Why Does The Coroner’s Office Have Michael Jackson’s Brain?

From The Times July 9, 2009

Michael Jackson’s family may await return of brain before burial

James Bone in Los Angeles
Michael Jackson lay in his golden casket at his memorial service without his brain. The Los Angeles coroner confirmed yesterday that the organ was retained to carry out tests.

The death certificate, which was signed by Jackson’s sister La Toya, lists the cause of death as deferred.

“As soon as we are done with the brain, we will return it,” Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner, said. “The last I heard, they are not burying the body yet.”

It is still not known where Jackson will be buried. His body was transported to the memorial service on Tuesday from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood’s “cemetery of the stars”. The absence of a burial has revived hopes by fans that Jackson will be laid to rest at his Neverland ranch, or be cremated and have his ashes sprinkled there. “I have friends buried at Forest Lawn and it’s really, really peaceful, but Neverland is where he called home,” Vena Knipple, a book-keeper and fan, said.

The family may be waiting for Jackson’s brain to be released before burying him. They have reportedly filed for a burial permit with the vital records department in Los Angeles County, suggesting that the body will be interred in Los Angeles rather than Neverland, in Santa Barbara County.

Ken Ehrlich, who produced the Jackson memorial, said yesterday that the Jackson family had insisted on a church-style service — not a television show. “We were kind of mandated to bring Michael home in church,” Ehrlich said on The Early Show on CBS.

He said that he gulped when he learnt that the casket would be taken to the service. He said that Jackson’s physical presence “lifted everything” at the memorial.

The memorial, described by the Los Angeles Times as “sombre, evangelical, thunderous and hushed”, won widespread acclaim in the US press. The New York Times called it a “religious pageant meets awards show” and The Washington Post described it as “part musical feast, part religious experience, part examination of a man who seemed not a man, but something else his public was always trying to figure out”.

The coroner is awaiting the result of toxicology tests amid reports that Jackson abused prescription drugs, including the anaesthetic propofol, which is marketed as Diprivan.

Police are reportedly investigating at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Jackson. Arnold Klein, the dermatologist in Beverly Hills who treated the star for 20 years, insisted that he had not been questioned by police.

“I was not one of the doctors who participated in giving him overdoses of drugs or too much of anything,” Dr Klein said on Good Morning America on ABC. “I was the one who limited everything, who stopped everything.” He added: “I say that anyone who makes someone an addict or gives a person potentially dangerous substan- ces directly to them to use, like pro- pofol, is a criminal.”

Dr Klein denied reports that he may be the biological father of Jackson’s two children with Debbie Rowe, who used to work in his office.

- A version of the Neverland ranch is to be built in Chongming island, near Shanghai. It is expected to cost about 100 million yuan (£9 million) and will include a man-made lake, cinema and zoo. Jackson memorabilia will be on display. (AP)

Fans flood the internet

- Internet traffic linked to the memorial service was 67% above average, making it the second-largest online traffic peak, according to Akamai Technologies, whose networks process 20% of all traffic on the internet

- Use of news sites almost doubled (from 2 million visitors per minute, the average, to nearly 4 million) while use of online video streaming was up by 471%, Akamai said

- 9.7 million watched the event online at CNN.com, but total online figures are not yet available

- On Twitter, 80,000 messages per hour included the phrase Michael Jackson, while over a million Facebook users fired off 6,000 updates per minute directly linked to CNN’s live feed of the event

- Michael Jackson has 7,453,072 fans on Facebook, and counting (Barack Obama has 6,441,466).

- The virtual Michael Jackson glove has become the most popular gift in the site’s history, as more than 800,000 gloves have been exchanged by Facebook friends

- 6.5 million watched the memorial event on TV in the UK and 31 million in the US. Estimates say at least 1 billion watched worldwide but it is not yet clear whether the figures will beat the 2.5 billion who watched Diana, Princess of Wales’s memorial service

Sources: Akamai Technologies, Facebook, Times database.

Case: WTH? Why did the coroner take Michael’s brain from his body? What was he really looking for? Was he looking to learn what made Michael a genius? How can Michael be buried without his brain? Did his family ok the removal of a portion of his brain?

I’m in shock. Now I know why the Jackson Family won’t reveal the location of Michael’s body. I hope he can rest in peace soon.