Clues to the Mystery of Prince’s Final Days

     

 

 

 

 

 

    

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AP Photo   MINNEAPOLIS — The 1988 Dassault Falcon 900 was about an hour into its flight from Atlanta in the wee hours of Friday, April 15, when the pilot made a distress call to air traffic controllers in Chicago.

There was a medical emergency on board. A male passenger was unresponsive.

And so the Chicago airport officials diverted the flight for an emergency landing in Moline, Ill., just 48 minutes from its intended destination of Minneapolis.

As it turned out, the flight was carrying the musical genius Prince, who, a week later, would be found dead, collapsed in an elevator on the first floor of his suburban Minneapolis compound.

“We had an emergency unscheduled landing at 1:35 a.m. on April 15 for a medical emergency for an unresponsive person,” said Jo Johnson, the human resource manager for Quad Cities International Airport in Moline.

It remains unclear what caused Prince, 57, to become unresponsive on the flight last week. His publicist has attributed the crisis to the fact that the entertainer was “fighting the flu.”

But officials investigating Prince’s sudden death said Friday that the plane’s emergency landing, and what caused it, would be part of their sweeping inquiry.

Prince spent only a few hours at a Moline hospital before his private jet flew home here, and the entertainer resumed life at his compound in nearby Carver County. Just days before his death, he attended a show at a local jazz club, and playfully showed off his new piano and guitar at a party at his studio.

As law enforcement officials await the complete results of an autopsy performed Friday, they said they would be reviewing local pharmaceutical records as part of a broad effort to understand Prince’s full medical history. They declined to comment on reports that Prince had been taking pain medication, saying the investigation was continuing.

“This is a tragedy for all of us,” said Jim Olson, the sheriff of Carver County, where Prince’s estate, Paisley Park, was located in the town of Chanhassen. “To you, Prince Rogers Nelson was a celebrity. To us, he was a community member and a good neighbor.”

Prince was last seen alive at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening when someone dropped him off at his estate, where he lived alone, Sheriff Olson said during the afternoon news conference.

Unable to make contact with Prince on Thursday morning, Paisley Park staff members went looking for him in the sprawling compound. They found him unresponsive in an elevator and called 911 at 9:43 a.m., Sheriff Olson said.

“The person is dead here,” a male caller told the dispatcher, according to a transcript of the 911 call. Later, the caller added, “And the people are just distraught.”

Medics responding to the home could not resuscitate Prince, who was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. Thursday, Sheriff Olson said. He was not sure, he said, how long Prince, dressed in a shirt and pants, had been collapsed in the elevator.

There were no obvious signs of injuries, and Sheriff Olson said the death was not believed to be a murder or a suicide. Officials said the body had been released to Prince’s family but that it may be weeks before any details from the autopsy are released. Before that, further tests need to be completed and the medical history must be compiled.

There remain many questions around Prince’s health. Sheila E, a friend who collaborated with Prince, said during an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the star did have hip problems from his performances onstage. He has said in interviews that he struggled with epilepsy as a child.

The mystery of the end of Prince’s life has left is vast legion of supporters measuring their shock.

As they wait for answers, fans around the world grieved and celebrated his life with the frenetic energy with which Prince lived it — with dance parties and widespread tributes, from social media posts to impromptu Broadway performances.

Here in his hometown, the famed First Avenue dance club held a free overnight dance party from Thursday into Friday, with more scheduled through the weekend. Makeshift memorials popped up outside of the club and in front of Paisley Park.

© Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune, via Associated Press A fence outside Prince’s home in a Minneapolis suburb has become the canvas for a purple-tinged memorial.

Billboards encouraged residents to wear purple, a major bridge was lit in the color and a purple orchid with a note that read “Rest In Peace Prince” lay on the four-seat table of the intimate Dakota Jazz Club where Prince sat when he attended a show there on Tuesday.

“It’s a very somber moment here, but his legacy will live on,” Kinneva Brown said as she visited Paisley Park on Friday.

Those who knew him and saw him in his final days said the master showman betrayed no sign that he was near death.

With his Afro picked out, Prince hopped on stage before about 300 revelers last Saturday — the night after his emergency landing in Moline — at one of the pop-up parties he was famous for throwing at Paisley Park. He banged out a quick performance of “Chopsticks” on his new purple piano, Scott Lawrence, who was in attendance with his son, said.

He then broke out a new purple-and-gold Gus Guitar, placing it on the piano and then moving away.

“It’s too cool to open up,” Prince joked, according to Mr. Lawrence.

But the cross-genre star also offered a few accidentally prescient words, Mr. Lawrence recalled.

“Wait a few days before you waste your prayers,” he told the crowd, referring to reports of his medical emergency from the previous day.

Close followers of Prince find it hard to believe that anything sinister could have played into his death. He was a Jehovah’s Witness and obsessively healthy eater. You couldn’t drink, smoke or even curse at his Paisley parties.

“Better eat your cheeseburger before you get to Paisley,” Van Jones, a political commentator and activist who was a friend of Prince’s, said he used to think before visiting Prince.

Last Saturday, Prince stopped by Electric Fetus, a Minneapolis record store, and bought about half a dozen CDs, said Bob Fuchs, the retail manager. Prince had been coming to the store for 30 years, Mr. Fuchs said, and nothing on this visit seemed out of the ordinary.

“Thanks for your support,” Mr. Fuchs recalled telling Prince, referring to something the musician had been helping the store with. “He smiled and said ‘Hello’ and ‘You’re welcome.’”

“He looked very alert and well dressed,” Mr. Fuchs added. “He seemed the same old. I did not think anything about the way he looked. Nothing suggested to me anything different.”

SOURCE:NEW YORK TIMES