Matthew Perry's family speaks out after arrests in connection with his death

Matthew Perry's family has spoken out after five people were criminally charged in connection with the death of the “Friends” star at the age of 54 last October.

“We are and continue to be heartbroken by Matthew's death, but we have been helped by knowing that law enforcement took his case very seriously,” the Morrison family said in a statement provided to USA TODAY on Thursday.

“We look forward to justice being served, and we are grateful for the extraordinary work of the numerous agencies whose agents investigated Matthew's death. We hope the unscrupulous suppliers of dangerous drugs get the message.”

Keith Morrison, the longtime Dateline correspondent, is Perry's stepfather. He married Suzanne Perry, Matthew Perry's mother, in 1981.

Morrison had previously stated in a March episode of the podcast “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” that Perry's loss “was not easy, especially for his mother (Suzanne).”

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“As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn't go away. It's with you every day. It's with you all the time, and there are always new aspects that attack your brain,” Morrison told Kotb.

“Towards the end of his life, they were closer than I'd seen them in decades, texting each other constantly and sharing things that most middle-aged men don't tell their mothers,” Morrison added. “He was happy and he said so. And he hadn't said that for a long time, and that's a consolation, but he also couldn't have his third act. And that's not fair.”