Aaron Carter accidentally drowned in bathtub after taking drugs, coroner determines

Bisexual rapper, singer and former child star Aaron Carter accidentally drowned in his bathtub after taking sedatives and inhaling gas, a coroner has determined.

Carter, who was the younger brother of Backstreet Boys star Nick Carter, was found unresponsive in his bathtub on 5 November last year at his home in Lancaster, California, and pronounced dead at the scene.

He was just 34 years old.

A report from the Los Angeles county medical examiner-coroner revealed that Carter had taken sedatives and inhaled gas from air spray cleaners in the hours before his death.

The report said that the sedative alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax, and compressed gas difluoroethane were both found in his system.

Difluoroethane was described in the investigation as a gas that can “induce feelings of euphoria when inhaled.”

Local sheriffs were called to Carter’s home in the early hours of 4 November to enact a welfare check after he had been heard “huffing” the gas on an Instagram live video.

According to a police report included with the coroner’s findings, Carter asked the sheriffs to leave. Later that day, he missed an appointment with a drugs counsellor, before a housekeeper later found him submerged in the bathtub.

Paramedics were called, but he pronounced dead at the scene.

After news of Carter’s death broke last year, stars including his ex-girlfriend Lindsay Lohan paid tribute to the singer, with Lohan saying she still had “a lot of love” for him and his family.

“My heart goes out to his family and may he rest in peace,” Lohan said. “God bless him… and yeah, just [a] lot of love there.” 

Lohan and Carter dated briefly in the early 2000s. The late singer, who also dated actress Hilary Duff, came out publicly as bisexual in 2017 and hit the headlines in 2020 after joining the OnlyFans content sharing platform.

In 2021, Carter and his fiance Melanie Martin announced the birth of their first child, Prince.

Aaron Carter shot to fame as a pop star in the 1990s, releasing his self-titled debut album when he was just nine years old.

He became an opening act for his brother’s band Backstreet Boys, touring with the group between 1997 and 1998. He went on to release five studio albums throughout his music career.