An autopsy shows that actor Cory Monteith was killed by "a mixed drug toxicity ... heroin, primarily, and also alcohol," the British Columbia coroner's office announced Tuesday afternoon.
Coroner Barbara McLintock released that conclusion in a short video her office posted on YouTube.
As we wrote Sunday, Monteith "shot to fame with his portrayal of quarterback Finn Hudson, on the hit TV musical show Glee. ... [His] body was found Saturday in a room on the 21st floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in downtown Vancouver."
Monteith was 31.
McLintock says "that's really all the information we have at this point," except to say that there is "no evidence to suggest this anything other than the most sad and tragic accident."
Her office's investigation is continuing, McLintock adds.
As NPR's Nathan Rott has reported, the Canadian-born actor's life offscreen was not like that of the role he played on Glee:
"The Cory Monteith that most Americans knew wasn't Cory Monteith at all. He was Finn Hudson, the high school football star turned Glee club member, whose singing talents were discovered in the shower during the musical comedy's pilot episode on Fox TV. ...
"And that wasn't the reality. Monteith wasn't a high school football star. He was a high school dropout. ... Monteith got into drugs at age 13. He dropped out of school at 16 and found work as a Wal-Mart greeter and a taxi driver. At 19, he checked into rehab. ...
"Earlier this year, he checked back into rehab."
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