After months of speculation, Michael Jackson's death was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner on Monday (August 24), said a law enforcement official.
However, the official announcement has not been released. The leak came from an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to MSNBC.

The King of Pop suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25 at age 50. Since then, police have been investigating his death, focusing on the use of prescription drugs and the role of doctors who treated him, including his personal doctor Conrad Murray.

"The Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, indicated that he had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson's cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol (diprivan)," a quote from a search warrant affidavit for Murray issued by California read.

MSNBC reports:

The document unsealed Monday allowed officials to raid the Houston offices and storage facility of Dr. Conrad Murray last month.

According to the warrant, Murray, Jackson's personal physician, had been treating the singer for insomnia with the sedative for six weeks. According to the document, Murray said he had been trying to wean Jackson off the powerful sedative by using smaller doses in c****ination with the sedatives lorazepam and midazolam.

On the morning Jackson died, Murray said he tried to induce sleep without using propofol, starting first with valium at 1:30 a.m. When Jackson was still awake at 2 a.m., Murray injected Jackson with lorazepam, then injected him with midazolam at 3 a.m. Murray told police he administered several other drugs over the next few hours.

By 10:40 a.m., Jackson, still unable to sleep, urged Murray to give him propofol. Murray said in court documents that he administered 25 milligrams of the drug at that time, then left Jackson alone under the influence of the drug to make phone calls to his Houston office. When he returned, Jackson was not breathing. He performed CPR while a member of Jackson's staff called 911. The singer was rushed to UCLA Medical Center where he was declared dead sometime later.

When police searched MJ's home, they found eight bottles of propofol, along with other vials and pills that had been prescribed to Jackson by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger.

Valium, lorazepam, clonazepam, tamsulosin and other drugs also were confiscated in the search, and propofol was found in Murray's medical bag.