Matthew Perry’s Final Hours Reconstructed Minute by Minute

Matthew Perry began Saturday, October 28, 2023, much as he might have any other day. At his 3,500-square-foot home in Pacific Palisades, he played pickleball, watched a film and later relaxed in the hot tub.

The day would have attracted little attention if not for what happened before sunset. At around 4pm, the actor—forever associated with his role as Chandler Bing on Friends—was found face down and unresponsive in the hot tub. His death became even more shocking as details about his private life emerged.

Perry had made sobriety and recovery central to his public life, speaking often about both and documenting his efforts in detail. But authorities and investigators later concluded that he had not achieved the stable recovery he described; behind the scenes, his struggle with addiction was continuing.

In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote about using ketamine infusion therapy to address depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. He ultimately concluded that “ketamine was not for me.”

Perry described himself in the memoir as “pretty safely sober,” but prosecutors later alleged that his ketamine use had escalated. He was seeking more of the drug than any ethical doctor could legally prescribe. The Los Angeles Police Department launched an investigation, and five people—including Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s former live-in assistant, and Jasveen Sangha, a dealer known as “The Ketamine Queen”—were charged.

Drawing on details from Iwamasa’s plea agreement, in which he admitted one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death and agreed to 41 months in federal prison and a $10,000 fine, the Daily Mail reconstructed the final hours of Perry’s life minute by minute.

8.30am

At Perry’s Pacific Palisades home, Iwamasa, 60, administered his first injection of the day. The syringes had been obtained from Salvador Plasencia, a Santa Monica physician, while the ketamine came from Sangha.

During the month before Perry’s death, the actor and his assistant paid Plasencia more than $31,000 in cash for ketamine. The physician had sourced the drug through his doctor friend, Mark Chavez.

Plasencia injected Perry several times in September and October 2023 and taught Iwamasa how to administer the dissociative hallucinogen, which is generally given in clinical settings under close medical supervision.

Perry also sourced ketamine from Sangha. Between October 13 and October 25, Erik Fleming, a formerly licensed drug counselor, delivered 75 vials from Sangha to Perry. Perry paid Fleming and Sangha $18,000 in cash.

The third and final shipment Fleming delivered contained the dose that would ultimately prove fatal.

Around 11am

Perry left home to play pickleball—an activity he viewed as an important part of his recovery—at the private Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The club was less than seven miles from his house.

Although Perry frequently played with his personal coach and friend Matt Manasse, he took to the court with a different coach on October 28.

Manasse later told People that the other coach did not disclose how long she and Perry played that day. She did say, however, that the actor had “been doing really well on court,” something that did not surprise her.

Perry, who picked up pickleball while navigating his addiction issues, played the sport four or five days a week, according to Manasse.

In his youth, Perry was a top-ranked junior tennis player. He often practiced for ten hours a day and considered a tennis career until he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father when he was 15.

‘He fell in love with the sport and he really wanted to use it for his recovery,’ Manasse, who began playing with Perry in 2021, told NBC.

‘It was sort of his new thing he could get behind and have on his calendar. Everyone who came in contact with him really cared about his recovery journey, and the flip side is he really cared about us. He cared about your success just as much as his own.’

12.45pm

Perry heads home and at 12.45pm, Iwamasa gives Perry his second injection of the day as the actor watches a movie.

1.25pm

Perry asks his assistant to prepare the hot tub and to give him another shot of ketamine. In the four days leading up to his death, Perry was receiving six to eight daily injections from his assistant – so even after this injection, it’s quite possible he expected three to four more doses to get through the day.

While some mental health patients receive daily doses of ketamine as part of their treatment, it is rare for them to receive multiple doses in one day. Its effects are almost immediate and many who have been treated with the drug describe feeling like they’re floating out of their body and seeing shifting and colorful visuals.

Before Iwamasa gives Perry his third injection on this October Saturday, Perry instructs his assistant to: ‘Shoot me up with a big one.’

1.30pm

Iwamasa administers the substantial ketamine dose, per his boss’s orders.

Leaving Perry by himself in the hot tub, Iwamasa leaves the premises to run errands.

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4pm

Iwamasa returns to discover his boss face down in the gurgling water.

4.07pm

Iwamasa calls 911 and pulls Perry’s head above water and over to the side of the hot tub. The Los Angeles Fire Department sends first responders to Perry’s Palisades address to treat what they describe as a ‘water emergency of an unknown type.’ Police officers from the West Los Angeles Division are also on the scene.

But a quick medical assessment reveals the situation is beyond all hope.

4.17pm

Perry is pronounced dead.

10.35pm

The medical examiner arrives at Perry’s house.

Perry’s mother Suzanne Perry and his stepfather Keith Morrison are out walking their dog when they receive the tragic news.

Morrison, a longtime ‘Dateline’ correspondent, rushes to Perry’s home, where he crosses police tape into the scene of the crime and identifies his stepson’s body.

1.06am – Sunday, October 29

The medical examiner leaves with Perry’s body.

Authorities say they did not find any illegal drugs at the scene. The death is believed to be a drowning.

The LAPD’s investigation into Perry’s death later reveals that police did not find ketamine at Perry’s home because Iwamasa hid the drugs before first responders arrived.

The autopsy will conclude that while drowning contributed to Perry’s death, the main cause of death is the acute effects of ketamine.

Six days later

Perry’s funeral is held on November 3 at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park – near the Warner Bros. Studio where he and his castmates filmed Friends.

The private ceremony – held from 3pm to 5pm – is attended by his father, John Bennett Perry, his mother, stepfather and Friends’ co-stars. The emotional duet ‘Don’t Give Up’ by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush – which Perry called ‘the soundtrack’ to his memoir – plays at the service.

‘It’s just beautiful,’ he said of the song during the book’s press tour.

‘It’s saying don’t give up. I mean come on, how am I not going to like that?’

The aftermath

Initial autopsy results were inconclusive, but on December 15, 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office revealed that the primary cause of death was the acute effects of ketamine. Drowning was listed as the secondary cause.

One month later, in January, 2024, a search warrant is served at Perry and Iwamasa’s home.

The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into how the sitcom star obtained so much ketamine and ultimately five individuals – Iwamasa, Sangha, Erik Fleming, Dr Salvador Plasencia and Dr Mark Chavez – were charged for conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

All five pleaded guilty. Iwamasa was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Fleming got two and Plasencia got two and a half. Chavez received eight months of home detention. Sangha was sentenced to 15 years in prison.