What Would It Take For Brittany Murphy’s Case To Be Reopened?

Many questions continue to swirl around the untimely death of Brittany Murphy at the age of 32 in 2009. Even with her official cause of death determined ("pneumonia, anemia, and an accidental mix of prescription and over-the-counter pills"), some, including the actress' father, have speculated that a third party may have been involved. E! News recently spoke to Ed Winter, the L.A. county assistant chief coroner about what it would take to reopen the official investigation. There "would have to have direct evidence," Winter told E! News. "In all honesty, it would take something like a confession. Something connecting somebody with it." E! also spoke with a forensic pathologist, Cyril Wecht, about what he would have done differently during the initial investigation. According to E!, Wecht thinks the coroner ought to take a closer look. "I would have checked to see if the private lab results were valid and, if they could be corroborated and analyzed, whether there was exposure and where did the exposure come from," he said. "You have two people — a husband and a wife — dying five months of each other. And, not engaging in any wild speculation, with two young people dying five months apart you've got to check it out, and I still don't know what happened." Wecht was referring to the fact that Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, died roughly six months after Murphy in the same house. His cause of death was also listed as due to pneumonia and anemia.