Monteith’s death ‘accidental’

Cory Monteith’s death has been officially ruled an accident, the British Columbia coroner’s office said on Wednesday.

The office had previously revealed that the Glee star’s death was caused by a toxic combination of heroin and alcohol, but it had not been stated if his 13 July death was a suicide or an accident.

"Coroner Claire Thompson concluded that Mr. Monteith, aged 31, died of mixed drug toxicity, involving intravenous heroin use combined with the ingestion of alcohol," coroner’s office spokeswoman Barb McLintock said in a statement.

"The death has been ruled accidental," the statement added.

"Investigators at the scene found drug paraphernalia, including a spoon with drug residue and a used hypodermic needle, along with two empty champagne bottles and glasses," the report said.

Monteith had checked into the hotel on 6 July and when he didn’t check out as expected on 13 July, hotel staff entered his room.

"Mr Monteith was found in a collapsed position the hotel room floor," the coroner’s report said. "It appeared that Mr Monteith had been dead for several hours."

Hotel video footage showed him returning alone to his room at 2.16am on 13 July, after he had been out with friends.

It also appears that Monteith – who had been open about his battle with addiction, and had checked into rehab for a brief stint in April this year – had not consumed drugs recently because, as the coroner’s report pointed out: "Individuals typically build up a concentration tolerance to this type of drug over time. After a period of cessation from opioid drug use, a previously tolerated drug concentration level may become toxic and fatal."  

Monteith – who starred on Glee as the lovable jock Finn Hudson – was dating his co-star Lea Michele at the time of his death.

He was honoured during this year’s In Memorium segment at the Emmy Awards, where his Glee co-star Jane Lynch described him as a "beautiful soul".