Michelle Trachtenberg’s cause of death has finally been revealed, less than two months after the actress was found dead in her New York City apartment.
The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner said the “Buffy” star died from complications of diabetes mellitus, according to People magazine and NBC News on Wednesday. The outlet said the manner of the death has been listed as natural.
“Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease of inadequate control of blood levels of glucose,” according to the National Institute of Health. “It has many subclassifications, including type 1, type 2, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), gestational diabetes, neonatal diabetes, and steroid-induced diabetes.”
On Feb. 26, the actress was found unconscious and unresponsive in a Manhattan apartment at 8 a.m., police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 39 years old.
Various reports state that her family objected to an autopsy the day after her death, which meant her cause of death would be ruled “undetermined.”
Since her passing, sources told People magazine that the actress had undergone a liver transplant and “may have experienced complications.”
Another person claimed Trachtenberg had been “really really down emotionally” and had “told friends she was struggling” in the last year.
Trachtenberg rose to fame as a child actress starring in commercials and television shows like Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” and the soap opera “All My Children.” Her first major movie role was in 1996’s “Harriet the Spy.”
Her fame grew throughout the 2000s with two major parts in ultra-popular TV shows: first Dawn Summers in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and then later Georgina Sparks in “Gossip Girl.”
