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Chanhassen - There was no evidence of trauma on Prince's body when he was found unresponsive at his Minnesota compound, and his death is not believed to be a suicide, authorities said on Friday.
An autopsy was performed earlier in the day to try to lift the mystery surrounding the death of the superstar, who was found dead in an elevator at Paisley Park on Thursday, a week after being taken to a hospital with a flu-like illness that he later downplayed.
"We have no reason to believe at this point that this was a suicide," Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson told a news conference.
"But again, this is early on in the investigation and we're continuing to investigate."
The sheriff said there were "no obvious signs of trauma" on Prince's body, noting: "A sign of trauma would be some sign of violence that had happened, there was no sign of that at all."
Olsen said the 57-year-old was alone at the premises when he died.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Prince's death could be linked to an overdose of painkillers the previous week.
Olsen declined to comment on reports Prince had been taking an opioid-based painkiller called Percocet.
"This case is currently under investigation and I'm not going to talk about that at this time," he said.
The local medical examiner's office has said preliminary autopsy results will take days and the results of a full toxicology scan could take weeks.
