schneider, who said she and Williams slept in separate bedrooms because her husband was suffering from insomnia and was restless at night, said he was "in and out" of the bedroom she shared with him and seemed "excited." When he took his iPad at one point, Schneider thought it was a sign that he was in a "good mood" and was planning to do some reading.
Williams was 63. He is survived by his wife and his children Zak, Zelda and Cody. On Twitter, Zelda posted a quote from author Antoine de Sainte Exupery's The Little Prince as a tribute to her father:
"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... You - only you - will have stars that can laugh."
