Potent Painkiller Cited in Bounty Hunter’s Death

Domino Harvey, the daughter of British privilege whose life as a bounty hunter in South Los Angeles is the basis of an upcoming big-budget movie, died of an accidental overdose of a powerful painkiller, a coroner’s report released Friday said.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office found that Harvey had a level of fentanyl, a drug more powerful than morphine, in her heart, blood and liver “typically seen in fatal overdoses.” Her death was due to “acute fentanyl toxicity,” the report said.

“No other toxicological or natural disease process is present to explain the death,” the report said. Although Harvey was found unresponsive in the bathtub, “drowning did not play a role in this death.”

Harvey, 35, the daughter of the late British actor Laurence Harvey and supermodel Paulene Stone, was found in her West Hollywood cottage on June 27. She was discovered by a minder hired by her family to watch over her because she was free on bail and faced trial on federal drug trafficking charges.

In cardiac arrest, she was taken by paramedics to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. There was no obvious trauma and foul play was not suspected, the report said.

Her death came as word of her drug trafficking arrest had blazed through British tabloids and just months before the release of “Domino,” staring Keira Knightley and directed by Tony Scott.

The action movie, expected in theaters next month, takes some liberties with her life, depicting her as a European fashion model who becomes a bounty hunter and goes on to have her own reality TV show.

Raffi Djabourian, deputy medical examiner, wrote that Harvey “didn’t fit” the profile of the typical fentanyl user: a chronic pain or cancer patient. Fentanyl was not among the four antidepressants and anti-psychotics she was prescribed by a psychiatrist; her caretakers turned those drugs over to authorities, according to the coroner’s report. How Harvey took the fentanyl is not addressed.

The drug is prescribed in a patch, lozenge or liquid form. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, “the effects of fentanyl are indistinguishable from those of heroin.” Last month the Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating reports of deaths and serious side effects from overdoes of fentanyl in patients using the patch.

A relative of Harvey said she had not yet seen the coroner’s report. Harvey, who worked for three years as a bounty hunter in the 1990s, was indicted in May on charges of conspiring to possess and distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine in Mississippi. She was bailed out with the deed to her cottage and a $300,000 bond.

A coroner’s investigator noted in the report that Harvey’s aunt and her hired caretaker believed she had been overmedicated with antidepressants and had begun administering the drugs to her themselves.

The guardian told the investigator that the day before her death, Harvey “seemed lethargic, was hearing voices and was having short-term memory loss.”