Mike Shinoda responds to “incorrect” Chester Bennington autopsy reporting

Chester Bennington
Chester Bennington (Image credit: Getty)

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has called out an online report which suggested that Chester Bennington had MDMA in his system when he died.

TMZ managed to obtain the late singer’s autopsy and toxicology file which suggests Bennington had a trace amount of alcohol in his system when he died by suicide in July this year. It was also initially reported that Bennington had MDMA (Ecstasy) in his system – but Shinoda said that was “incorrect” leading to the original article being changed

Shinoda says on Twitter: “Just clearing this up: TMZ erroneously printed Chester Bennington had MDMA in his system when he passed. That was incorrect, they misread the report. They have since corrected their piece. I hope other publications have the decency to do the same.”

TMZ updated their story to say that one blood test came back “presumptive positive” for MDMA, but two further tests showed that the drug was not present in Bennington’s system.

The report indicates that authorities found a half-empty glass of Corona and an empty bottle of Stella Artois at the scene, along with a prescription bottle of Zolpidem on Bennington’s dresser.

Police also found pieces of fingernail underneath his phone and on a bedroom table. The singer’s widow Talinda told police that Bennington would do that when he was anxious.

The report concluded that the singer was not under the influence of drugs at the time of his death.

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.