Aaron Carter’s Cause of Death Revealed
Five months after his tragic passing, Aaron Carter‘s cause of death was made public on Tuesday (April 18).
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner ruled the former child star’s death accidental, stating that he drowned in the bathtub at his home in Lancaster, Calif., after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam.
According to reporting by both People and TMZ, the deadly combination of the gas, typically used in cans of compressed air, and the generic version of Xanax caused Carter to become “incapacitated while in the bathtub” and eventually slip below the surface of the water while under the influence.
At the time of his death, the singer’s older brother, Backstreet Boys star Nick Carter, posted an emotional and devastating memorial to him, writing, “My heart is broken. Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed…God, Please take care of my baby brother.” Nick Carter has since launched a mental health fund in Aaron’s memory as well.
Other tributes honoring Carter poured in across social media from everyone from Hilary Duff — whom he dated briefly in the early 2000s — and New Kids on the Block to Paris Hilton, Christy Carlson Romano, Melissa Joan Hart and more. Controversy erupted among the onetime teen heartthrob’s fanbase when he was left out of the “In Memoriam” segment at the 2023 Grammy Awards just a few months later.
Glenn Rowley
Billboard
