A chaotic and emotional scene took place as singer Aaron Carter was discovered dead in his bathtub on Saturday morning, according to new reports.
TMZ had reported that police responded to a call at about 11 a.m. Saturday that a male had drowned in the tub.
According to the U.K. Daily Mirror, a staff member found Carter’s body in his Lancaster, California, home and was heard to scream, “He’s dead, he’s dead.”
Neighbor Anthony Cheval, a photojournalist, said he first became aware of what had happened when he heard it on a police scanner, according to The Sun.
“I have a police scanner for work and heard the call come in that there was an unresponsive male in the bathtub,” he said.
“My wife is a nurse and we headed over and banged on the door, she had her AED [automated external defibrillator] with her,” he said.
“A woman answered the door and was screaming ‘he’s dead, he’s dead’ but wouldn’t let us in because she’d already called the cops,” he said.
Melanie Martin, who had a child with Carter in November 2021, responded after it was clear Carter, 34, was dead.
“I spoke to Melanie afterward and she said it was his maid, and questioned why she wouldn’t let us in,” Cheval said told the Sun.
“Melanie drove up from Orange County, she was distraught,” he said.
Lancaster is about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
The Sun said a witness it did not name told it, “The house-sitter was the only person behind the police tape for a long while.”
The publication also quoted what it said was a friend of Carter’s insisting that suicide was unlikely.
“Aaron did not commit suicide. He was planning to work on music in the next week with some artists from out of town. He was locking down [the] studio, planning travel logistics, and seemed very excited. Any suggestion he was suicidal last night when he was in contact with his friends and team is wrong,” the Sun quoted the friend as saying.
Carter’s last Twitter post, published late Friday, was directed at the controversial entertainer Kanye West, who now goes by the single name “Ye.”
“Yo Kanye let’s talk… man to man,” Carter wrote.
Aaron Carter’s twin sister Angel Carter posted her thoughts on Instagram.
“To my twin… I loved you beyond measure. You will be missed dearly,” she wrote. “My funny, sweet Aaron,I have so many memories of you and I, and I promise to cherish them. I know you’re at peace now. I will carry you with me until the day I die and get to see you again.