A judge overseeing Prince’s estate has issued an order to allow authorities to test the late singer’s blood for potential DNA matches.
A judge overseeing Prince’s estate has issued an order to allow authorities to test the late singer’s blood for potential DNA matches.
Judge Kevin Eide has recognised there may be some claims from people insisting they are the rightful heirs to the Purple Rain singer’s fortune. On Friday, the judge gave Bremer Trust officials, who are administrating the estate, permission to have samples of Prince’s blood transferred from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s office to DNA Diagnostics Centre of Fairfield, Ohio, for testing. The Carver County judge also gave anyone with an estate claim four months to file notice. One major claim for over $750 billion has already been filed by a woman named Dr K.K. Ferraro in Atlanta, Georgia. She submitted a letter along with a handwritten claim in which she details her “now 40 years long post-Civil Rights Movement Sociopolitical Hostage Crisis” for which she says she’s been seeking compensation from Prince since 1985. The judge dismissed an earlier $1 billion claim against the estate by a California man who said there was an “implied” agreement from Prince entitling him to the superstar’s musical rights, both published and unpublished. Meanwhile, a law enforcement official said that investigators want to interview a California doctor and his son about a prescription drug the son brought for Prince before the singer was found collapsed in an elevator at his Minnesota home.
The official said that investigators also want to know if Dr Howard Kornfeld and son Andrew Kornfeld had a longer-term medical relationship with Prince. Neither is accused of wrongdoing. The law enforcement official had been briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak to the media.
