Chester Bennington’s Autopsy Report Released

An autopsy revealed that Chester Bennington had alcohol in his system at the time of his death. The report, first published by TMZ, said that the singer was not under the influence of drugs at the time of his death.

The Linkin Park frontman died of suicide by hanging this past July. The new report, which is viewable as a PDF, contains a section by the police officer who found the singer’s body. A dresser in the room contained a prescription for generic Ambien with one pill broken in half; the section that says who the prescription was made out to was blacked out prior to publication. The officer also wrote that there was a glass of Corona less than half full, as well as an empty bottle of Stella Artois. Also present was a journal with a biography that was handwritten but not dated. There was no suicide note.

In the report, the coroner wrote, “autopsy findings are characteristic of suicidal hanging. There was a history of suicidal ideation.”

TMZ reports that Bennington’s wife, Talinda, had informed the authorities of the singer’s previous attempt at death by suicide, including one time in 2006 when he left the house with a gun after drinking heavily. Fingernails were found underneath his iPhone, and Talinda said this was a habit he had when he was anxious. She said he was recently in an outpatient treatment program and that to her knowledge he hadn’t taken antidepressants in a year.

Earlier this year, friends of Bennington told Rolling Stone that the singer had been struggling to maintain his sobriety over the past year. A month before his death, he told his friend, guitarist Ryan Shuck, that he had been sober for only six months. And when Shuck told him that he too was struggling, Bennington sent him text messages in support. “He was describing an hour-by-hour battle with addiction,” Shuck said. “When I look at it now, it’s horrifying. He was telling me, down to the detail, what he would do in the first hour he wanted to drink: ‘I basically just take it hour-by-hour every day.'”

At the time Shuck said he knew Bennington had been drinking at the time of his death. “We don’t know how much [he drank], but it doesn’t take much when you’re that advanced an alcoholic and an addict and you’re battling to the extent he described to me,” he said. “You don’t need much to lose your mind for a minute.”