His story: A timeline of Jackson’s last 24 hours

A year ago, the world watched as Michael Jackson balanced on the edge of a precipice. Behind the once-proclaimed King of Pop was a bleak stretch of pain and artistic decline. Ahead lay 50 London concerts, a high-rolling bid to reassert his musical brilliance and re-establish control of his life.

He was ready. The audience was ready. Then he was gone.

Less than three weeks before his new life was to have started on a stage filled with special effects and song, the old one ended in a cloud of drugs and unfulfilled dreams.

Questions immediately swirled about the circumstances of the singer’s death last June 25 from an overdose of sedatives. In the year since, a fuller picture of his last day has emerged. What follows is a comprehensive reconstruction of those final 24 hours.

Exactly what happened during that time may never be known, as the only person with him was his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered a series of drugs to help his patient sleep. Murray is due to stand trial this year on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s death.

But witness accounts and court documents agree: Jackson’s final day started off like many others.

Last family meal

Early in the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24, Jackson descended the stairs of his rented mansion and sat with his children for what would be their last meal together.

He had a rehearsal that night, so he wanted to eat something light but sustaining. His personal chef, Kai Chase, prepared seared ahi tuna with an organic salad and a glass of carrot and orange juice.

“He smiled and put his hands together for a prayer,” Chase said. “He said, ‘Thank you, God bless you.’ ”

Chase said Jackson looked well, seemed energized and was in a good mood.

‘his face said it all: he loved it’

Shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jackson left the eight-bedroom mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in Holmby Hills, an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood sandwiched between Bel-Air and Beverly Hills.

He got into the back of a navy-blue Escalade driven by bodyguard Faheen Muhammad. His personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, sat in the front.

They drove downtown to the Staples Center, where Jackson and his team of musicians and dancers were in final rehearsals before heading to London.

Several people recalled Jackson being in good shape that night.

“He was completely enthused,” said Dorian Holley, Jackson’s longtime vocal director and a singer for the upcoming “This Is It” shows. “It was hard to discern any difference between his energy and his physicality between then and his earlier days.”

Jackson went through several classic numbers, including “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean,” “Smooth Criminal,” and “She’s Out of My Life.”

Later that night, he and his dancers performed “Thriller” on stage in full costume for the first time.

“His face said it all: He loved it,” said Kriyss Grant, one of the dancers Jackson picked for the show.

Complaints of fatigue, need for sleep

The rehearsal ended about midnight with a performance of “Earth Song.” The singer hugged his dancers, thanked the crew and wished them a good night.

“God bless you,” Patterson and Grant recalled him saying.

Jackson returned home, stopping briefly at the metal gate to greet a small group of fans who had gathered outside.

As they pulled into the driveway, the bodyguard noticed Murray’s car parked outside the house, just as it had been many nights previously.

Jackson’s security personnel escorted him into the house and to the foot of the stairs. No one, except for Murray and the children, was allowed upstairs.

Soon after Jackson arrived home, he started complaining of fatigue and said he needed sleep.

sleepless night

Murray, according to a police affidavit, was concerned Jackson was addicted to propofol, a powerful anesthetic normally used only in medical settings with special equipment on hand.

He told police he was trying to wean Jackson from propofol and had not given him the drug for two nights.

About 1:30 a.m. Thursday, June 25, he again tried this approach, giving Jackson a 10-milligram Valium tablet. The anti-anxiety medication had no immediate effect, and about a half hour later, the doctor gave 2 milligrams of lorazepam, a drug from the same family as Valium, administered through a saline drip.

When Jackson remained awake, Murray administered a 2-milligram dose of midazolam, another sedative, at 3 a.m., then another 2 milligrams of lorazepam at 5 a.m.

By 7:30 a.m., Jackson was still awake. Murray told police he injected another 2 milligrams of midazolam into Jackson’s drip.

Still, Jackson couldn’t sleep.

‘get here right away’

After the sleepless night, Jackson repeatedly demanded propofol, a white liquid drug he sometimes referred to as his “milk,” Murray said. About 10:40 a.m., Murray said, he gave in to Jackson’s demands and pushed 25 milligrams of the substance into the drip.

The chronology comes from a June 27 police interview with Murray, though the doctor’s lawyer, Ed Chernoff, has contested investigators’ interpretation of events. Chernoff declined to comment for this story.

Murray remained with the sedated singer for about 10 minutes, then left for the bathroom, the affidavit stated. Less than two minutes later, he returned, and found Jackson not breathing.

Phone logs show Murray made at least three calls between 11:18 and 11:51 a.m., to his Las Vegas clinic, a patient, and a friend.

When Murray discovered Jackson was not breathing, he called the personal assistant, Williams, and at 12:13 p.m. left a message saying, “Call me right away, call me right away,” according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Williams called back and Murray said: “Get here right away, Mr. Jackson had a bad reaction. He had a bad reaction.”

Williams called the bodyguard Muhammad, then Jackson’s logistics director, Alberto Alvarez, who was in a security trailer outside the house.

Alvarez told investigators he rushed upstairs to a bedroom, where he found the singer lying on a bed with his arms outstretched and his eyes and mouth open.

At his side, Murray was administering CPR with one hand.

“Alberto, Alberto, come quickly,” Murray said, according to the statement.

“He had a reaction, he had a bad reaction.”

Two of Jackson’s children, Prince and Paris, entered the room, crying as they saw Murray trying to save their father. They were quickly escorted outside.

Alvarez told investigators Murray asked him to pick up a few vials with rubber tops and put them in a bag.

It was only after these bottles had been cleared that Murray told Alvarez to call 911.

“I need an ambulance as soon as possible,” Alvarez told a dispatcher. “We have a gentleman here that needs help and he’s not breathing.”

They put Jackson on the floor, then Muhammad rushed into the room and began helping with chest compressions while Murray attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

jackson pronounced dead

By 12:27 p.m. Thursday, paramedics had arrived. They later wrote that Jackson was not breathing and had no pulse at 12:29 p.m.

However, Murray stated he could feel a weak pulse in Jackson’s upper thigh area, Alvarez and Muhammad said. No one else felt it.

A paramedic report stated that emergency responders tried two rounds of resuscitation attempts and were ready to discontinue treatment, but that Murray said he would take responsibility and insisted resuscitation be continued in the ambulance.

Jackson was taken the short distance to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at 1:07 p.m., when doctors tried a range of resuscitation techniques, including the insertion of a balloon pump to move blood around his body.

Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m.

After the death was called, Murray started crying, Williams told investigators.

Murray told the children that their father had passed away, then asked to return to the house.

“Is there any way I can go home, or be taken to the house,” the doctor said, according to Alvarez’s statement. “I want to get my car, and I’m hungry.”

Williams said he didn’t think it was a good idea for Murray to return to the house.

He spoke to Muhammad, and they concocted a story that police had taken all the keys to the vehicles.

Murray indicated he would take a cab, and Williams said he saw him leave the hospital through a side door.

Williams told Muhammad to call security at the house and make sure no one got in.

“Lock it down,” Williams said.