Thomas Kinkade, self-professed paint-by-number "painter of light" and pastoral daydreams, allegedly battled alcoholism in the last years of his life because of criticism of his work—and according to his brother, he relapsed shortly before his death. more ›

The final word on Amy Winehouse's death has finally been revealed, and the troubled singer did not, in fact, have any drugs in her system when she died—turns out she had consumed massive amounts of alcohol instead. more ›

In 2005, 17-year-old Jesse Shipley died in a car crash. His family buried him, but his brain was kept by the Medical Examiner and discovered in a jar two months later by his classmates on a school trip to the mortuary. Now the family has filed a suit against the ME and the city for interfering with their right to give their son a proper burial, and told the Post about having to bury their son twice, as their priest said the first burial was improper without all of Shipley's body parts. "It's bad enough having to bury your kid—it's even worse having to bury him twice, for the reason of someone else's negligence," said his father, Andre Shipley. more ›

The off-duty cop who successfully stalled a blood alcohol test for seven hours after fatally running over a woman in Brooklyn last September is going on the offensive. It's come to light that the victim, minister's daughter Vionique Valnord, 32, had blood alcohol levels of .22 percent in the blood, .23 percent in the eye fluid and .28 percent in the urine, according to a toxicology report. Valnord was trying to hail a cab in the rain after leaving a wedding when she was struck and killed by off-duty officer Andrew Kelly, who smelled of alcohol and appeared drunk, first responders say. (When a court-ordered blood test was finally administered, he scored a perfect zero.) more ›

Preliminary results from an autopsy have revealed that an asthma attack claimed the life of a pregnant 25-year-old who died after two EMTs refused to treat her inside a Downtown Brooklyn cafe. Now, the question is, could Eutisha Revee Rennix's asthma attack have been treated? more ›

The body of Eutisha Revee Rennix — a pregnant woman who died after two city EMTs refused to treat her — will be exhumed for an autopsy, the Daily News reports. Rennix passed away on Dec. 9 after collapsing at work in a Downtown Brooklyn cafe where medics who were buying breakfast reportedly declined to help her. more ›

Yesterday morning 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy died after collapsing in the bathroom and suffering cardiac arrest in Los Angeles. The coroner official now says it "appears to be natural," and TMZ reports an autopsy will take place either today or tomorrow, despite her British screenwriter husband, Simon Monjack, objecting to one. more ›

The Westchester Medical Examiner's office has taken the preemptive measure of saying that the second round of test results on the body of Taconic crash driver Diane Schuler may vary from the original toxicology and autopsy findings. The original results revealed Schuler to have a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit as well as traces of marijuana in her system while driving in the crash that killed eight. A spokesman for the county's chief medical examiner said, "Due to the time period that has passed, the amount of alcohol that will show up in the samples when they are retested will be reduced and the marijuana can disappear." But Newsday talks to forensics experts who seem unclear on why such a statement was made, the toxicologists they speak to saying there's no reason the result would change much—if anything it could go up over time. The question now is whether such a defensive stance from the ME's office will only fuel the suggestions of a plot that have been hinted at by Daniel Schuler's lawyer, Dominic Barbara (pictured). But the examiner says they are simply encouraging the Schuler family quickly select a lab for the additional autopsy tests the Schulers have requested. more ›

Family members of Taconic crash victims Michael and Guy Bastardi were back on television yesterday, escalating what has become an ugly feud with Diane Schuler's husband Daniel. Margaret Nicotina and Roseanne Guzzo returned to to publicly respond to the continued denials of Daniel Schuler (seen this week on Larry King Live) and his lawyer Dominic Barbara that Diane Schuler was drunk and stoned when she drove the wrong way in the crash that killed eight. After Barbara was speaking in terms implying a plot in the Schuler investigation, now the Bastardis were the ones shooting back vague accusations. Nicotina said that Daniel Schuler knows what really happened the morning of the crash before hitting the road, despite his claims that there was nothing unusual or off about his wife that morning. She said, "It makes me angry. It makes me angry that he keeps denying it ... I wish he would just admit [she was drunk]." Bastardi family attorney Irving Anolik called Daniel Schuler's insistence for his wife's body to be exhumed because he believe the autopsy to be wrong "totally outrageous" and "an insult to the American public." more ›

