Dead, Decaying, Decomposed

I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend, and I thought that I would end off the scary season with one of the more horrifically real stories of the deaths of one of my favorite vocalists.

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Layne Staley, the lead singer of the band Alice in Chains, had a long struggle with addiction for most of his life and was constantly in and out of rehab. In 1996, Staley's fiancé had died of a drug overdose, which was a large contributor to his mental decline. In the following years after he had bought an apartment in Seattle he was recluse and isolated, sometimes people wouldn't see him for months at a time and even though his family and friends were close by and numerous attempts to make contact were made, it was rare to see him consistently. The drummer from Alice in Chains, Sean Kinney, tried calling him, but Staley wouldn't answer, even yelling outside his apartment door, he wouldn't answer. His mom saw him on Valentine's Day 2002, not knowing that would be the last time she saw her son. Nobody had seen Staley for weeks, and it was only until after his accountant reached out to his manager, saying that he hadn't drawn any money from his account in 2 weeks did they call for police intervention.

[from Canvas Prints]

They then ordered a wellness check and upon entry to his apartment police found his lifeless and decomposing body that had to be identified by his dental records. They reported that Staley, at 6'1 weighed 68lbs at the time of his death, and later on in an interview with the bassist of Alice in Chains, Mike Starr, said he was the last person he talked to the day before he died. On April 4th, Starr's birthday, he said he wanted to call 911 when he saw the sickly state that his friend was in, but Staley threatened to end their friendship if he did so. Starr then stormed off, hearing him shout, "Not like this, don't leave like this," as he was leaving. Lane Staley was found dead 2 weeks later from a drug overdose of cocaine and heroin in his apartment, and it was suspected that he had died the day after he had his argument with Starr. He said he felt responsible for Staley's death because he didn't call 911, but his parents didn't want him to feel guilty for it and understood that this was something that was out of his control. Starr, who also struggled with addiction, later killed himself from a prescription drug overdose in Salt Lake City in 2011.

Mike Starr and Layne Staley [from reddit]