Following The Michael Jackson Drug Trail

Receipts for purchases of the powerful anesthetic propofol were found in Dr. Conrad Murray’s Las Vegas office, according to search warrant records. The receipts were dated May 12, more than one month before Jackson’s death June 25.

Police traced the lot numbers of propofol bottles found in Jackson’s home to the pharmacy and discovered Murray bought five 100 milliliter bottles as part of a $853 order.

Evidently someone wanted the drugs ASAP. Murray paid $65 to have the order overnighted to him.

Investigators don’t know whether the amount of the order indicates how much of the drug Jackson took. Or, for that matter, how long it would take him to consume the entire amount.

“Whether it was a week’s worth or a month’s worth, we have no way of knowing,” Clark County prosecutor David Schubert said.

Other documents show Murray as having told police he gave propofol to Jackson to help him sleep. However, Murray has also maintained that at no time did he give anything to Jackson that could kill him.

The search of Murray’s Las Vegas office was conducted Aug. 11, but the records were sealed until today. Police wanted the records to remain sealed until Jan. 18, saying any disclosure beforehand would jeopardize the investigation.

But attorneys representing Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, TMZ Productions and Las Vegas Review-Journal parent company Stephens Media successfully argued there was no reason to keep the documents sealed. Clark County District Court Judge Valerie Adair decided yesterday to release the docs, and signed the order making it official today.

Murray is still the focus of a homicide investigation into Jackson’s death, but the 56-year-old cardiologist has not been charged with any crime.