LOS ANGELES—A doctor and neighborhood fixture found dead in his hot tub last week killed himself, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Monday. Marc Abrams, 58, drowned himself in his hot tub, coroner's chief assistant Ed Winter told the Los Angeles Times for Monday's edition. Abrams was found in his backyard hot tub Wednesday with the lid pulled over it. No suicide note was found, Winter said.
Abrams' lawyer Michael A. Zuk told the Times he found the manner of death difficult to comprehend. "I do find it strange that there would be a finding of suicide by drowning in a hot tub, which is just difficult to understand," Zuk said.
Abrams was the subject of a series of undercover investigations following the death of a 25-year-old patient who was prescribed the powerful painkiller Oxycontin, a law enforcement official told the Times in a story posted online July 24. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said officers posing as patients were able to easily get prescription medications from Abrams based on bogus notes signed with names including "Dr. Kevorkian," "Dr. Pepper" and "Dr. Dre."
Abrams kept nighttime office hours and "catered to nothing but addicts," the official told the Times.
Police served a search warrant on Abrams' office in North Hollywood in 2009, seizing patient files and other records, according to law enforcement officials.