Cory Monteith Autopsy Results In, Cousin Urges Public Not to Judge Findings
Cory Monteith's autopsy is complete, and results may be released to the public if his family chooses. Monteith's cousin urged the public not to judge anything that may be revealed from the autopsy and toxicology results.
"Please don't judge on what is gonna be coming out," Richard Monteith told Global BC TV. "Glass half full. All the good things he's done. There's more things on that side to focus on. Cory was beautifully genuine. He would do anything for anyone. Give you the shirt off his back."
Monteith was found dead in a Vancouver, British Columbia, hotel room on Saturday. It was no secret that the "Glee" actor, 31, struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. He had recently completed an inpatient rehab program but admitted to struggling with addiction since he was 13 years old.
"You see this young, all-American quarterback-looking dude on the show ("Glee") and you immediately made assumptions," Monteith said in an interview on a Canadian talk show in 2011. "I felt like I had to step in at some point and relate to people my experience and relate to people the truth of my life and where I come from… If I can, through my experience shed light on the way out of a difficult situation… that's huge."
Authorities have said that it is "too early" to speculate whether drugs or alcohol played a role in Monteith's death, and his cousin is hoping that the public will focus on the good things Monteith did throughout his life.
"People are gonna focus on this last chapter as a bad thing," Richard said. "Don't use the last chapter to judge someone's life… because his life is full of beautiful stories and failures and successes. It doesn't matter about his problems. It matters about the lives he changed. It matters that he was genuine."
"All I can tell you is we had no clear cause of death. End of conversation," Barb McLintock of the coroner's office told the Daily Mail. "Drugs were part of his history and he was not exactly secretive about it, but that doesn't necessarily imply that's the cause of death."
Toxicology tests are still pending at this time.