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Opioids Found Hidden Throughout Prince’s Paisley Park, New Court Documents Reveal

Opioid painkillers were found hidden throughout Prince‘s Paisley Park estate in the days after his death in April 2016, new court documents released by the Minnesota Judicial Branch reveal.

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Investigators discovered several white pills labeled “Watson 853” (hydrocodone-acetaminophen) in various bottles inside the late music icon’s home in Chanhassen, Minnesota, according to a search warrant issued on April 21, 2016, the day of Prince’s death.

The documents, which were released on Monday, April 17, state that witnesses told authorities that Prince “recently had a history of going through withdrawals which are believed to be the result of abuse of prescription medication.”

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In addition to the pill bottles, officials found Ziploc bags and envelopes containing medication. According to the court papers, a bodyguard filled the “Purple Rain” singer’s prescriptions, which included Percocet, at a local Walgreens pharmacy just one day before the music legend’s death.

Dr. Michael Schulenberg, one of Prince’s main doctors, told police he had prescribed Oxycodone to his patient the same day he overdosed on a jet, less than one week before his death. Schulenberg said he placed the prescription under Prince’s bodyguard’s name, the documents state.

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Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at the age of 57. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported last summer that Prince’s pills may have been mislabeled and that he did not know they contained fentanyl, an opioid medication that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

The eight-time Grammy winner was scheduled to meet with an opioid addiction expert one day after his death. His secret battle with addiction stemmed from chronic pain caused by a debilitating hip injury. Prince “took the pills to keep the show going,” his collaborator Sky Dangcil exclusively told Us Weekly last year.

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