Matthew Perry’s stepfather Keith Morrison is speaking out after authorities charged five people in connection with the Friends star’s death in October 2023.
The Morrison family shared in a statement, “We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew’s death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously. We look forward to justice taking its course and we’re grateful for the exceptional work of the multiple agencies whose agents investigated Matthew’s death. We’re hoping unscrupulous suppliers of dangerous drugs will get the message.”
Perry died unexpectedly on Oct. 28 from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine, according to an autopsy released in December.
On Thursday, a coalition of law enforcement agencies announced at a press conference in Los Angeles that five people were indicted and charged in the investigation into Perry’s death, including the actor’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa; two doctors, Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez; Erik Fleming, a street drug dealer; and Jasveen Sangha, who’s dubbed the “ketamine queen.”
Amid their investigation, authorities said they unearthed a “broad underground criminal network” that killed Perry. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada added at Thursday’s press conference, “These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong.”
Earlier this year, Morrison, who married Perry’s mother, Suzanne Perry, in 1981, opened up about the difficult months following the actor’s death. “As other people have told me hundreds of times. It doesn’t go away yet,” he told Hoda Kotb on the Making Space podcast in March. “It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time.”
“There’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain, and, you know, it’s not easy, especially for his mom,” the Dateline correspondent continued at the time. “I don’t think I’m giving away too much by saying that toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades, and texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”
Morrison added that The Odd Couple actor was a “larger than life person,” noting that he can “still feel the echo of it everywhere around here.”
