Just days after Presley Gerber’s sudden death at 27, the investigation has moved toward one of the most unsettling questions surrounding his final hours.
If Presley suffered an overdose while staying at a rehabilitation facility, where did the substance come from?
Police are now reportedly examining that very question, interviewing people who were staying at the facility and investigating whether any drugs Presley may have taken were prescribed to him or obtained from another source, including potentially a friend or dealer. Importantly, authorities have not identified a suspect or accused anyone of causing his death. (TMZ)
That distinction is crucial.
Despite online speculation pointing fingers at people close to Presley, investigators have said there is currently no indication of foul play, while the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has not yet determined his official cause or manner of death. (CBS News)
Presley had checked into rehab only hours earlier
The timeline makes his death especially difficult for his family to comprehend.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Presley checked into Resolutions Living, a rehabilitation residence in Santa Monica, at around 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 19.
The following morning, emergency dispatchers received calls involving both an apparent overdose and cardiac arrest.
Police arrived at approximately 9:35 a.m.
Ten minutes later, at 9:45 a.m. on September 20, responding paramedics pronounced Presley dead. (Los Angeles Times)
He had barely been at the facility overnight.
Presley was 27.
Police are investigating his death as a suspected overdose
Santa Monica police have publicly described the investigation as involving a suspected overdose.
Dispatch information from that morning also referenced an apparent overdose followed by cardiac arrest. (People.com)
But there is an important distinction between what investigators currently suspect and what has actually been medically established.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner completed an examination on September 21 but deferred both the cause and manner of death while additional testing is conducted.
The office warned that deferred cases can take several months to resolve. (Los Angeles County Medical Examiner)
That means reports describing an overdose remain preliminary.
Toxicology and other testing will ultimately be needed to determine what was in Presley’s system and what caused his death.
Investigators reportedly want to know where any drugs came from
This is where the investigation has taken a new turn.
According to TMZ, citing sources close to the investigation, police have interviewed other residents who were at the rehabilitation facility when Presley died. (TMZ)
Investigators are reportedly considering several possibilities.
Any substance Presley may have taken could have been medication prescribed to him.
It could potentially have come from somebody outside the facility.
Or investigators could ultimately discover something entirely different once toxicology results are available.
For now, police are reportedly trying to establish whether Presley took drugs at all and, if so, where they originated. (TMZ)
No dealer, friend, fellow patient or member of Presley’s family has been publicly identified as responsible.
His family had been trying to help him
For Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber and their daughter Kaia, Presley’s struggles weren’t something they discovered after his death.
They had lived through them alongside him.
Sources close to the family have described Cindy, Rande and Kaia as being in “total shock,” while emphasizing that his parents had remained deeply supportive as he dealt with addiction and mental-health struggles. (People.com)
Presley himself had become increasingly candid about those struggles.
During a 2023 podcast appearance, he discussed depression, panic attacks and the complicated process of trying different forms of treatment.
Later, he turned some of those experiences into Mental Health Mondays, a social-media project through which he hoped his own mistakes and experiences might help other people. (People.com)
That makes the location of his death particularly heartbreaking.
Presley died somewhere he had gone for treatment.
Kaia had spoken about what her brother’s struggles did to their family
Only weeks before Presley’s death, Kaia had publicly discussed the effect her brother’s addiction had on those closest to him.
She also expressed admiration for Presley’s willingness to speak openly about experiences their family might otherwise have kept private.
The siblings had grown particularly close as adults, according to Cindy, who spoke earlier this year about how much she valued seeing their relationship evolve. (HOLA! USA)
Kaia and Presley had grown up under unusual circumstances.
Their mother was one of the world’s most famous supermodels.
Their father, Rande, became a highly successful businessman.
Both children eventually entered modeling themselves.
But Presley’s adulthood became increasingly complicated by struggles that fame and money couldn’t simply solve.
His former girlfriends are now remembering a very different side of him
As questions surrounding Presley’s final hours continue, people who knew him intimately have begun sharing memories of the man behind the headlines.
His former girlfriend Charlotte D’Alessio, who dated Presley between 2018 and 2020, shared an emotional tribute following his death.
Her message focused not on his addiction but on the person she remembered — their relationship, their memories and the future she believed he deserved.
“You deserved more life,” she wrote. (EW.com)
Another former girlfriend, Lexi Wood, also remembered Presley publicly, saying that he had “fought so hard for his life.” (HOLA! USA)
Those tributes add another dimension to a story that could otherwise become defined entirely by the circumstances of his death.
His final months had contained signs of hope
Earlier in 2026, Presley underwent an ibogaine treatment program abroad while continuing his efforts to address addiction and mental health.
He later described being terrified before the experience but hopeful afterward.
Then, in June, he appeared publicly with Cindy and Rande at a mental-health event in Malibu.
It would become one of his final major public appearances.
Presley spoke openly about his experiences and the tools he had learned to use while trying to improve his life.
Only three months later, he was dead.
Cindy is reportedly struggling to process the loss
Those close to the family say Presley’s death has left Cindy devastated.
A source told People that she was “completely in shock” and heartbroken following the loss of her only son. (People.com)
The family’s public statement has been considerably more restrained.
Their representative confirmed Presley’s death and asked for privacy during what they described as an extremely difficult and painful time. (CBS News)
Friends have since quietly gathered around them.
George and Amal Clooney — longtime friends of Cindy and Rande — were photographed arriving at Kaia’s Los Angeles home after Presley’s death. (TMZ)
But investigators still don’t have the most important answers
There are several things that are known.
Presley entered the rehabilitation facility shortly before his death.
Emergency dispatch information referenced an apparent overdose and cardiac arrest.
Police are investigating the death as a suspected overdose.
And investigators are reportedly looking into where any substances he may have taken came from. (Los Angeles Times)
But several enormously important things remain unknown.
The Medical Examiner has not determined Presley’s official cause of death.
Toxicology results remain pending.
Police have not identified anyone as responsible for supplying drugs to Presley.
And authorities say they have found no indication of foul play. (Los Angeles County Medical Examiner)
Those facts make the wording circulating online — that someone close to Presley was “involved in his death” — much stronger than the evidence currently supports.
For now, there isn’t one publicly identified person to blame.
There is instead a grieving family and an active investigation centered on a haunting question:
How did a 27-year-old who had just entered a facility seeking help end up dead only hours later?
Investigators are now working to determine that answer. (TMZ)
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