Actress Brittany Murphy's brother reveals fears the star was murdered

Actress Brittany Murphy died at her Beverly Hills home in 2009. Photo / Getty

Brittany Murphy's death in 2009 was murder, her half-brother claims, despite the coroner's ruling at the time.

Fox News reported that the star's half-brother Tony Bertolotti thought there was foul play behind her collapse at the Beverly Hills home she shared with husband Simon Monjack.

Monjack died around five months later under similar circumstances, reinforcing Bertolotti's fears there was something suspicious going on at the house, where Murphy's mother Sharon was also present at the time.

"If you look at it from a distance, it's like here's this young lady, a fairly healthy girl, she's home with her supposed husband and mother, and she died. How absurd is it? It's only in Hollywood that it's considered another day at the zoo," Bertolotti said.

Murphy's husband Simon Monjack died soon after she did in similar circumstances. Photo / Getty

He told the Daily Mail that no one had taken her to a hospital, which was just four miles away.

"I spent years looking at this, suppressing my own anger. I think Brittany was taken out. Who killed Brittany? She didn't die of natural causes."

A Los Angeles coroner Ed Winter had ruled that Murphy died due to pneumonia, drug intoxication and an iron deficiency.

Her father Angelo died believing that her husband Monjack's negative influence on the actress's life ultimately led to her premature death.

There's little if any hard evidence of murder, but Bertolotti takes his deceased brother-in-law's alleged shady business deals and debts as proof that Murphy was killed.

"I don't know what business decisions they were making at that time, but [the deaths] sound business-related to me. I've heard all sorts of crap, so what is true?" he said.

Murphy's half-brother is convinced there was foul play behind his sister's death. Photo / Getty

"I don't believe the drugs line that much, I don't buy it. I'm sure there was experimentation. But Brittany was conservative with that stuff, she was a bright girl."

Bertolotti has spoken openly about his dislike for his half-sister's husband, admitting shortly after his passing that he wasn't mourning his death.

"I don't care that he passed," he told the Life & Style Weekly at the time.

"Maybe it will stop this from happening to another young woman. However he went, it was a service to humanity."

"You have to go back to the money. Jimi Hendrix died, but the money kept flowing for many, many years afterwards. Sometimes an actress is worth more dead than alive. You've got to look at who's collecting the money now? I don't know. Every time the movie comes on, someone is getting paid. Whoever's got the money knows the truth."

Bertolotti doesn't have the finances to investigate Murphy's death, but continues to theorise about what could have happened.

"You've got to look around Brittany and make your mind up. Who was her controller? Who was the one who ran the show?"

"I have no proof of anything. If I did, I would have blown it off 10 years."