While Gerber’s family has asked for privacy during the difficult time, questions about what happened inside the rehabilitation facility are likely to remain a major part of the investigation.
Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber and Kaia Gerber released a brief statement Sunday asking the public to respect their privacy as they mourned their loss.
Gerber’s body was released Tuesday after authorities completed the autopsy, but investigators are still awaiting additional information that could help establish exactly what led to his death.
Forensic analyst Joseph Scott Morgan, who has experience examining cases involving suspected overdoses at rehabilitation facilities, has now offered his perspective on the investigation.
Speaking to NewsNation, Morgan warned that deaths occurring inside rehabilitation centers can become extremely complicated investigations because authorities must consider a wide range of possibilities.
“I think my big question, being that this is a rehab center, is: Was he checked? Were any of his visitors checked? Did anybody bring anything in at all?” Morgan asked.
His questions highlight one of the central issues investigators may examine: not simply whether drugs or another substance were present in Gerber’s system, but how those substances could have entered the facility and whether anyone else may have played a role in the circumstances surrounding his death.
Morgan explained that the medical examiner would be expected to conduct extensive toxicology testing as part of the investigation.
Such testing can identify a broad range of substances in a person’s system, potentially including synthetic drugs and medications as common as aspirin. The results could therefore provide investigators with important information about what Gerber had consumed before his death.
However, a toxicology result alone may not answer every question.
The Amount of a Substance Could Be Just as Important
According to Morgan, investigators will likely examine not only whether a particular substance was detected in Gerber’s body, but also how much of it was present.
That distinction can be critical in suspected overdose cases.
The mere presence of a substance does not necessarily establish that it caused someone’s death. Investigators may need to determine whether the concentration was consistent with a fatal overdose and how that finding fits with other evidence gathered from the scene.
Authorities may also examine Gerber’s medical history, medications, activities, interactions with others and circumstances inside the rehabilitation center as they attempt to reconstruct his final hours.
Questions have also been raised about why officers from the Santa Monica Police Department responded to the rehabilitation facility following the 911 call.
For Morgan, however, the police response was not unexpected.
“This is a young man who should not be deceased. They’re going to respond to this,” he said.
The presence of police at the scene does not, by itself, establish that investigators believe someone committed a crime. Rather, Morgan explained that law enforcement generally approaches an unexpected death by considering the circumstances carefully until enough evidence exists to establish what happened.
“Every Death Is Suspicious”
Morgan stressed that investigators must remain open to multiple possibilities at the beginning of a death investigation.
“Our working assumption in any death investigation is that every death is suspicious. You have to work from that perspective in order to arrive at a thorough finding at the end,” Joseph Scott Morgan told NewsNation.
That approach is particularly important when a person dies unexpectedly and the circumstances surrounding the death are not immediately clear.
For Gerber’s family, the loss comes after years in which he had publicly acknowledged his struggles with addiction and mental health. His willingness to speak about those difficulties had made his journey particularly visible to those who followed him.
Now, investigators are working to determine what happened on September 20 and whether the suspected overdose ultimately explains his death.
The medical examiner’s findings, including toxicology results and other evidence gathered during the investigation, could provide crucial answers in the coming days or weeks.
For now, many questions remain unanswered.
Presley Gerber was just 27 years old.
May he rest in peace.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, help is available 24 hours a day through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Hotline at 1-800-662-4357.