Mystery surrounds Prince’s death as anniversary nears

The musician was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park home on April 21 last year.

Autopsy results revealed he died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl — a drug 50 times more powerful than heroin.

According to the search warrants, authorities searched Paisley Park as well as looking through the mobile phone records of Prince’s associates, and the star’s email accounts to try to determine how he got the drug.

The search warrants don’t reveal the outcome of the email searches.

But they do say that officers searching the Purple Rain singer’s home found it was littered with containers of different pills.

Some were in prescription bottles under the name of Prince’s pal Kirk Johnson.

Other bottles of pills were marked under the names of different drugs — but at least one of those tested positive for fentanyl.

The documents say some of the drugs in Prince’s bedroom were in a suitcase with the name “Peter Bravestrong” on it.

Police believe Bravestrong was an alias that Prince used when he travelled.

The suitcase also contained lyrics for the song U Got the Look that appeared to be in Prince’s handwriting.

A doctor who saw Prince in the days before he died also prescribed the singer oxycodone his friend’s name, court documents claim — although this drug was not listed as a cause of his death.

Search warrants executed by local authorities are due to be unsealed, likely including one from the first search of Paisley Park.

Prince Purple Rain Live

Dr Michael Todd Schulenberg, who saw Prince April 7, 2016, and again on April 20, reportedly admitted to prescribing the drug the same day as the emergency plane landing “but put the prescription in Kirk Johnson’s name for Prince’s privacy”.

Prince’s death shocked fans and led to tributes worldwide.

And news that he died of an overdose of fentanyl — a synthetic drug 50 times more powerful than heroin — surprised and saddened those who knew him as someone with a reputation for clean living.

Criminal justice experts say the pace of the investigation doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in trouble or that no one will ever be charged.

They cite the complexity of tracking illegally obtained pills, the need to be sure before they issue subpoenas, and the high stakes for investigators and prosecutors, who don’t want to suffer an embarrassing defeat in a high-profile trial.

Investigators have said little about the case over the last year, other than it is active.

They have explored whether doctors illegally prescribed opioids that were meant to go to Prince and whether the fentanyl that killed him came from a black-market source online or on the street.