PARIS (AP) — There’s no evidence of foul play or violence in celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s death in a French hotel room, a French prosecutor said Saturday. The famed cook, writer and host of the CNN series “Parts Unknown” killed himself Friday in a luxury hotel in the ancient village of Kaysersberg, Christian de Rocquigny, the prosecutor of Colmar in France’s eastern Alsace region, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. Rocquigny said there did not appear to be much planning in the television personality’s suicide.
“There is no element that makes us suspect that someone came into the room at any moment,” he said, adding that a medical expert had concluded that there were no signs of violence on Bourdain’s body.
Rocquigny said toxicology tests were being carried on Bourdain’s body, including urine tests, to see if the 61-year-old American took any medications or other drugs, in an effort to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.
Olivier Nasti, the chef and owner of Le Chambard, the luxury hotel in Kaysersberg where Bourdain took his life, paid tribute to his colleague Saturday.
“It is with great respect for the leader, the author, the TV entertainer, the visionary Anthony Bourdain that I express all my condolences to his family and to the anonymous people around the world who he made dream so much,” Nasti said in a statement Saturday.
“It is the whole family of French gastronomy that joins me, to renew our deep friendship to our bereaved American brothers,” he added.
