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Smith died from accidental drug overdose

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-27 10:39
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"She was having nightmares. She was having hallucinations. She was unable to sleep," Sanchez said, adding that Eroshevich turned to "an older, tried and true drug" because it was more effective for Smith than newer sleeping medicines.

Perper said Smith also had been on several antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs and had recently been injecting herself with purported longevity medications, vitamin B-12 and growth hormone.

She felt ill shortly after arriving in Fort Lauderdale from the Bahamas on Feb. 5 on a trip with Stern to buy a new yacht. But that illness was brought under control by antibiotics and an ice bath. She also suffered intense, pungent sweating that soaked the sheets. An assistant medical examiner's report described seeing a table in Smith's hotel room containing cold medicine, sodas cans, SlimFast, nicotine gum and an open box of Tamiflu tablets.

Seminole Tribal Police Chief Charlie Tiger said investigators found nothing unusual on laptop computers belonging to Smith and Stern. Tiger also said nothing came up during an exhaustive review of tapes from hotel security cameras and from interviews with numerous witnesses.

The public airing of the details of Smith's death reflected the way she lived her life.

A high school dropout in Texas, she gained fame as Playboy Playmate of the Year, a model for Guess jeans and later a star in her own reality show. She married 89-year-old oilman J. Howard Marshall II, and after his death took her fight for Marshall's estimated $500 million fortune as far as the Supreme Court. That ongoing battle could make her infant daughter, Dannielynn, very wealthy. Stern and two other men have claimed to be the baby's father.

The medical examiner's report was accompanied by a press release and even a PowerPoint presentation. Among the excruciating details were descriptions of Smith's breast-enhancement scars, her pink hair extensions and numerous tattoos, including one of a Playboy bunny, a Bible intertwined with a heart and shooting flames, and the smiling face of Marilyn Monroe.

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