Where Will Michael Jackson Be Buried?

In death as in life, there is never a dull moment when it comes to Michael Jackson. Police in California's Santa Barbara County met on June 30 to discuss how to deal with an expected mad rush of traffic on the narrow hillside road leading to Jackson's Neverland Ranch for a planned memorial service on July 3. Jackson's body will arrive there a day earlier, in a 30-car motorcade from Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the singer's hometown of Gary, Ind., is reportedly seeking to have the body shipped there for another memorial service being planned for July 10. Amid all the competition to pay last respects to the King of Pop (including a memorial service attended by thousands at New York City's Apollo Theater on June 30), one question still remains unanswered: Where will Michael Jackson be buried?

The singer's father Joe Jackson denied speculation that Neverland Ranch will be turned into a Graceland-style attraction, with the Gloved One's grave as the central attraction. "That is not true," Joe Jackson told reporters when asked whether his son was to be buried at Neverland, which has been owned by a private-equity firm since Michael defaulted on a loan. Although the family patriarch declined to discuss specifics on the time and place of a funeral, citing the second autopsy as a cause for delay, he hinted at grand, Lady Di–scale plans. "I've never heard of a private funeral like this — like big, like Michael's would be," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the financier whose company owns Neverland is preparing for unprecedented crowds at Friday's memorial. In an open letter to the Santa Barbara community, Thomas Barrack of Colony Capital on June 30 referred to the ranch as "Michael's only true home" and added, "The universal curiosity about Neverland and its connection to Michael is an unchangeable fact."

"The future of the Neverland property will be addressed in due time through normal process and with appropriate deliberation," he continued in a letter that seemed directed as much to the Jackson family as it was to the residents of Santa Barbara County. "Let us all keep in mind that reputations are earned in decades and lost in moments of haste and bad decisions."

Haste is certainly not characterizing the planning of Jackson's final farewell. Some outside observers questioned the Jacksons' rationale for holding off on burial plans while waiting for autopsy results. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist and an attorney who has handled several high-profile cases, including the second autopsy of Anna Nicole Smith's son Daniel, says that in the case of a potential drug overdose, the body of the deceased would not be needed for examination once fluid or tissue samples were obtained. Often, the coroner will keep the brain to conduct neuropathology tests, which can't happen until about two weeks after death, when the brain hardens, says Wecht. It's also likely that the coroner is conducting further tests on the superstar's heart, he adds.

"It's up to the family. They can bury him and then bury the brain and heart later on," he says. "But it's rare for the body to be held back for two weeks."

In a career that took plenty of strange turns, it's perhaps no surprise that Jackson's progress toward a final resting place is beginning to seem just as chaotic. At least one of Michael's close friends, Mark Lester, the godfather to Jackson's three children, says he's in the dark as to the icon's own final wishes.

"It's not the sort of thing you sit around a dinner party and discuss," says Lester, "funeral arrangements for someone so relatively young."

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Michael Jackson's Estate: Saved by the Beatles

Will Michael Jackson's three children — Michael Joseph Jr., Paris Michael and Prince Michael II — end up paupers? The answer rests on the value of the performer's largest asset: his 50% stake of a music-publishing company called Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Jackson, who died on June 25, left behind as much as $500 million in debts. That includes a $315 million loan owed to British bank Barclays, as well as millions of dollars in bills. "Jackson never paid his bills," says a lawyer who did work for Jackson over the years. "Countless professionals who worked for him are still waiting to get paid." In May, the singer's longtime publicist Raymone Bain sued Jackson for $44 million in unpaid fees.

But whether those debts will mean Jackson died bankrupt depends heavily on the worth of Sony/ATV. Jackson had other assets, including rights to many of his own songs, as well as about 1,000 hours of rehearsal footage leading up to this summer's London concert tour and possibly about 100 unreleased songs. But none of those assets are likely to be nearly as valuable as his stake in Sony/ATV, which has been valued at anywhere from $390 million to $1 billion.

Jackson's 1985 purchase of ATV Music, which included in its catalog some 250 Beatles tunes, for $47.5 million formed the basis of his stake in the music-publishing business and was by far his shrewdest music deal. Yoko Ono, John Lennon's widow, and Paul McCartney had considered bidding a combined $20 million for the collection, but Ono decided that was more than the collection was worth. Jackson's purchase price of more than double that is still far less than what the songs would sell for now.

In 1995, Jackson agreed to merge ATV with Sony's music-publishing business. The Japanese corporation paid Jackson $150 million to complete the deal and split ownership of the new company with the performer 50-50. In March 2007 an audit of Jackson's finances valued his half of Sony/ATV at $390 million.

