BB King's death to be investigated as murder

LONDON: A murder investigation has been launched into the death of blues legend BB King after two of his daughters claimed he was poisoned.

Karen Williams and Patty King said the 89-year-old musician was given "foreign substances to induce his premature death" by his business manager Laverne Toney, reported BBC online.

Lawyers for King's estate said the claims are unfounded and disrespectful.

But the possibility of homicide will now be investigated by the coroner and police in Nevada.

"Our coroner takes jurisdiction over #BBKing body, performs autopsy," the Clark County Coroner's office wrote on Twitter.

Coroner John Fudenberg told CNN that the initial autopsy results found "no evidence to substantiate the allegations" made by King's daughters.

However, he added that full forensic results would take six to eight weeks to arrive.

King died in his sleep at his Las Vegas home on May 14 aged 89. At the time, his doctor and the coroner said he had died of a series of small strokes connected to his Type 2 diabetes.

But the guitarist's daughters alleged that King's personal assistant Myron Johnson and Toney gave him medication to induce diabetic shock.