Key Takeaways
- The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner completed Sahara Ray’s autopsy and released her body, but deferred her official cause of death pending toxicology results after reports of a fentanyl overdose.
- Ray reportedly entered a Los Angeles hospital on October 16 and died after her family withdrew life support, while past substance-use allegations and her Guillain-Barré syndrome diagnosis have no established connection to her death.
- The 34-year-old model and Sahara Ray Swim founder welcomed her daughter, Snow, in January and shared her final Instagram post about the baby in July.
Sahara Ray’s autopsy is finished, but the reported fentanyl overdose has yet to become an official finding. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office has deferred the 34-year-old model’s cause of death pending toxicology results.
The office has also cleared her body for release following the examination, TMZ reported on Friday, October 23. The update follows days of reporting about Ray’s final hospitalization, including an unnamed insider’s account that she overdosed on fentanyl on October 16 and was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital, where she was placed on life support.
Her family reportedly withdrew life support on October 18, and relatives confirmed her death the following day, saying she “passed away last night surrounded by family at the hospital” and adding, “She was so loved.” A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
TMZ has also reported on allegations made by Ray’s former roommate, Chloe Spence, in a 2024 restraining order petition. Spence accused Ray of taking Xanax without a prescription and being in an “intoxicated delusional state” on multiple occasions.
She also alleged that Ray charged at her, grabbed her face, and dug her nails into the skin near her eyebrow.
Those allegations concern a dispute two years before Ray’s death and do not establish what caused it. Sources told TMZ the women had since reconciled—and that Spence was at the hospital with Ray’s family when she died.
Ray had separately documented a health crisis that left her unable to walk. In May 2024, she said a drunk driver traveling roughly 80 miles per hour struck her vehicle. She subsequently disclosed a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves.
“Right now I’m paralyzed from the tops of my upper thighs all the way down to my feet. I can’t walk at all,” she said in a TikTok video. No link between that condition and her death has been established.
The daughter of Australian surfer Tony Ray, she launched Sahara Ray Swim in 2014 after studying at Los Angeles’ Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
She was linked to Cody Simpson in 2015 and photographed vacationing with Justin Bieber in Hawaii the following year. She never publicly confirmed either relationship.
In 2023, Ray was photographed kissing Mod Sun following his split from Avril Lavigne. They later attended an Ashton Michael fashion show together that November.
Ray became a mother in January, welcoming her daughter, Snow. Ray’s final Instagram post, shared July 19, featured photographs of her baby with a short caption: “My whole heart 🤍 baby Snow.”
