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In December, Colin Kroll, the co-founder of Vine and the HQ Trivia app, died of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 34. NYPD officers checked on Kroll in his Manhattan apartment after his girlfriend notified authorities that she could not get in touch with him. There, police found Kroll’s body laying face down next to an array of drug paraphernalia.
Today, the NYC Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the cause of death to TMZ.
Colin died from acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. They’ve ruled his death accidental.
Fentanyl is a potent painkiller that played a role in the death of Mac Miller, Prince, and Tom Petty. Strains of fentanyl can be 50 times more powerful than morphine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and works by increasing dopamine levels and creating a state of euphoria. One strain of fentanyl, named furanyl fentanyl, is so potent that you could die from just touching it. Since fentanyl itself is so potent, drug dealers have started combining it with heroin, oxycodone or Xanax, a concoction that often times proves fatal.
Maggie Neuwald, Kroll’s ex-fiancee, previously told The New York Post he was “overwhelmed with success.”
“It’s not like anyone hands you … a manual of how to deal with [whirlwind success],” Neuwald said. “That probably, unfortunately, got the best of him, although I had hoped he’d be able to fight those demons.”
Kroll left behind a net worth that was said to be in the millions.