Police in Las Vegas have launched a murder investigation into the death of BB King after his daughters claimed he had been poisoned.
Karen Williams and Patty King accuse their father's business manager LaVerne Toney and personal assistant Myron Johnson of giving him "foreign substances to induce his premature death" while he was in home hospice care.
The blues legend died in his sleep last month aged 89, and his doctors recorded cause of death as multi-infarct dementia, a series of "mini-strokes" that cause widespread damage to the brain.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
But his daughters insist that the singer’s aides had given him medication that would induce diabetic shock and hasten his death.
Toney, who is the executor of King's multi-million dollar estate, dismissed the women's claims. "They've been making allegations all along," she said. "What's new?"
Earlier this year, the daughters accused Toney of neglecting their father while he was ill, but the case was thrown of court due to a lack of evidence. They have also previously accused him of stealing money and not allowing his family and friends to visit the singer.
Lawyers for King's estate have called the latest allegations unfounded and disrespectful. "I hope they have a factual basis that they can demonstrate for their defamatory and libellous allegations," Brent Bryson said, according to the BBC.
An autopsy was performed over the weekend, but the results are not expected to be released for another eight weeks. King's will be buried later this week in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi.
