On March 5, 1982, Belushi's body was found in his bungalow at the Chateau Marmont, a celebrity-favored hotel in West Hollywood. He was 33, and he died after a drug bender; his drug dealer and constant companion at the time, Cathy Evelyn Smith, told the National Enquirer in 2017 that Belushi spent $8,000 on cocaine alone in the week leading up to his death.
Smith was eventually indicted on a murder charge, and the sordid details of Belushi's last hours were revealed during grand jury testimony by former SNL writer Nelson Lyon. The night of March 4, Lyon said he saw Smith inject Belushi several times with cocaine, and in a private room at The Roxy, a Sunset Strip nightclub, Smith gave Belushi and Lyon a dose of what he said gave him an "aggravated and extreme" feeling. It was a "speedball," a potent mixture of cocaine and heroin. The party continued at Belushi's bungalow, and after guests left, Smith shot up Belushi with one more speedball at about 3:30AM and called it a night.
The next morning, Smith returned to Belushi's bungalow, swarmed with police after the comedian's body had been found. While briefly detained, Smith fled to Canada but returned to the U.S. when prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge if she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She served 15 months for her role in Belushi's death.
