Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
"FRIENDS" STAR MATTHEW PERRY SUSPECT KILLER DOCTOR ESCAPES JAIL TIME IN HOLLYWOOD FIASCO
17 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. it never ends with hollywood justice matthew perry the star of the iconic friends series dead in his hot tub because of doctors and enablers that allowed him to die yes he bears some responsibility too we know that but what about the others that let it happen that made it happen They are skating justice.
Is it because they're rich, high profile, or just part of the Hollywood milieu? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. That's right. In the last days, Matthew Perry's ketamine doctor skates, escapes jail, and a shock ruling as the court hears how he is driving Uber for a living. So good.
Chapter 2: What led to the sentencing of Matthew Perry's ketamine doctor?
That is a blessing to him to drive Uber for a living. He should be mopping floors in the penitentiary. Matthew Perry is dead because of him. And I wonder how many other people he prescribed ketamine to. One of the doctors caught up in the criminal fallout surrounding the Friends legend Matthew Perry's ketamine drug. death, some would call it a murder, has avoided jail time.
What actually happened to Matthew Perry? Let me start with the 911 call.
Listen.
You can't tell a lot, but I learned something significant.
Let's hear that one more time, Sid.
Now, some of those numbers are universal. Sometimes you hear numbers across a police band or on an EMS that are specific to that region. But what I'm hearing that really jumps out at me is response to the drowning. So at the beginning, it was believed that the Friends star died of drowning because that's what was reported to them. But what do we really know?
Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online.
Los Angeles medical examiner determined that 54-year-old Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine. Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid use disorder. The manner of death has been ruled an accident.
Okay, see, I'm a trial lawyer, and that is why the medical examiners and everybody at the crime lab would go hide under their desk when they saw my beat-up Honda pulling up, because they knew I was going to go through it line by line, literally. to make sense of what they wrote down in their scientific findings.
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Chapter 3: What were the circumstances surrounding Matthew Perry's death?
So she was there. She could not stop him from taking something, but certainly was trying. That was her role to make sure that he was on the straight and narrow path. and sticking to his determination to stop. And he was very open about it, but he really did want to stop taking drugs recreationally.
He really did, and he made no secret about it. What led up to that moment Miguel Melendez is describing? But first, again, Miguel, could you tell me the assistant comes in. You said he was near the heater end of the hot tub?
Correct. So at 4 p.m., the live-in assistant walks in from a running errand, finds Matthew Perry floating face down in the jacuzzi in the heated end of the pool. The assistant jumped into the pool, moved Matthew into the sitting position on the steps of the pool, and called 911. Paramedics soon arrived, pulled Matthew out of the pool onto the grass where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
You know, I think I had it bass-ackwards, Miguel Melendez. I was saying hot tub because I've read jacuzzi, but was the jacuzzi or the hot tub part of the pool? Was he in a pool or was he in a hot tub or jacuzzi?
It looked like it was a long pool that has a jacuzzi in it. They're not two separate pools.
Okay, that makes perfect sense. Okay, guys, what led up to this moment? Take a listen to our friend Nicole Parton.
Matthew Perry went to his country club to play a game of pickleball with friends around 11 a.m. Perry returned to his home after the game and was seen by his assistant who was leaving the house to run errands at 1.37 p.m. At 4 o'clock p.m., the assistant returned to the home. Investigator Jennifer Herzog says the assistant found Perry floating face down in the heated end of the pool.
The assistant jumped into the pool and moved him into a sitting position on the steps and called 911. Paramedics responded, pulled Perry out of the pool and onto the grass and pronounced him dead on the scene at 4.17 p.m. His stepfather, Keith Morrison, is listed as the informant, which means the Dateline host is who identified Perry to authorities.
Oh, my goodness. That must have been so horrible on the stepfather to have to do that. After the struggle Matthew Perry went through so publicly against substance abuse, Mike McCormick joining me out of L.A., owner, lead investigator, MCM Investigations. Mike McCormick, thank you for being with us. I'm very curious. Matthew Perry had been so open and public about his battle with addiction.
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Chapter 4: How did the medical examiners determine the cause of death?
When you're talking about somebody that's supposed to be a confidant, a sponsor, a helper, a minder, we have all these terminology, these terms that we use. It's very different than a Michael Jackson situation where you actually have somebody medically administering a drug. Who would do it? I would have to say, Nancy, as you and I and our listeners know, the same people that are selling drugs,
to begin with, maybe somebody that doesn't know him well enough, or because it was prescribed lawfully for a medicinal purpose, somebody that honestly, although mistakenly, thought that he needed it or could handle it in different doses. Ketamine, if it's being supervised, is used, certainly not as often as many other drugs,
But you have to believe whether or not somebody thought they might be doing him a favor if he was depressed, if he was suicidal.
They could not have been more wrong. And if it comes out that we can find the supplier or someone who aided or abetted him, I want you to just think about this, Wendy Patrick, about criminal charges. Joining me right now is...
