Actor Anne Heche was under the influence of cocaine during her fiery car crash in Mar Vista last week, a law enforcement source confirmed to The Times on Thursday.
Officer Annie Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department, said a blood test showed the presence of narcotics, but further testing is needed to rule out anything given to Heche at the hospital. Those initial findings could be invalidated if medications at the hospital turned out to be the narcotics.
The latest development comes days after a representative for the LAPD told The Times that detectives obtained a search warrant for the actor’s blood to see whether she was driving under the influence at the time of the accident.
On Monday, Heche’s spokeswoman said the “Six Days, Seven Nights” star was in “critical condition” and slipped into a coma.
Representatives for Heche did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Thursday.
On Friday, Heche landed in the hospital with severe burns after crashing her car into a home in L.A.’s Mar Vista neighborhood and causing it to catch on fire. Fifty-nine firefighters rushed to the scene and contained and extinguished the fire in 65 minutes.
Before the incident, the actor was captured on video crashing into the garage of a Mar Vista apartment building. She was also seen speeding on another street in the West Los Angeles neighborhood.
Right before the crash, Heche stopped by Glass Hair Design, a hair salon in nearby Venice, to buy a bright red wig. Salon owner Richard Glass told The Times that Heche didn’t seem to be under the influence when he sold her the wig.
“Very, very random,” Glass said of his encounter with Heche.
No other injuries were reported at the fire on Friday, but residents told The Times that the home that Heche plowed her blue Mini Cooper into was severely damaged. Mar Vista resident David Manpearl said Heche’s vehicle crashed through the home and was lodged in a wall in the back. The house’s tenant was not injured.
Heche’s Friday crash wasn’t her first public incident of erratic behavior. After breaking up with ex-girlfriend Ellen DeGeneres in August 2000, Heche dropped by a stranger’s home in Fresno. She abandoned her car and, wearing only shorts and a bra, spoke of God and a spaceship to heaven.
On Monday, DeGeneres had little to say about her former partner’s accident and her current condition.
“We’re not in touch with each other, so I wouldn’t know,” the comedian told the Daily Mail’s photographer when approached in Santa Barbara.
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