OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Former child actress Dana Plato died from suicide, not by accidental overdose as was initially believed, the state Medical Examiner's Office ruled today.
Plato, who played Kimberly Drummond on the NBC sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" from 1978 to 1984, died May 8 while visiting her fiance's parents in Moore. She was 34. Police initially said she died of an accidental drug overdose of a painkiller and Valium.Dr. Larry E. Balding, the deputy medical examiner, said Friday that laboratory studies showed fatal concentrations of the painkillers carisoprodol and hydrocodone/acetaminophen in her blood and the equivalent of seven tablets of carisoprodol still in her stomach.
The medical examiner's office ruled the death a suicide because of the high level of drugs and Plato's past history of suicidal gestures. There was no note left.
Plato had appeared on Howard Stern's radio program in New York on May 7 to deny the claims of a former roommate who said she was on drugs. Plato said she had been sober for about 10 years, though she had taken painkillers when her wisdom teeth were removed four months earlier.