An investigation is ongoing into Aaron Carter‘s death; however new, grim details emerged two days after the singer’s passing. Police found evidence of compressed air canisters and medications in Carter’s primary bedroom and bathroom, the Los Angeles Times and TMZ report. Carter, 34, openly spoke about his substance abuse issues, including an addiction to huffing.
Carter was found dead in his bathtub on Saturday, two law enforcement sources confirm to the Times. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department responded to Carter’s residence in Lancaster shortly after 11 a.m. Carter was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was in the water for some time before he was discovered, according to the report.
Yahoo Entertainment reached out to the L.A. County Sheriff, but a spokesperson said they are not releasing additional information at this time. The investigation is being handled by the homicide department, which is standard. The detective handling the case is expected to provide more details later this week.
The Los Angeles County’s coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Carter on Sunday, Yahoo can confirm, but the cause of death was deferred. That means the medical examiner is awaiting more information, like toxicology reports. Once results of the chemical tests are back, the doctor evaluates the case again and will make the cause of death determination.
Yahoo reached out to Carter’s manager for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Carter’s friend, Gary Madatyan, claimed to Entertainment Tonight he saw aerosol cans in the singer’s home. Madatyan was permitted to enter the residence with Carter’s ex and mother of his child, Melanie Martin, on Saturday.
“After they removed the body from the house, they allowed just a few people to get into the house. We just wanted to go in there and see if any blood or any alcohol or anything was in the house,” he said.
“I went to his bedroom, the bedroom was normal,” Madatyan continued. “I went to the bathroom where the bathtub was full of water, like, yellowish color.”
Madatyan suspects Carter was huffing again. Huffing is a type of substance abuse that involves a person inhaling fumes from items like paint or aerosol cans to experience a high. In September, fans became concerned when they thought he was huffing on an Instagram Live. Police were called to do a welfare check.
“As soon as I saw it, me and Melanie, we got in on a text message saying, ‘This is bad. This is not good.’ We were very worried about him,” Madatyan told ET. “He looked terrible. He lost so much weight. He was not acting normal. His mind was not there. … I heard he’s taking a lot of medication, not specifically illegal drugs, but he was on a lot of medication.”
Madatyan added that Carter recently was “really struggling” with the 2012 death of his sister, Leslie Carter. Carter was also having a hard time over losing custody of son Prince, who turns 1 this month.
A source told People that Carter “never really dealt with a lot of trauma he had.” His father suddenly died in 2017 and he had a tumultuous relationship with his mom and brother, Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter.
“He had such a dysfunctional relationship with both parents, but something about losing his dad really threw him. That’s when I saw him really start to spiral. He had gotten in trouble before, but he went from a partier to something a lot more dark then. It was like he gave up,” the insider added.
A separate source noted that Carter lost his support system prior to his death.
“He had no one he could trust, and no one trusted him. He was spiraling out of control and he knew it,” the source added. “It was sad to watch. It was actually painful to see him make the choices he made.”
MORE: Autopsy results delayed in Aaron Carter investigation
