Officials have released the cause of death of actor Jesse Jane, who died earlier this year at age 43.
Jane, an adult film star who also appeared in “Starsky & Hutch” (2004) and “Entourage” (2005), was found dead on Jan. 24 alongside her boyfriend, Brett Hasenmueller, at his Moore, Oklahoma, home.
A partial autopsy report released Sunday now confirms initial suspicions.
The native Texan died from an accidental drug overdose of cocaine and fentanyl, according to the limited one-page document from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. The full autopsy report will be made public on July 17.
Lt. Francisco Franco of the Moore Police Department previously told The New York Times that officers had discovered the couple already deceased during a welfare check.
Jane, born Cynthia Ann Howell, graduated with honors from Moore High School in 1998 and modeled for local retailers before her acting debut in 2003’s “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding,” making her porn debut the same year, according to the Times. She went on to have a prolific adult film career and led the big-budget porn franchise “Pirates.”
Jane told CNBC in 2009 that performing had merely been “a job” that allowed her to buy a home and feed her son, whom she shared with ex-husband Rich Taylor.
Fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller, is 50 times stronger than heroin and is often used as a cutting agent for cocaine. It has claimed the lives of an alarming number of Americans amid the ongoing opioid crisis, with deaths soaring from more than 57,000 in 2020 to more than 71,000 the next year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
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