Since her sudden death in December, the question of what killed Brittany Murphy has hung in the air.

So what was it? Some have claimed that the Hollywood machine, that eats starlets up and spits them out without a second thought, was to blame. Others have blamed Brittany’s hedonistic streak, and hinted that her increasingly erratic behaviour could have been a factor.

But the coroner’s report into Brittany Murphy’s death has just been released. Turns out it was a mixture of pneumonia, anaemia, iron deficiency and massive drug intoxication that did her in. So, in a way, everybody sort of had a point. Kind of.

We haven’t really covered much about Brittany Murphy’s death apart from its immediate aftermath, because the death of a young woman isn’t traditionally a rich source of hilarity. Although, despite its relentless misery, Brittany Murphy’s death story has thrown up a couple of odd moments – like when her husband threatened to sue Warner Bros for wrongful death, after claiming that she’d still be alive if the studio had let her be in Happy Feet 2, for example.

Hopefully now, though, all the anger and speculation can come to an end. The Los Angeles coroner’s office has released its findings into Brittany Murphy’s death and, as the LA Times reports, it has ruled her death to be accidental and preventable:

The Los Angeles County coroner announced Thursday that the primary cause was “community-acquired pneumonia,” with contributing factors of “iron deficiency anemia” and “multiple drug intoxication.”The drugs involved were prescription and over-the-counter medications she took orally. Her death was ruled accidental, he said. “She was anemic and she wasn’t in good health,” Winter said.

The news is sad, but not entirely unexpected – the last few years of Brittany Murphy’s life were marked by her bizarre behaviour and growing reputation as a difficult character to deal with. However, as sad as it is, at least it can all be put to rest now. Unlike Michael Jackson or Anna Nicole Smith, Brittany Murphy had no children of questionable parentage to leave behind or a vast estate for her family members and associates to publicly squabble over.

And, unlike Heath Ledger, her death won’t be dragged out by a series of high-profile posthumous roles that supposedly show a morbid insight into her state of mind before she died. So maybe her not getting to star in Happy Feet 2 was a good thing after all.

Follow hecklerspray on Twitter