Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington was found hanging, the Los Angeles Coroner confirmed to Us Weekly on Friday, July 21.
Bennington, the coroner added, was found at his residence by an employee in the upstairs area of his home in the Palos Verdes Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles. The singer was home alone and was pronounced dead at 9:08 a.m. on Thursday, July 20. He was 41.
The coroner added there was no evidence of drugs at the scene but that there was a half-empty bottle of alcohol inside the room. No suicide note was found.
Bennington previously opened up about his struggles with alcohol and depression which stemmed from his 2005 divorce from Samantha Marie Olit. “The difficult part was losing all my money, starting my life over and having to pay the person I didn’t want to be around in the first place,” he told Kerrang in 2009. “I felt like my life’s work had been given away. I drank myself to the point where I couldn’t leave the house and I couldn’t function. I wanted to kill myself.”
As previously reported, Bennington was close friends with late singer Chris Cornell, whose death was ruled a suicide by hanging in May. Bennington was found dead on what would have been Cornell’s 53rd birthday.
Bennington’s Linkin Park bandmate Mike Shinoda confirmed his death on Twitter on Thursday. “Shocked and heartbroken, but it’s true,” Shinoda wrote. “An official statement will come out as soon as we have one.”
Linkin Park debuted a new music video for their song “Talking to Myself” two hours before news broke of Bennington’s death. The band was best known for hits such as “Numb,” “In the End” and “Crawling.”
An autopsy is pending.
If you or anyone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 to be connected to a local crisis center for confidential emotional support.