But just two years later, it is likely that Jackson's stake in Sony/ATV is worth much more than that. First of all, music-publishing has not been hit nearly as hard as the rest of the music industry by the shift to music downloads and away from compact discs. Unlike a record label, a music publisher does not get paid only when an album or other original recording of a song is sold. Publishers retain the rights to a song and get paid every time it is performed or appears in a movie or advertisement by the original artist or any other performer. "I have talked to a number of music publishers who tell me last year was their best year in a while," says Susan Butler, a former music-industry lawyer who now writes the newsletter Music Confidential. "Guitar Hero and other games have created a lot of opportunity for the publishers."

What's more, in early 2007, Sony recruited industry veteran Martin Bandier, who turned rival EMI into a publishing powerhouse, to lead the unit. The hire seems to have paid off. Bandier has re-energized Sony's publishing company, completing a number of acquisitions and landing some popular new acts, including former American Idol contestant Elliott Yamin and rising music star Lady Gaga. Along with the Beatles, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan, the company's 750,000-song catalog now includes the Jonas Brothers, Ruben Studdard and Taylor Swift. In the first quarter of this year, Sony/ATV ranked as the second largest music publisher in the U.S., with just under 20% of the market, up from fifth largest three years ago. Its Lady Gaga hit "Just Dance" was the best-selling song in the first three months of the year. The result: industry sources estimate Sony/ATV's revenue has grown more than 60% in the past two years, to an annual $500 million. Net publisher's share —a closely watched figure in the industry, which is sales minus payments to artists — has doubled, to an estimated $200 million. "The music-publishing business is ripe with opportunities, and we are continuing to grow our business," says Bandier.

What does that mean Sony/ATV is worth? In a recent financial filing, Sony said the division had $1.3 billion in assets and $479 million in debt. That would give the division a net value of about $850 million. But it would be likely to fetch much more than that in a sale. When Universal Music bought BMG Music Publishing in September 2006, Universal paid $2.1 billion, or nearly 12 times BMG's estimated net publisher's share. Sony/ATV probably wouldn't get the same multiple in today's market. But even at 10 times its current publisher's earnings, the company would be worth $2 billion.

Jackson, though, might not be able to sell his interest in Sony/ATV for its full $1 billion value. In 2006, as part of a deal to restructure his mounting debts, he gave Sony/ATV an option to buy half of his holdings in the company at a later date. Sony will not disclose the terms of that deal, but it probably limits what the Japanese company would have to pay Jackson for half of his Sony/ATV stake.

Still, the quarter of the publishing business that Jackson does own outright would be enough to clear his debts. And Sony would still have to pay many millions for the rest, even with the option. The bottom line: Michael Jackson's estate is probably more than solvent. "People are focused on the amount of money Michael owed, but you have to look at the assets too," says Ivan Thornton, who worked as a financial adviser to Jackson on and off for the past decade. "He's in debt, but he is certainly not bankrupt."

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Did Drugs Kill Michael Jackson?

People hold up Michael Jackson pictures as media and spectators wait for a news conference about Michael Jackson's death at UCLA Medical Plaza on June 25, 2009

The initial autopsy report on Michael Jackson came at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, June 26, 2009, from Craig Harvey, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office: "The coroner has concluded the autopsy for Mr. Michael Jackson. The cause of death has been deferred."

It will be several more weeks until details of the full autopsy will be released to the public. For now, said Harvey, the coroner had not found "indication of any external trauma or indication of foul play on the body." The cause of death, however, could not be determined. Results from further testing on the brain and Jackson's pulmonary system, as well as a toxicology analysis of what substances may have been present in the singer's body at the time of death, will take an additional four to six weeks to complete. The preliminary results came just over a day after an unidentified man placed a call to 911 from Jackson's rented Holmby Hills mansion on Thursday: "He's not breathing ... he's not conscious ... he's not responding to anything. He's not responding to CPR, anything," the man said.

When the 911 operator asked how Jackson had collapsed or whether anyone had witnessed it, the caller replied, "The doctor has been the only one here."

That physician — presumably Jackson's personal doctor, cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray, who was called on Wednesday night when his patient complained of not feeling well — has disappeared. He left the car that he drove to Jackson's home, a silver BMW registered to an associate, in the driveway. Dr. Tohme Tohme, a Jackson associate who has served as a spokesman for him in the past, told the Los Angeles Times that Murray, who has filed for bankruptcy in the past and has financial problems, was hired by Jackson's concert promoter, AEG Live, to live with Jackson and care for him during his upcoming shows. Los Angeles law-enforcement authorities towed Murray's vehicle on Thursday night, saying the car could contain "medications pertinent to the investigation" into Jackson's death.

As the Jackson family awaits results of the autopsy performed Friday on the 50-year-old King of Pop, some family and close friends have raised the possibility that Jackson's alleged drug use played a role in his sudden death. Brian Oxman, a former attorney for the family, believes that Jackson's use of medications was "extensive" and that the people who surrounded him were "enabling him," encouraging his reported drug dependence. A family member told the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com that Jackson had been receiving daily injections of Demerol, a narcotic painkiller.

