Celebrity Mound

The body of socialite and Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson will be flown east for a private funeral, a family spokesman said Wednesday.

Johnson, 30, will be laid to rest later this week in a service attended by immediate family, family spokesman Jesse Derris said. He declined to provide the location or any additional details.

Johnson, whose father is New York Jets owner Robert “Woody” Johnson, was found dead in her Los Angeles home on Monday. An autopsy conducted Tuesday was inconclusive and the cause of her death was deferred pending results of toxicology tests, which could take a month or more.

“The family asks for a measure of privacy over the next several days as they mourn their loss. No other information will be released at this time,” said a family statement released Tuesday.

Johnson had been an insulin-dependent diabetic since childhood but it was not immediately clear whether that contributed to her death. A memorial fund in her name was set up with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Johnson, dubbed the “baby-oil heiress” by the New York Post, lived her life on the tabloid pages. She partied with high school friend and fellow heiress Paris Hilton and announced last month that she was “engaged” to bisexual reality TV star Tila Tequila.

Johnson was charged last month with burglary and receiving stolen property for allegedly taking $22,000 in clothing, jewelry and other items from a friend’s home. She pleaded not guilty and faced a February hearing.

She is survived by her parents, two younger sisters, and an adopted child she named Ava-Monroe, after her idol, Marilyn Monroe.

Tragic baby-shampoo heiress Casey Johnson spent the last months of her life in a suicidal drug haze, living in squalor, surrounded by hangers-on and cut off from her family fortune, those close to her said yesterday.

The 30-year-old Johnson & Johnson scion, who was found dead in LA on Monday, had gone from being in line to a multibillion-dollar fortune to living in a garbage-filled, rented house with no electricity, water or gas — but with rats in the pool — as she battled illness and emotional demons.

“She was very sick with diabetes and would often fail to take her insulin correctly, and was rushed to the hospital three or four times in the last six months,” a source close to Johnson said.

Still, while a family source acknowledged that Johnson “had two specific incidents in the last year where she was taken to intensive care with diabetic comas . . . it was nothing to do with not taking her insulin.”

“She had an insulin pump that delivered her medicine automatically,” the source insisted.

“Recently, her diabetes became brittle, or labile, which meant that the insulin was becoming less effective, and her body was developing a tolerance to it. She was always at risk for going into a diabetic coma,” the source said.

Johnson’s downward spiral began gaining speed late last year. There was an episode in which her former girlfriend Courtenay Semel allegedly set her hair on fire.

Johnson was also busted for grand theft for breaking into and swiping items from a friend’s home, and her adopted daughter was wrested away from her by her concerned mother.

Friends said Johnson coped by self-medicating — popping copious amounts of OxyContin, Klonopin and Adderall, as well as drugs, such as marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine.

Her family persuaded her to go into rehab a few months ago, but she checked out early and refused to go back.

Things got so bad that in November, Johnson tried to commit suicide, sending a text message to her Semel, saying, “I’ve taken a lot of pills, and I’m going to sleep forever,” friends said.

Semel — whose father is former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel — called an ambulance, and Johnson was in the intensive-care unit for three days.

Her desperate cry for help came not long after close pal Jasmine Lennard accused the hopped-up heiress of breaking into her Los Angeles home and stealing thousands of dollars worth of clothes and jewelry and leaving a vibrator in her bed.

When Johnson — daughter of New York Jet owner Woody Johnson — was arrested, her anxious mother, Sale Johnson, hoped the incident would drive her to get help, her friends said, but it was in vain.

“When Casey was arrested for grand theft, her family and her friends thought this would be the catalyst for her to finally get the help she really needed,” one pal said. “They wanted to get her into a psychiatric hospital. But she was bailed out by a friend and went back to her old ways.”

A friend added, “Her family were giving her tough love and said she was cut off unless she went into [rehab]. They did everything they could to help her, but she wouldn’t help herself.”

The notorious shopaholic returned to her rented LA home — where she lived without utilities because she was unable to pay her bills — and kept her Porsche hidden in the garage so it couldn’t be repossessed. All the while, the grounds were overrun by vermin.

“It was like ‘Grey Gardens,’ ” a source said last month. “There are dirty dishes everywhere and rotting food. There is graffiti on the walls. The pool looks like a swamp.”

As Johnson sank into a sickening world of drugs, she surrounded herself with an ominous group of lowlifes.

Neighbors said there was a revolving door of shady-looking characters at Johnson’s house — whose gate was inscribed with the name “Grumblenot.”

“I saw very trendy, rock-and-roll, seedy types coming in there at all hours of the night,” said a neighbor.

In her dark pit of drugs and despair, Johnson claimed she had found love — running into the arms of D-lister Tila Tequila.

The two announced last month that they were engaged to be married in a disturbing online video in which both lay in their underwear — Johnson in a noticeable state of stupefaction.

“[Tequila] was taking advantage of a sick girl. Casey would never have done that had she been in her right mind,” one friend said. “She looked totally out of it in the video.”

The last anyone heard from Johnson was in the early morning of Dec. 29, when she posted a tweet on Twitter: “Sweet dreams everyone.”

Her body was found six days later.

The Los Angeles Coroner’s Office said an initial autopsy was inconclusive, although there appeared to be no evidence of suicide or trauma to her body.

As for drugs in the home, there was “an insignificant” amount of prescription pills, law-enforcement sources told TMZ.

Toxicology tests could take up to six weeks.

Johnson’s New Jersey-based family yesterday said in a statement that it had arranged for “Casey to be flown back east to her final resting place.” There will be a private funeral service this week.

They have already set up a memorial fund in her honor with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and urged people to donate.

“Casey struggled throughout her life fighting this disease, and she would want to see all of us continue that fight on her behalf,” the statement said.

Q-tip heiress Casey Johnson missed her flight from LA to New York last week, but she and fiancée Tila Tequila still plan to try reclaiming Casey’s daughter, Ava, from her mother, Sale.

The bisexual Tila made it to NYC and was spotted Friday night at Raoul’s on Prince Street as the date of an unidentified man.

Meanwhile, reports persist that Casey has cash flow problems. “I met with her about six months ago and was shocked by what she said,” said one publicist. Casey, who wants to be the new “It” girl, expressed her jealousy of Paris Hilton’s fame and fortune, and said she was mystified by the success of the low-class Kardashians. “The problem is she doesn’t have any money,” said our source. “She didn’t pick up the check even though she asked to meet.” Casey responded, “Untrue. No idea what this is about.”

(source)