An official ruling in the cause of death of Joanie Laurer — better known as former WWE star Chyna — has been delayed. According to the official case listing of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, her cause of death is noted as “DEFERRED Pending Additional Investigation.”
Coroner’s office spokesman Ed Winter said Thursday that, although the Redondo Beach police had reported it as a possible overdose or natural death, her death was not being investigated as a suicide. Due to a backlog of autopsies and toxicology reports caused by underfunding, it could be months before test results determining whether or not she died of an overdose will be completed.
Laurer was found dead in her home on April 20 by her friend and manager Anthony Anzaldo. Anzaldo told People magazine that Laurer had been prescribed sleeping and anti-anxiety medications, and during the course of filming her documentary The Resurrection of Chyna, she appeared to have become more reliant on the medication:
She had been a little emotionally strained. She was really confronting some demons and she may have been taking a little bit more than normal. Every couple of days she’d be a little bit off of her game, a little loopy, like maybe she had taken too much but she was still coherent.
Winter said that the initial report of an overdose was likely due to the erratic behavior before her death. “Everybody seemed to know she had problems, but they didn’t know to what extent.”