In high enough doses, Demerol can slow respiration almost to the point of suffocation, which can lead to sudden death by depriving the heart of oxygen, according to Dr. Douglas Zipes, a cardiologist at Indiana University and past president of the American College of Cardiology. Demerol can also cause a sudden stoppage of the heart in patients who are dehydrated. The drug causes blood vessels to dilate, or expand, and dehydration would impede this stretching, leading to a dangerous drop in blood pressure and blackout, which can cause sudden death.

Before his death, Jackson had apparently been rehearsing intensely for his 50-concert comeback, which was to launch in mid-July at London's O₂ Arena, but there are no reports yet of whether the physical strain had left him dehydrated Wednesday evening.

When EMTs arrived at the Holmby Hills mansion where Jackson had collapsed, they would have had a series of quick-fire decisions to make, based on little information. Had Jackson suffered a heart attack? A drug overdose? A stress-related event? Did his condition require paddles or a syringe of epinephrine?

In the case of either a heart attack or cardiac arrest — a heart attack can also cause cardiac arrest — EMTs' initial response is to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in order to keep blood flowing. According to the 911 tapes from Jackson's case, his physician was "pumping his chest." That physician and the EMT team that brought Jackson to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center attempted to resuscitate him for more than an hour, according to a statement issued by the hospital. Typically, however, there is only a four- to six-minute window of opportunity to revive a patient in cardiac arrest; the chances of survival drop 7% to 10% with each minute that passes without CPR or defibrillation.

A heart in cardiac arrest, says Zipes, "looks like a bag of squiggly worms, totally uncoordinated, disorganized, with no effective pumping." In a normal heart, the pumping chambers beat 70 times a minute or so, while an organ in cardiac arrest can spasm anywhere from 400 to 600 times per minute. Unless a regular rhythm can be restored, brain death and ultimately death can result.

It is not known what measures the emergency workers took to save Jackson, but if they had determined that he suffered from cardiac arrest triggered by an overdose of narcotics, they would have likely used a shot of naloxone, a drug that counteracts opioid overdose, to get the brain back online and the heart beating again, says Connie Meyer, an EMS captain in Johnson County, Kans. In cases where it's not clear whether narcotics are involved — cardiac arrest may be caused by a wide range of factors, including stress — some EMTs will use epinephrine, a shot of adrenaline that jump-starts the heart back into action.

Jackson's autopsy will include a toxicology report that will identify any substances present in his body at the time of death, but even still, it may not yield a definitive cause of death. "A toxicology screen can only tell you the drugs were or were not there," notes Zipes. "It cannot tell you if the drugs caused the event."

The autopsy could, however, rule out a heart attack. If Jackson's cardiac arrest had been triggered by a heart attack — caused by a ruptured plaque blocking blood flow to his heart — then pathologists should be able to see the occluded vessel and the fresh evidence of the clogged-up heart.

After all the speculation and rumors and bizarre events that have peppered Jackson's medical history, it may be the case that ultimately he died from the same condition that claims 440,000 other middle-aged Americans each year: heart disease. A longtime friend, Patti Austin, who duetted with the singer on "It's the Falling in Love," told CNN that Jackson rarely ate right and didn't exercise. "When you live like a hummingbird, you don't have a long life span," she said.

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Michael Jackson's Missing Music: More to Come?

A shopper looks at Michael Jackson CDs at Amoeba Records in Los Angeles on July 1, 2009

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty
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The Young Michael Jackson at Home

Stance

The photos were taken in the early 1970s at the Jackson home in Encino, Calif.

Art

The singer displays a painting he made.

Lounging

That's Michael's German Shepherd on the right.

Style King

Michael sports an argyle sweater and flowered shirt.

The Media

A music journalist interviews Michael.

Hoops

Michael and his brother Marlon play a little one on one.

Portrait

Photographer Neal Preston periodically shot Jackson and his brothers at their home for fan magazines.

Shooter

Michael plays with a camera.

Star Power

At the time these photos were taken, the Jackson 5 had already recorded four No. 1 hits.

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Michael Jackson: The Last Photos

This Is It

International pop-music icon Michael Jackson rehearses at Los Angeles' Staples Center on June 23, 2009, two days before his death. Photographer Kevin Mazur was given exclusive access to the sessions.

Highlight

More than 800,000 tickets, costing upwards of £1,000 (about $1,650), had been sold for the London shows. Fans have been informed that their money will be refunded.

Long Reach

Fans will have a chance to purchase a DVD and album of Jackson's last rehearsals, which is presently being compiled. It is expected to be one of his biggest sellers. This photo was taken on May 6, 2009.

Behind the Scenes

Jackson works with choreographer/director Kenny Ortega in a photo taken on May 6, 2009.

Smile

Starting this Christmas, Jackson's family will release a series of posthumous albums, including perhaps songs written for Jackson's children and some left over from his last album, Invincible.

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