Cold Case Investigator Says Marilyn Monroe's Death Scene Was 'Too Pristine'

The Scene That Still Doesn’t Add Up

Paul Holes, the retired cold case investigator who helped identify the Golden State Killer, has reviewed the 1962 death scene of Marilyn Monroe - and says what he found there raised immediate questions for him as a professional. ‘My eyes, based on my experience and expertise, immediately picked out inconsistencies,’ Holes told Fox News Digital ahead of the premiere of TMZ’s ‘Celebrity Crime Scene: Marilyn Monroe’ on FOX.

Monroe was 36 years old when she was found dead in her Brentwood, California, home on August 4, 1962. Authorities ruled her death a probable suicide following an overdose of sedatives. The official ruling has not changed.

What Holes found troubling was not a new piece of evidence - it was the scene itself. ‘We know what overdose scenes look like when you’re in law enforcement,’ he said on ‘Jesse Weber Live.’ ‘This is too pristine. Death is ugly.’

Pills, Positioning, and a Missing Answer

According to Holes, Monroe was found lying in clean bedding, arranged in a way he said does not match a typical overdose death. Her medicine bottles, including an empty Nembutal bottle, were described as perfectly organized on the nightstand with labels facing outward.

The Nembutal prescription at the center of the case had been filled two days before her death - 50 capsules. All were gone. Yet Holes said no evidence of the capsules was found in Monroe’s stomach, a detail he described as a significant contradiction. ‘Nobody stages a suicide to look like a better suicide,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘They stage a homicide to look like a suicide.’

Holes was careful to note that the official ruling remains probable suicide, and that his review of the case does not constitute new law enforcement findings. He is presenting his analysis as a professional re-examination - not a determination of what happened.

A Case That Was Never Fully Investigated

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office reopened its own inquiry into Monroe’s death in 1982, following years of public speculation. That investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence to support criminal involvement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Holes said the fundamental problem is how poorly the scene was documented and processed in 1962. ‘You always go to the conservative side and investigate it as a homicide until we prove it’s not a homicide,’ he said. ‘Today, that’s the way things should be done.’ He added that the original LAPD response raised questions about whether outside influence caused investigators to move quickly toward a suicide conclusion rather than treating the death as an open case.

No officer or official was ever found to have acted improperly in the 1962 investigation.

The Special Premieres as Monroe Turns 100

The Fox special, produced by TMZ executive Harvey Levin, uses AI-generated reconstruction to virtually recreate Monroe’s home and walk investigators through the scene using modern forensic methods. Holes is joined by senior crime scene analyst Alina Burroughs and true crime reporter Kiki Monique.

The program does not present new physical evidence and does not reopen any official investigation. It presents the questions Holes and his colleagues identified when reviewing the available historical record - questions that, in his view, should have been answered in August 1962.

The special premiered on June 21, 2026, and is available the following day on Hulu. The release coincides with what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.

References: Golden State Killer Investigator Finds ‘Red Flags’ in Marilyn Monroe Death Scene Decades Later | AI Marilyn Monroe Staged Suicide | TMZ Marilyn Monroe Special Uses AI to Revisit Her Death