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The masseuse who found Heath Ledger's body twice rang the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a friend of the Australian actor, before calling the emergency number 911, it's been reported.
The New York Times online, quoting unnamed New York City police officials, said the masseuse Diana Wolozin told Olsen that Ledger was unconscious.
Olsen said she would call some private security people she knew in New York, and hung up.
The Times said Wolozin again shook Ledger, called Olsen a second time, and said she believed the situation was grave and would call 911.
Wolozin called 911 at 3.26pm local time and reported that Ledger was not breathing.
The 911 call was made less than 15 minutes after Wolozin first saw Ledger in bed and only a few moments after the first call to Olsen.
The 911 operator urged Wolozin to try to revive Ledger, but she was unsuccessful.
Emergency medical workers arrived at 3.33pm, at the same time a private security guard called by Olsen arrived.
The medical workers moved his body to the floor and then used a defibrillator and CPR, but Ledger was pronounced dead at 3.36pm.
Housekeeper Teresa Solomon arrived at the apartment, at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, to do household chores at 12.30pm.
At about 1pm, she went into Ledger's bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom and found him on the bed face down, with the sheet pulled up to his shoulders, and heard him snoring.
Wolozin arrived at the apartment about 2.45pm.
She called his mobile phone at 3pm when he did not come out of the bedroom, but got no answer.
The report said she then went into the bedroom and saw him lying in bed. She took a massage table out of the closet and began to set it up near his bed.
She then went over to him and shook him, but got no response.
She then used a speed-dial button on his mobile to call Olsen in California to seek her guidance, knowing Olsen was a friend.
The police said Solomon, Wolozin, and the three private security guards summoned by Olsen were cooperating with the investigation.
The police said no illegal drugs were found in the apartment and that there were no obvious signs of suicide.
- AAP