The expert in this field, as far as I'm concerned, the preeminent expert, Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner, toxicologist, pathologist, opioid treatment expert, author of American Narcan, which is on Amazon. Dr. Maroney, take a listen to what we've learned about the autopsy.
Matthew Perry's autopsy report doesn't say how or when Perry used ketamine prior to his death, but the coroner ruled out the ketamine treatments he had a week and a half before his death because ketamine has a half-life of three to four hours or less.
The report notes at the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression. Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness.
And that's not all, Dr. Maroney. Wait for it. I would never have imagined this goes into the cocktail.
The autopsy report noted Matthew Perry's history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, and diabetes. The report mentions Perry's past drug use, but notes Perry had reportedly been clean for 19 months. The New York Post reports that in the autopsy report, a comment is made about Perry undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, most recently one and a half weeks before his death.
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Chapter 5: What was the timeline of events leading to Matthew Perry's death?
You don't have those levels when you're supervised. And the whole idea that Ketamine therapy is matched to a psychosocial treatment, a behavioral counseling session. That's where you make the changes. You have better insight. You have better processing of stress. You're not impulsive. The last thing you want with impulsive behaviors with somebody in addiction is to put them on testosterone.
That's insane. Well, Everybody knows it makes you feel really good as a man. You're 60 years old. Suddenly you feel 36. Okay. But it comes with the price of frustration and anger and really short tempers. Add that to the impulsivity of substance use disorder. And you could have, uh, you know, a dark rabbit hole, a hidden monster in the shadows.
And somebody who's not going to listen to somebody when they say, oh, you know, taking a few too many ketamine pills. Ketamine spray is not something you do every day. It's once or twice a month with counseling sessions.
And because he had the pills in his stomach still at the time of autopsy, we know it was rogue ketamine and not the type used for infusion treatment. And, of course, you've got the other factor weighing into Matthew Perry's death.
uh and that is with all these drugs in the system he gets into the pool the hot tub and it's not the first time take a listen to our cut 13. now an emergency hi how you doing this is security from beverly hilton hi what's going on i need a paramedic apparently i got a 46 year old female found in the bathroom that's all i've got right now but they're requesting paramedics okay i found the bathroom what room is she in i'm not sure she fell or she was in the bathroom with the water four four six four four three four i'm sorry
Okay, and it's not east-west or anything else? There's room 434? Yeah. Okay, and you don't know if she's conscious of breathing at all? Apparently she wasn't breathing and she's 46 years old. Okay, but she is breathing now? I don't know. Okay. The person that called me was irate and didn't get much out of her. Okay. I've got security going there now.
Okay, we'll send police and fire over there with that person not breathing. Does it sound like the person was still not breathing? Yeah, that's correct. Okay, we'll get them there for not breathing. Is there anyone who can get me to the room so I can try to get CPR? Yeah, we're going there now. Can you get me into the room so I can try to get CPR instruction? Oh, I'm sorry.
No, because she kept hanging up on us. Kept hanging up on you? Yeah. Okay, all right. We're getting our units over there, okay? Okay, thank you. Thank you, Billy.
And there was water in Whitney Houston's lungs indicating she was alive when she was submerged underwater. But according to what we learned, the level of cocaine in Whitney Houston's body was not lethal, but it was enough to make her unaware. of the fact she was going underwater. And in an eerie twist, the same thing happens to her daughter. Take a listen to Hour Cut 16.
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Chapter 6: What role did Matthew Perry's assistant play in his life?
You know, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author, so many people, not just celebrities, die in pools and hot tubs after too many drugs or too much alcohol.
Yeah, it's so unfortunate.
hear about some of these famous people because they're famous think about how many men and women friends neighbors family members die in the same way but maybe don't just grab headlines it's one of the reasons we always want to reach out sooner rather than later to for people that are struggling and I like the way in that last clip they talked a little bit about what happens after the fame you know one of the things that Matthew Perry said he said taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel but the hangover is
outweighed the benefits. And that's part of what I think celebrities are getting better at explaining and that, yes, perhaps they're self-medicating, but it's not worth it in the end. And that's one of the messages that Matthew Perry wanted to leave us with.
Karen Stark joining us, our renowned psychologist. Karen, we know that Matthew Perry told everyone he had been clean going on two years. Is that common for addicts to insist they're clean? It's
Tremendous amount of denial, Nancy, because they really are struggling in most cases to be clean. They don't want to be addicted, but they're very, very susceptible. And when you think about somebody who's famous like that, there are always people around who are willing to oblige them with drugs. and tempt them with drugs because they want to make them happy. They want to be around a celebrity.
It's something that happens all the time. So I am sure he was trying, but obviously not succeeding or that ketamine would not have been there.
He had really been through a battle. I want you to take a listen to our cut for our friends from Crime Online, something I didn't know until after Matthew Perry passed away.
After years of addiction, Matthew Perry spent five months in the hospital after his colon burst from prolonged opioid abuse. Perry says he was in surgery for seven hours, in a coma for two weeks, and doctors told his family he had a 2% chance of survival.
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