Brittany Murphy Father Sues, Demanding Renewed Investigation Into Death

“Due to the lack of investigative efforts by the Los Angeles Police Department,” says the lawsuit filed Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court, “and the failure to conduct toxicology tests on the specimens" of her hair, Bertolotti believes that "his daughter’s death was incorrectly determined to have been allegedly caused by pneumonia and anemia.”

According to her autopsy, the causes of her death were pneumonia, anemia and excessive use of prescription medications. Murphy’s husband Simon Monjack died five months after his wife. His autopsy showed the causes to be pneumonia and anemia.

In a press release Wednesday, Bertolotti said:

“Years after my daughter’s untimely death, toxicology testing on her hair still has not been completed. Office of the Los Angeles Coroner and the Los Angeles Police Department admitted that such tests were not done and refused to conduct them. At this point, I am asking the court to intervene and allow me to get the specimens independently tested. Brittany’s hair and tissues were about to be destroyed, but I’ve paid to have them preserved, so that they could finally be examined. I’m not going to rest until my daughter’s untimely demise is properly investigated, which hasn’t happened so far. Her case deserves more than a superficial glance."

There is no attorney listed on the lawsuit representing Bertolotti.

This suit comes less than a month after Murphy’s mother, Sharon Murphy, filed a lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court against a law firm that had represented her in a case involving the Hollywood Hills home where she and her daughter lived.

Bertolotti says that tests of her hair may show evidence from the toxic mold and that may have been a cause of her death.

Sharon Murphy says in her suit the law firm should not have let her sign a settlement with the builders of the house and others when they should have known there was toxic mold in the home that may have contributed to the death of her daughter on Dec. 20, 2009, and the death of her son-in-law Monjack in the same house five months later.