Rhianna Benson
The eerie last words uttered by legendary music-maker Michael Jackson are once again doing the rounds on social media, just months after fans marked 15 years since his death.
On June 15 that year, a 911 call was made by Los Angeles personal physician Conrad Murray, reporting that the Jackson 5 star had stopped breathing.
Visiting the singer's Santa Barbara County ranch, Murray later told police that Jackson had suddenly gone into a state of cardiac arrest.
What investigating authorities didn't discover until they arrived on the scene, however, is that minutes prior to his death, his close friend and personal doctor had administered a lethal dosage of drugs.
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Responding officers attempted to resuscitate the star - who was set to perform in London three weeks later - by performing CPR on him, but to no avail.
They declared him dead and registered his body for a post-mortem.
The 'Billie Jean' singer had been given a potion made of propofol and benzodiazepine, both of which were administered nightly to the musician to get to sleep at night, but never to such an extreme degree.
Just over two hours after Murray made the initial call, Jackson was pronounced dead, with global news reports speculating over the cause of death.
Billions of heartbroken fans subsequently issued tributes to the star, who was previously regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century.
Two months later, following a thorough investigation and autopsy, Dr. Conrad Murray - who stayed with Jackson at least six nights a week and was regularly implored by the singer to give him drugs - was charged with his involuntary manslaughter.
Amid the long, high-profile court case, Murray's defence argued, however, that the singer had been both tired and under pressure due to rehearsals for his upcoming residency, and on the night of his death, had taken eight tablets of the sedative lorazepam.
"When Dr. Murray left the room, Jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that, with the lorazepam, created a perfect storm in his body that ultimately killed him," the doctor's lawyer argued.
"The whole thing is tragic, but the evidence is not that Dr. Murray did it."
Ultimately, the prosecution ruled that the 'misplaced trust in the hands of Murray cost Jackson his life'.
And this week, marking the 15th anniversary of the 'Man In The Mirror' chart-topper's premature passing, the final words he supposedly spoke before suffering a heart attack have once again been doing the rounds online.
As part of his trial, Dr. Murray told the court the last words that Jackson had uttered were requests for 'milk' - the name that the singer had given for propofol, the anaesthetic he'd overdosed on.
"He was pleading and begging to please, please let him have some milk because that was the only thing that would work," the physician told the jury.
His lawyers at the time went on to explain that the musician had asked for 'milk' on a nightly basis, despite Murray's objections.
Ultimately, the prosecution ruled that the 'misplaced trust in the hands of Murray cost Jackson his life'.
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