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A new toxicology report says rat poison may have been the real cause behind the death of actress Brittany Murphy.

The mother of the Clueless actress found her dead body on December 20, 2009 and the Los Angeles Coroner originally attributed the death to pneumonia and anemia. Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, followed her in death five months later from the same causes.

But according to an independent report ordered by her father, Angelo Bertolotti, Murphy did not die from natural causes, leading some to believe that she and her husband may have been poisoned by a third party.

Mr Bertolotti finally secured the release of his daughter's hair, blood and tissue samples for testing after years of litigation and submitted them for independent testing.

The Carlson Company found ten heavy metals in Brittany's system which were several times higher than World Health Organization high levels at the time of her death.

'If we were to eliminate the possibility of a simultaneous accidental heavy metals exposure to the sample donor then the only logical explanation would be an exposure to these metals (toxins) administered by a third party perpetrator with likely criminal intent,' the report says.

Heavy metals are found in most rodenticides and insecticides meaning the actress could have been slipped rat poisoning.

At the time of her death, Brittany displayed all the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning including: headaches, dizziness, abdominal cramps, coughing, sweating, disorientation, wheezing, congestion and pneumonia.