In the late afternoon of Sunday, October 4, 1970, producer Paul Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for a recording session in which she was scheduled to provide the vocal track for the instrumental track of the song "Buried Alive in the Blues".
In the evening, Rothchild phoned the Landmark Motor Hotel and reached Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, Joplin’s close friend who was staying at the Landmark in a room that was not near hers, according to his 2014 book On the Road with Janis Joplin.
Rothchild expressed his concern over her absence from Sunset Sound Recorders and asked Cooke to search for her.
 Cooke and two of his friends noticed her psychedelically painted Porsche 356 C Cabriolet in the hotel parking lot.
Upon entering Joplin's room (#105), he found her dead on the floor beside her bed.

Alcohol was present in the hotel room.
 Newspapers reported that no drugs or paraphernalia were present.
 According to a 1983 book authored by Joseph DiMona and Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi, evidence of narcotics was removed from the scene by a friend of Joplin’s and later put back there after the person realized that an autopsy was going to reveal that narcotics were in her system.
The book adds that prior to Joplin’s death, Noguchi had investigated other fatal drug overdoses of decedents in Los Angeles whose friends believed they were doing favors for decedents by removing evidence of narcotics, then they “thought things over” and returned to put back the evidence.
Noguchi performed an autopsy on Joplin and determined the cause of death to be a heroin overdose, possibly compounded by alcohol.
John Cooke believed Joplin had been given heroin that was much more potent than what she and other Los Angeles heroin users had received on previous occasions, as was indicated by overdoses of several of her dealer's other customers during the same weekend as hers.
Her death was ruled accidental.

According to Joplin’s publicist-turned-biographer Myra Friedman, who researched the cause of death in the early 1970s, when memories of people at the Los Angeles County coroner's office were fresh and all official documents still existed:
"The heroin in her system might have killed her immediately.
It did not.
When, after a while, she walked out to the lobby [from her room at the Landmark Motor Hotel], she could not have known she was dying.
There she chatted with the hotel clerk for a second and asked him to change a five-dollar bill for cigarettes, which she purchased [from the cigarette machine in the lobby].

Alcohol was also present in the blood, and her liver showed the effects of long-term heavy drinking.
Additional tests for barbiturates, phenothiazine, amphetamines, Librium, Valium, Noludar, meprobamate, methadone, Soma, Quaalude and codeine were negative. . . .


Much mystery surrounded the fact that Janis had not died immediately.
Some people insisted that a heroin overdose could not have happened as it did.
The Medical Examiner's Office of New York County [where Friedman lived] informs me that while it is more common for an OD to occur instantly after an injection, a delay until the moment of death is not so strikingly unusual.
Clarifying this further, the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs states that the term "overdose" is most frequently erroneous.
The report cites information that those sudden deaths following an injection of heroin are actually the result of an adulteration of the product with various substances or of other mysterious factors: what is called a "synergistic reaction" to a combination of drugs, for example, or of other toxic factors.
Death from what is literally an overdose of heroin itself is, in fact, usually slow.

Peggy Caserta, Joplin's close friend, and Seth Morgan, Joplin's fiance, both had failed to meet Joplin the Friday immediately prior to her death, October 2, and Joplin had been expecting both of them to keep her company that night.
According to Caserta, Joplin was saddened that neither of her friends visited her at the
In the late afternoon of Sunday, October 4, 1970, producer Paul Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for a recording session in which she was scheduled to provide the vocal track for the instrumental track of the song "Buried Alive in the Blues". In the evening, Rothchild phoned the Landmark Motor Hotel and reached Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, Joplin’s close friend who was staying at the Landmark in a room that was not near hers, according to his 2014 book On the Road with Janis Joplin. Rothchild expressed his concern over her absence from Sunset Sound Recorders and asked Cooke to search for her.  Cooke and two of his friends noticed her psychedelically painted Porsche 356 C Cabriolet in the hotel parking lot. Upon entering Joplin's room (#105), he found her dead on the floor beside her bed. 
Alcohol was present in the hotel room.  Newspapers reported that no drugs or paraphernalia were present.  According to a 1983 book authored by Joseph DiMona and Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi, evidence of narcotics was removed from the scene by a friend of Joplin’s and later put back there after the person realized that an autopsy was going to reveal that narcotics were in her system. The book adds that prior to Joplin’s death, Noguchi had investigated other fatal drug overdoses of decedents in Los Angeles whose friends believed they were doing favors for decedents by removing evidence of narcotics, then they “thought things over” and returned to put back the evidence. Noguchi performed an autopsy on Joplin and determined the cause of death to be a heroin overdose, possibly compounded by alcohol. John Cooke believed Joplin had been given heroin that was much more potent than what she and other Los Angeles heroin users had received on previous occasions, as was indicated by overdoses of several of her dealer's other customers during the same weekend as hers. Her death was ruled accidental.
According to Joplin’s publicist-turned-biographer Myra Friedman, who researched the cause of death in the early 1970s, when memories of people at the Los Angeles County coroner's office were fresh and all official documents still existed:
"The heroin in her system might have killed her immediately. It did not. When, after a while, she walked out to the lobby [from her room at the Landmark Motor Hotel], she could not have known she was dying. There she chatted with the hotel clerk for a second and asked him to change a five-dollar bill for cigarettes, which she purchased [from the cigarette machine in the lobby].
Alcohol was also present in the blood, and her liver showed the effects of long-term heavy drinking. Additional tests for barbiturates, phenothiazine, amphetamines, Librium, Valium, Noludar, meprobamate, methadone, Soma, Quaalude and codeine were negative. . . .

Much mystery surrounded the fact that Janis had not died immediately. Some people insisted that a heroin overdose could not have happened as it did. The Medical Examiner's Office of New York County [where Friedman lived] informs me that while it is more common for an OD to occur instantly after an injection, a delay until the moment of death is not so strikingly unusual. Clarifying this further, the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs states that the term "overdose" is most frequently erroneous. The report cites information that those sudden deaths following an injection of heroin are actually the result of an adulteration of the product with various substances or of other mysterious factors: what is called a "synergistic reaction" to a combination of drugs, for example, or of other toxic factors. Death from what is literally an overdose of heroin itself is, in fact, usually slow.
Peggy Caserta, Joplin's close friend, and Seth Morgan, Joplin's fiance, both had failed to meet Joplin the Friday immediately prior to her death, October 2, and Joplin had been expecting both of them to keep her company that night. According to Caserta, Joplin was saddened that neither of her friends visited her at the 
Janis Joplin