Four charged as Hoffman autopsy ‘inconclusive’

Three men and one woman arrested in New York have been charged with drugs offences possibly connected to narcotics found at the home of film star Philip Seymour Hoffman following his death of an apparent heroin overdose, law enforcement officials said last night.

Although Hoffman was found with a syringe in his arm, the cause of his death remained undetermined and more tests were needed, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner. She said there was no timetable for the postmortem to be finished. She declined to discuss the pending tests, but toxicology and tissue tests are typically done in such cases.

The four people were arrested on Tuesday during a raid on a building in lower Manhattan after police traced what they believed to have been the source of the heroin suspected of killing the Oscar-winning actor.