Brittany Murphy's Mom Is Not Down With The Poisoning Conspiracy

Brittany Murphy’s dad, Angelo Bertolotti, thinks his daughter was poisoned. He’s so convinced, in fact, that he ordered outside toxicology tests and recently made a big to-do about releasing the results. His conspiracy theory allegation definitely won over some people on the Internet, but let the record show Brittany’s mother vehemently disagrees.

Sharon Murphy took to The Hollywood Reporter this morning to offer up an emotional and heartfelt letter, seemingly as a way to throw up a middle finger at Bertolotti and to let the world know the so-called evidence he’s touting about her daughter’s supposed poisoning is far from a slam dunk case a prosecutor would go to court with.

Here’s an excerpt of the letter…

“It sends pain through my heart when I read [in recent reports about Bertolotti's lab testing results] that "the family said" -- meaning Angelo -- because he was never her family in reality. She and I and our extended family and close friends were her family, and as she grew in years and professionalism, she was beloved by many, many people, including fellow performers and the great artists in Hollywood.In light of the recent publicity about a lab test Angelo had done, I have asked some knowledgeable people, and they tell me that an analysis from a sample of hair is not considered dependable unless it is backed up by tests of tissue and blood and other analysis -- which he did not do (the coroner did, but they show no similar results). I am also told one lab may give different results than another lab in terms of heavy metals, and the proper method requires multiple tests before any results are released.”

Murphy was found dead back in 2009. Given her young age, a wide range of different theories were initially suspected, but after an extensive battery of tests, the coroner ultimately concluded she died of a combination of pneumonia and anemia. Bizarrely, Murphy’s husband Simon Monjack died of the exact same thing just several months later, and together, those deaths gave rise to a host of theories involving poison, mold, lead paint and more.

Losing a child is one of the hardest things anyone could possibly go through, and bringing up crazy theories about how the person may have died really doesn’t help anyone. In some cases, that might be called for, but after a lengthy investigation by a coroner that finds nothing, it’s probably best to work on honoring the deceased’ memory rather than endlessly hunting for a more mysterious cause of death.

We’ll keep you updated on this drama drama as it continues to unfold.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.