Sister of second alleged victim in Matthew Perry case talks about sending text messages to so-called ‘ketamine queen’

During a raid on Jasveen Sangha's alleged “hideout” apartment in North Hollywood in March 2024, authorities said they found key evidence linking them to Matthew Perry's death from a ketamine overdose.

Agents also say they learned of a second victim who died years earlier — with little fanfare… and no press conferences. His name was Cody McLaury.

In 2019, after not hearing from Cody in over a day, some of Cody's friends went to his apartment and found him unconscious in his bed. He was later pronounced dead. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as “acute ketamine intoxication,” along with heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine intoxication.

Cody's sister Kimberly told Impact x Nightline, “It's hard to imagine that something you've never heard of can be a cause of death.” Kimberly also said of her brother Cody, “Addiction was not a part of Cody's life.”

Kimberly said police sent her Cody's belongings, including his cellphone, months after his death. She said the phone yielded a disturbing discovery: text messages from her brother with accused so-called ketamine queen Jasveen Sangha. “I see messages back and forth between the two of them talking about ketamine and how much she has available and how much it costs,” Kimberly said.

Kimberly says she texted Sangha herself saying, “The ketamine you sold my brother killed him. It's listed as the cause of death.”

The indictment states that within days of receiving the text message, Sangha searched Google for “Can ketamine be listed as a cause of death?”[?]”Prosecutors allege she continued to sell ketamine from her stash after Cody's death.

In an interview with ABC News, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, who is prosecuting the Perry case, was asked, “Is it possible that Cody McLaury's death would never have been investigated if Matthew Perry had not died?” Estrada responded, “That's certainly possible, but I have to say that we investigate the deaths of many people who are not celebrities. I think there is a shift in the way we look at these things.”

Who is responsible for the death of actor Matthew Perry?

According to authorities, the main defendants are 42-year-old Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who worked at an emergency center in Calabasas, and 41-year-old Sangha, who is known among her customers as the alleged “ketamine queen.”

Sangha and Plasencia each faced several charges, including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and administration of ketamine.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Sangha's attorney Mark Geragos defended his client and told Newsweek: “I think all of these so-called urban legends that my client somehow knew Matthew Perry are demonstrably false.”

The other defendants, according to the indictment, are 54-year-old Dr. Mark Chavez of San Diego, 59-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry's assistant, and 54-year-old Erik Fleming, a former film producer turned drug broker, authorities said.

“In September and October 2023, he became deeply dependent on ketamine,” said Alex Stone, an ABC correspondent who recently reported on Matthew Perry, citing details from the indictment. “He needed more and more of it. During those weeks, it progressed progressively and rapidly, so that he was receiving six to eight ketamine injections a day.”

According to the indictment, on October 10, 2023, Dr. Plasencia met with Perry in a public parking lot near the aquarium in Long Beach, California, and injected him in the back seat of a car. Dr. Plasencia and Dr. Chavez collected $55,000 from Matthew Perry in less than a month, the indictment states.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha are scheduled to be tried together in March. Sangha remains in custody while Plasencia was released on $100,000 bail. Iwamasa and Fleming have both pleaded guilty and Chavez has pleaded guilty and admitted his role in the case.

What is illegal ketamine?

Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized more than 8,000 pounds of illegal ketamine with an estimated street value of over $170,000,000. Some of it ended up in the hands of street dealers.

Mike Fiore says he is a former drug dealer and is currently in rehabilitation for substance abuse. Today, he is the director of Facing Fentanyl, an organization that educates about the deadly drug fentanyl. He says he once used ketamine illegally and knows firsthand how popular the drug is.

Speaking to ABC News outside Jasveen Sangha's apartment, Fiore said of illegal ketamine: “I sold drugs. I didn't have a clientele like [Sangha]but when I had an upscale clientele, I could also get upscale products.”

Fiore says of his previous experiences with ketamine: “I snorted it and was able to immediately switch off from everything that was going on around me. When you're in a club, the music becomes you. You become the club. It makes you feel comfortable in an environment where there's a lot of crazy going on around you.”

Legal ketamine therapy offers some patients with severe depression a chance

Although illegal ketamine partially led to Perry's death, the results when it is prescribed and administered legally are groundbreaking, according to many doctors and their patients. “The research is positive when you consider ketamine as a treatment for depression, especially in individuals with treatment-resistant depression who do not respond to conventional therapies,” said Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an expert in toxicology and addiction.

Impact x Nightline visited Bespoke Treatment in Los Angeles and met Sebastian, who is receiving ketamine therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Sebastian said, “I would say my depression symptoms have probably decreased by 50% now, which is good.”

Sebastian's wife Brenda receives ketamine therapy to combat her once uncontrollable anxiety.

“I just thought, 'Oh my God, my fear is gone.' I don't know how I dealt with this kind of fear before,” Brenda said.

ABC News' Laura Coburn and Elizabeth Perkin contributed to this report.