Anne Heche attends the 74th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Mar. 12.MARIO ANZUONI/Reuters
The Los Angeles Police Department has ended its investigation into Anne Heche’s car accident, when the actor crashed into a Los Angeles home on Aug. 5.
Ms. Heche remains on life support and under evaluation for organ donation after a car crash that led to her brain death, a representative for the actor said Friday. She is hospitalized at a Los Angeles burn centre.
“As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,” the department announced Friday. “Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case. When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.”
Detectives investigating the crash said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Ms. Heche, though toxicology tests still had to be performed to differentiate them from drugs she was given for her injuries, Los Angeles police said.
Under current California law, death can be determined by the loss of all brain function and in accordance with accepted medical standards.
While Ms. Heche is legally dead, she’s on life support and “her heart is still beating” so that the nonprofit organization OneLegacy can determine if she can be a donor, spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement.
The process, which involves assessing which organs are viable and finding an appropriate recipient, could take from one day to several days, Ms. Baird told The Associated Press.
In the U.S., most organ transplants are done after the donor has been declared brain-dead.
The actor suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen, when her car crashed into a Los Angeles area home Aug. 5 and fire erupted, according to a statement released Thursday that said she wasn’t expected to survive.
“This is a sad day. I’m sending Anne’s children, family and friends all of my love,” Ellen DeGeneres said Friday on Twitter amid reports of Ms. Heche’s dire condition. They were a couple from 1997 to 2000.
A native of Ohio, Ms. Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera Another World from 1987 to 1991. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of twins Marley and Vicky.
In the late 1990s she became one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. In 1997 alone, she played opposite Johnny Depp as his wife in Donnie Brasco and Tommy Lee Jones in Volcano and was part of the ensemble cast in the original I Know What You Did Last Summer.
The following year, she starred with Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights and appeared with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in Return to Paradise.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.