Newly released police records show that a handwritten “suicide note” dated the morning after her death was discovered in celebrity chef Anne Burrell’s Brooklyn home, adding fresh details to the circumstances surrounding her death at the age of 55.
According to a New York Police Department report obtained by PEOPLE, an investigator found the note in the master bedroom of Burrell’s home on June 17, 2025.
Several journal entries described as “suicidal” were also discovered on a bed in the same room.
The report says that in the early hours of that morning, someone identified as a “married to Anne” noticed the bed had been made, which was described as unusual.
The person, later confirmed to be Burrell’s husband Stuart Claxton, then found her on the bathroom floor “with a bunch of over-the-counter pills on the floor.”
He tried to wake her up by shaking her and punching her in the face before calling 911 when she didn’t respond.
Claxton told police that his wife had “never tried to kill herself in the past” and “never talked about it,” adding that she showed no signs of harming herself.
Emergency services were called at around 7.50am local time after concerns were raised that Burrell had gone into cardiac arrest.
Police later confirmed that she was found “unconscious and unresponsive” and was pronounced dead at the scene.
In July 2025, Burrell’s death was officially ruled a suicide.
The New York City medical examiner said the cause of death was “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of diphenhydramine, ethanol, cetirizine and amphetamine.”
The New York Times later reported that she was found surrounded by approximately 100 different pills, citing internal police documents.
An NYPD spokesman also confirmed that she was discovered unconscious in her home and pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel.
Burrell, best known as a longtime star of Worst Chefs in America on the Food Network, met Claxton on the dating app Bumble in 2018.
They married in October 2021.
She is survived by her husband and his son Javier as well as her mother Marlene, sister Jane, Jane’s children Isabella, Amelia and Nicolas and her brother Ben.
