Reply #3: Welcome to DU, beckajane!

[bliss_eternal]

:hi:

Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. That was one of the rumours initially when he was found, but it was later disproved as a theory, given his depressed state (prior to his death) and the drugs found in his system after the autopsy.

From E! online's report:

INXS Singer's Death Ruled Suicide

by Joal Ryan
Feb 6, 1998, 7:20 AM PT

In the end, Michael Hutchence, the preening, flamboyant rock showman, was simply (if that's the word) depressed.

A coroner's office in Sydney, Australia, today said that a "severe depressed state" drove the INXS lead singer to hang himself from a leather belt in a hotel room there last November.

The suicide ruling ends--officially, at least--speculation of other kinky or nefarious reasons for Hutchence's too-early death at age 37.

There was no evidence to prove reports that the naked Hutchence accidentally hanged himself while engaged in auto-eroticism--a masturbation game in which players seek to heighten pleasure by cutting off their air supply--New South Wales Coroner Derek Hand said.

There was also nothing to indicate that a second party played any role in the death, dismissing rumors that other persons may have been present, Hand said.