La Toya Jackson reportedly believes her brother Michael was “murdered.”
In new reported interviews with Britain’s News of The World and the Daily Mail’s Sunday edition, Michael’s older sister allegedly told the publications that she believes several people were involved in her brother’s death.
“Michael was murdered,” La Toya, 53, reportedly told the News of the World. “And we don’t think just one person was involved. Rather, it was a conspiracy of people. I feel it was all about money. Michael was worth well over a billion in music publishing assets and somebody killed him for that. He was worth more dead than alive.”
La Toya allegedly said that her brother, who died on June 25 at the age of 50, told her several years ago that he was fearful for his life.
“A couple of years ago Michael told me he was worried that people were out to get him. He said, ‘They’re gonna kill me for my publishing. They want my catalogues and they’re gonna kill me for these,’” La Toya reportedly told the News of the World.
The new reported interviews come less than a week after Los Angeles Police chief William Bratton told reporters his department had not yet ruled out homicide in the sudden death of the King of Pop.
During both new interviews, La Toya reportedly confirmed that her brother’s arms had needle marks on them at the time of his death, but she still says she is convinced her brother was murdered.
“He had needle marks on his neck and on his arms and more about those will emerge in the next few weeks. I cannot discuss that any further as I may jeopardize the investigation,” she reportedly told The Mail. “I can, however, say that I have not changed my mind about my feeling that Michael was murdered.”
However, La Toya would not name the people she thinks are responsible for her brother’s death.
“I can’t say who I believe is responsible as I don’t want to jeopardize the police investigation. But not everybody had Michael’s best interests at heart. A month ago I felt Michael was going to die before he did his London concerts,” she reportedly told the News of the World.
The paper also reported that La Toya claimed that Joe Jackson, the head of the family, made numerous attempts to visit his son, but was kept out.
“Michael was being controlled. No one could get through to him,” she allegedly said to the News of the World. “We wanted to know why we were being kept away and my father Joe was always trying to get to see him. He tried so hard to be there for Michael. He was seen as a threat but he was trying to help. And if you keep the family away, you can conquer. It’s like they say, divide and conquer.”
In addition, during her reported interview with The Mail on Sunday, La Toya insisted her brother’s final resting place will not be Neverland.
“Michael hated that place. After the second [child abuse] trial, he said to me, ‘I will never come back to this place again. I hate it. This place helped destroy me,’” she reportedly told The Mail.
A rep for La Toya was not available for comment on the reported new interviews when contacted by Access Hollywood.
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