The body of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins was flown home to his devastated loved ones Tuesday as Colombian authorities continued to probe the legendary rocker’s suspected overdose.
Exclusive DailyMail.com images captured a plain, black casket containing the musician’s remains being loaded onto the band’s tour plane after it flew from LA to Bogota to collect him.
The chartered 757 jet took off from El Dorado Airport just after 2pm local time on Tuesday and was landed around 8 p.m. PT back in LAX.
DailyMail.com has learned that the Foo Fighters’ heartbroken tour manager Gus Brandt stayed on in Colombia after Dave Grohl and the rest of the band flew home Saturday, a day after Hawkins, 50, was found dead in his room at the plush Four Seasons Casa Medina.
Exclusive DailyMail.com images captured a plain, black casket containing the remains of Taylor Hawkins being loaded onto the band’s tour plane after it flew from LA to Bogota to collect him
DailyMail.com has learned that the Foo Fighters’ heartbroken tour manager Gus Brandt stayed on in Colombia after Dave Grohl and the rest of the band flew home Saturday, a day after Hawkins, 50, was found dead in his room at the plush Four Seasons Casa Medina
The chartered 757 jet took off from El Dorado Airport just after 2pm local time on Tuesday and was due back in LAX around 7:30pm pacific
The casket containing Hawkins’ body was loaded onto the Foo Fighters’ private tour jet in Bogota, Colombia, to repatriate his remains to Los Angeles. A funeral van believed to be carrying the body of Taylor Hawkins arrives at the cargo area of the airport shortly before the plane departed
Hawkins, 50, was found dead in his room at the plush Four Seasons Casa Medina
Officials from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science released Hawkins’ body to Brandt on Sunday afternoon after completing an extensive autopsy which is expected to confirm that the star’s heart gave way after a huge drugs binge.
A local undertaker stored the remains before they were loaded onto a van Tuesday afternoon and driven into a cargo terminal at the city’s international airport, where a private jet was waiting on the tarmac, having flown in early in the morning.
Brandt declined to comment when reached by phone but sources at Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Hawkins’ body was on board the airliner as it took off at 2:09pm local time.
Initial results released by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office over the weekend reported ten different drugs in the rock icon’s urine, including opioids, marijuana and benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs used to combat anxiety and insomnia.
Hawkins’ heart also weighed at least 600 grams, double that of a typical man of his age, according to the early findings reported by Colombian weekly magazine, Semana.
Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters performs onstage at the after party for the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Studio 666’ at the Fonda Theatre on February 16, 2022 in Hollywood, California
Hawkins’ last performance was at Lollapalooza 2022 in Santiago, Chile on March 18 (above). The Foo Fighters were scheduled to play another Lollapalooza in Brazil on Sunday
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office told DailyMail.com that any further update would take at least another week.
Concerns about the drummer’s health first arose on Friday night when he began complaining of chest pains prior to a sell-out gig in Bogota.
Hotel staff called emergency services but Hawkins was unresponsive by the time security reached his room. Efforts to revive him by a private doctor and city emergency responders failed.
Well-known Colombian journalist Luis Carlos Velez, the director of a Bogota radio station, reported that a police officer who entered Hawkins’ $500-per-night suite had told prosecutors he saw a ‘cocaine-like’ white powder.
Another unconfirmed local report said several glasses were found inside the drummer’s room, sparking speculation he had been entertaining guests.
Taylor Hawkins (left), daughter Annabelle Hawkins (center) and wife Alison Hawkins (right) pictured together at the Los Angeles Premiere of Studio 666 last month
An emotional Dave Grohl sobbed as he hugged his band mates and friends at LAX on Saturday night, a day after the shocking death of his best friend
DailyMail.com understands the inquiry into Hawkins’ death was handed over to the Attorney General’s Office as soon as cops learnt he was a ‘high-profile’ American citizen.
The probe is expected to focus on which substances found in his body were prescription medications he had taken prior to landing in Bogota last Wednesday – and which were illegal drugs he might have consumed once he got to the famed ‘cocaine capital’.
‘Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office can confirm the following after the initial autopsy on the body of Taylor Hawkins,’ the Attorney General’s Office wrote.
‘That in the toxicology test on Taylor Hawkins’ urine 10 types of substances were preliminarily found, including marihuana, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids.
News: The band revealed the news on their social media on Tuesday afternoon
‘The National Institute of Forensic Medicine is continuing its medical studies to be able to completely clarify the facts that led to Taylor Hawkins death.
‘Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office will continue with the investigation and reveal the results obtained as part of this investigation as appropriate.’
The Foo Fighters cancelled all their forthcoming tour dates after Grohl, 53, was seen weeping on the tarmac at LAX as he arrived back Saturday night with guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, keyboardist Rami Jaffee and background singer Samantha Sidley.
‘We’re sorry for and share in the disappointment that we won’t be seeing one another as planned, the band announced.
‘Instead, let’s take the time to give, to heal, to pull our loved ones close, and to appreciate all the music and memories we’ve made together.”
Hawkins, who was married to his illustrator wife Alison and a father to three children, Oliver, Annabelle and Everleigh, had just completed a host of tour dates in South America with the band last playing in San Isidro, Argentina, last Sunday.
The National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Bogota, where the autopsy of Taylor Hawkins was carried out
Members of the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) remove the lifeless body of the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins, at the Casa Medina hotel, in Bogota
The group had been scheduled to play at the Festival Estéreo Picnic in the Colombian capital where an announcement told concert-goers that the band would not be playing due to a ‘serious medical condition’.
Shortly afterwards stunned fans began to gather outside the Four Seasons Casa Medina, in the north of Bogota, where the band had been staying, to light candles and lay tributes.
A spokesman for the Secretariat of Health issued a statement confirming the Foo Fighters drummer had asked hotel staff for help after he began suffering chest pains.
‘The health professional that was dealing with the emergency indicated attempts to revive the patient had been carried out but there had been no response and the patient was pronounced dead,’ the statement said.
‘The relevant authorities removed the body and started work on the investigations required as part of these types of incidents.
‘We regret the death of this talented and world-famous drummer and send a message of condolences to his family, bandmates and fans.’
Hawkins is pictured with a young fan in Paraguay days before his death. He helped Emma Sofía, nine, fulfil her dream of playing drums with his band, Foo Fighters
Hawkins was recruited by the Food Fighters in 1997 after Grohl saw him playing drums for Alanis Morissette.
No stranger to wild drug abuse, Hawkins suffered a heroin overdose in London in 2001 that left him in a coma for around a week.
In an interview last year he admitted: ‘Everyone has their own path and I took it too far. I was partying in London one night, and I mistakenly did something and it changed everything.
‘I believed the bull***t myth of live hard and fast, die young.
‘I’m not here to preach about not doing drugs, because I loved doing drugs, but I just got out of control for a while and it almost got me.’