Country singer-songwriter Luke Bell, who disappeared last month and was found dead several days later in Tucson, Arizona, has died of fentanyl poisoning. He was 32.
The Pima County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed Bell’s cause of death in the autopsy report, according to Tuscan-based ABC affiliate, KGUN 9. The news outlet also noted that a passerby found Bell unresponsive in the shaded area of a parking lot, and drug paraphernalia was also found at the scene.
Matt Kinman, an artist and a friend of Bell’s, previously confirmed to the Saving Country Music blog that Bell was found on August 29. He went missing on August 20. The blog noted Bell’s “severe battle” with bipolar disorder in its report.
Bell’s family released a heartbreaking statement earlier this month, saying that they were “heartbroken” by the loss and opened up about his struggle with mental illness.
“Unfortunately Luke suffered from the disease of mental illness, which progressed after his father's death in 2015. Luke was supported through his disease by a community of loving family and friends. Despite this, he was unable to receive the help he needed to ease his pain,” the family’s statement to PEOPLE said. “(Our) hearts go out to the millions of people affected by mental illness who, like us, understand the devastating disappointment of a system that consistently fails to provide caring solutions to those who suffer.”
Saving Country Music previously remembered the Kentucky-born, Wyoming-raised musician as “was one of the most authentic and magnetizing artists to grace the country music art form in the modern era. …And through the gift of his music, Luke Bell leaves the Earth and more pleasant place than he found it.”