Five days after autopsy results gave additional confirmation that Diane Schuler's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit with further indication that she had been smoking marijuana before the Taconic car wreck that killed eight, her husband Daniel and lawyer Dominic Barbara took to the airwaves on last night, saying they would once again challenge those results. more ›

The husband of the woman who, while allegedly drunk and high, drove a minivan on the wrong side of the Taconic State Parkway, killing herself, four relatives, and three men in an SUV, says that his wife was only a social drinker. Danny Schuler told the press, "I never saw her drunk since the day I met her. She was not an alcoholic. Something medically must have happened. She was a perfect wife, an outstanding mother, a hard worker, a reliable person. I would marry her again tomorrow." more ›

The NYPD has no suspects in the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was asphyxiated with construction tape last Tuesday night in an air duct at the building where she worked. But the building's freight elevator operator, 26-year-old Joseph Pabon from Staten Island, is still under surveillance by the NYPD, and last night investigators seized a Pontiac G6 belonging to his girlfriend, Lisa Marie Blumenberg, while the two were at a batting cage. (It's unclear if this is the same car Pabon threw a bowling ball through after allegedly punching and choking Blumenberg in a drunken rage.) more ›

When it causes injury or death, the answer is obviously yes. But some New York cyclists are finding fault with this morning's City Room article about pedaling under the influence. (PUI?) Brian Fried at Streetsblog says the article, which suggests an anti-drunk biking P.S.A. might be in order, is wrong to equate the dangers of drunk driving with drunk cycling:

Drinking and biking puts cyclists at risk because impairment makes them more likely to be killed by a motorist. Drinking and driving puts everyone in the vehicle's path at risk of being killed by that motorist. In 2007, nearly 13,000 people died in crashes involving drunk drivers on American roads. More than 4,300 of those killed were people other than the impaired perpetrator behind the wheel [PDF]. Meanwhile, how many people died at the hands of a drunk cyclist?

The young son of the Brooklyn rabbi and his wife who were killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai celebrated a tearful second birthday yesterday. A community leader described the scene as Moshe, the orphaned son of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, was watched over by his maternal grandparents, "He had been crying. He is too small, you see, and all this must be affecting him so much." Indian officials had not yet sent the couples' bodies to be buried in the Holy Land because they are performing an autopsy on them--something prohibited by Jewish law. Today India's top security official resigned amidst growing questions around the nation's vulnerability to this week's attacks. more ›

The ME's office says an autopsy for the NYC Triathlon competitor, who died during the swimming portion of the race, was inconclusive and more tests will be conducted this week. Esteban Neira, from Buenos Aires, was a father of three and a friend described him as an amateur athlete to the NY Times. The Times also notes some witnesses "questioned why it took 15 minutes for him to be pulled from the water and placed in an ambulance," noting that the race's bicyclists and runners, as well as spectator barriers, were in the path. The event's organizers, though, say Neira received the best care once he was rescued. more ›

The City Medical Examiner released the results of Esmin Green's autopsy; and King's County Hospital treatment, or lack thereof, of the dead woman may have had more to do with her death than callous neglect. The M.E. found that Green collapsed after blood clots that formed in her legs as she sat in the hospital's psychiatric ward waiting room migrated to her lungs and killed her. more ›

Just a little over two weeks after his death, and as his family prepares to bury him, the NYC medical examiner has given the results of Heath Ledger's toxicology report. more ›

Dr. Charles S. Hirsch is the chief medical examiner of New York City and has overseen the autopsies on more than 100,000 people. He would probably remain a mystery to most New Yorkers, if it weren't for his ruling on the death of Det. James Zadroga, who worked clean-up at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001. Hirsch said that Zadroga's death wasn't related to Ground Zero dust, but ground-up pills the detective was allegedly injecting.... more ›